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Joe Crabtree
Joe Crabtree
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Crabtree
Born	Burnley,England, United Kingdom
Genres	Rock, alternative, jazz, funk
Occupation(s)	Musician, arranger, producer
Instrument(s)	Drums, percussion, guitar, bass
Years active	1990s–present
Website	Official website, Online Drum School

Joe Crabtree is a British drummer most noted for his work with Wishbone Ash, Pendragon, and The David Cross Band.

His online drum school JoeCrabtree.com is a well respected educational resource with over 2,000 members and he has over 5 million views of his YouTube lessons.

Crabtree is also the creator of music software RhythMachine, OctopuSequencer, Pyramid, and PolyNome - The Ultimate Practice Tool for iOS which is used by many well respected musicians including Dennis Chambers, Virgil Donati, Peter Erskine, Chris Coleman and Will Lee.

Early career

Crabtree began his drumming career at age 11 studying with a local self-taught drummer Harry Hindle. It was while studying with Harry that Crabtree was first introduced to the drumming of Dave Weckl via a DCI music video. Crabtree cites this as a defining moment in his understanding of what was possible on the drums.

His early musical influences include Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Sting, Led Zeppelin, Kate Bush and Van Halen while his drumming heroes include Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl, Dennis Chambers, Gregg Bissonette, Phil Collins, Omar Hakim and Virgil Donati.

He started playing live shows at age 14, and began teaching drums to local drummers at age 15. Having taken up guitar at age 12 he also taught guitar to beginner students for a number of years.

While studying Physics at Durham University (1998 - 2000) Crabtree wrote and recorded with original band "Breakmaus". Breakmaus recorded two self-released albums "That White Door" and "Arrested" and made an appearance on Sky TV on the show "Where It's At".

Crabtree also played with many cover bands, small jazz bands, and the university Big Band while studying at Durham which broadened his musical horizons.

Moving to London in 2004 Crabtree continued his drum studies with London great Bob Armstrong, whose former students include such luminaries as Oasis's Alan White, and The Who's Zak Starkey (also the son of Ringo Starr from The Beatles).

Professional career

After moving to London in 2004 Crabtree played and recorded with numerous original bands including a stint with Goldie co-writer Tim Philbert's original project "Upsetta".

In 2005 Crabtree became the drummer of the David Cross Band (King Crimson) touring Japan, Italy and the UK resulting in the recording "Alive in the Underworld".

Bass player Mick Paul recommended Crabtree to guitarist Jim Litherland (Colloseum guitarist) to play with 70s folk band Jade for a reunion show.

Litherland in turn passed on Crabtree's name to Sunshine Of Your Love lyricist Pete Brown who then recommended Crabtree for the Xanda Howe band.

In 2006 Crabtree joined Xanda Howe for a short tour along with Malcolm Bruce (son of Jack Bruce) with whom he later recorded.

In the same period (2006-2008) Crabtree also became a member of Pendragon completing two European tours and appearing on the DVDs "And Now Everybody To The Stage" and "Jewel - Past and Presence".

Between tours Crabtree was teaching at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford and creating educational material for his online school JoeCrabtree.com

Wishbone Ash

Crabtree joined Wishbone Ash in 2007 for the Power Of Eternity album and subsequent tour replacing previous drummer Ray Weston.

He co-wrote songs on the Elegant Stealth and Blue Horizon albums, the latter of which he co-produced and contributed a guitar solo to the song Take It Back.

He appears on the live DVDs "Live in London", "Live in Paris", and the rockumentary "This is Wishbone Ash" as well as the live albums "Argus Live" recorded live for Sirius XM radio, and the Roadworks series of releases.

As of 2017 Crabtree has played over 1,000 shows with Wishbone Ash in 29 countries including an arena tour of South Africa along with Deep Purple and Uriah Heep.

Teaching

Having taught private students for many years Crabtree began a short stint teaching at the Academy of Contemporary Music before having to leave in 2007 when the Wishbone Ash touring schedule coincided with term time.

Inspired by how much he learned from DCI music videos Crabtree set up an online drum school - JoeCrabtree.com - in 2006.

His YouTube Channel has had over 5 million views as of March 2017.

Crabtree contributed articles to Modern Drummer and a regular "Joe Knows" columns to Drumhead magazine, the largest drum magazine in the US. He also create educational videos for Vic Firth.

Inventor and Software Developer

Crabtree was inspired to develop some musical software after seeing a gap in the market. His apps RhythMachine and OctopuSequencer for Mac and PC provided a new way to work with rhythms.

In 2011 he began work on iOS App PolyNome with Lucas Ives. In 2012 Ives left and Crabtree took over coding duties turning PolyNome into a sophisticated rhythm and practice tool which gained many avid fans in the pro music world.

Discography

Wishbone Ash

Wishbone Ash Discography

Albums

• The Power Of Eternity (2007)
• Elegant Stealth (2011)
• Blue Horizon (2014)
• Argus "Then Again" Live (2008, live album)
• Roadworks 1 (2010, live album)
• Roadworks 2 (2011, live album)
• Roadworks 3 (2013, live album)
• Roadworks 4 (2014, live album)
• Roadworks Boxset (2015)
• Live in London - 40th Anniversary (2009)
• Tough (2008)
• Tender (2008)

DVD

• Live in London - 40th Anniversary (2009)
• Live in Paris (2016)
• This is Wishbone Ash (2010)

Singles

• Reason To Believe (2011)

Pendragon

DVD

• And Now Everybody To The Stage (2006)
• Past and Presence (2007)

David Cross Band

CD

• Alive in the Underworld (2008, live)

Equipment

Crabtree uses and endorses Sonor drums, Evans drum heads, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks, Porter and Davies drum thrones, Sensaphonics in ear monitors and Tunerfish Lug Locks.