TDJ-Issue-Three

The Drummer’s Journal: Did you feel that the drumming aspect of the
London 2012 opening ceremony, when it was initially discussed, was a
bit risky given that China fairly nailed that?
Dame Evelyn Glennie: Absolutely – it threw up a lot of questions. I mean,
they used Chinese percussion but it was still en masse. Furthermore, what
do you, practically, give 1000 drummers? Snare drums? Tom Toms? My
initial concern with having everyone play drums such as those was that it
might make the volunteers feel intimidated. They might think, “I’ve got
to learn how to play this properly.” So someone said, “what about having
people play bits of scrap metal?” That solved that problem - if you give
someone a bit of scrap they’ll strike it without any reservations. So we
thought, “well, what about buckets then?” Metal buckets, plastic buckets.
They were easy to find, and when people added their own bits and pieces to
their buckets, the whole thing exploded into this fantastic idea. It also kept
up that essence of organic sound, raw sound. When you have an instrument
like a bucket, there’s no apology when you strike it– it is what it is.
I know you’ve done some very high profile performances, but I read
that almost one billion people watched that ceremony. One billion!
Was that not a slightly terrifying prospect?
Terrifying isn’t the word, no. I’ll be honest - the main reason I wasn’t terrified
is because I’d been asked to participate in the opening ceremony when the
Olympics were held in Athens several years ago, and we got so far down
the road with them, then out of the blue, they suddenly changed the whole
artistic side of it completely. So, with London 2012, I thought, “I’ll only
believe this until I’m actually up there and it’s happening.” I’m that sort of
person really; I don’t get overly exited by something and I don’t get overly
disappointed.
There must have been point when you realised it was definitely going
to happen though?
Once the rehearsals started for the whole project, that’s when I believed,
“yes, this will happen”. I think that’s very important though, when you’re in
this type of business - because it can be quite emotional anyway – you need
to always put things in perspective. The important thing to understand is
that it’d be great if it happens, but if it doesn’t, life goes on.
18
Evelyn’s autobiography
released 1990
THE DRUMMER’S JOURNAL