Tony Meehan

Tony Meehan was one of the great success stories of early British rock & roll -- in 1958, all of 15 years old, he played his first rock & roll gig, and within weeks he was getting as many offers as he could handle to play drums with some of the top music talent in London. Hardly a year after that, he was one of the best-known drummers in England, and one of a handful of teenaged musicians of the time to achieve national rock & roll stardom.



Born Daniel Joseph Anthony Meehan in Hampstead in 1943 (some sources say 1942), he took up the drums at age ten, and was good enough to earn a spot playing timpani in the London Youth Orchestra. His parents wanted him to go into law, but Meehan was hooked on music -- mostly jazz -- from the start of his teen years. And his first visit to the 2I's coffee bar in London's Soho, at age 15, marked the point of no return. It was then that he first met bassist Jet Harris and guitarists Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, who were already playing together (as The Drifters), and he was invited to play with them, a situation that very soon became permanent.

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