Simon Kirke

Simon Frederick St George Kirke (born 28 July 1949) is an English musician who was the co-founder, drummer, and only continuous member of the rock supergroup Bad Company. Prior to forming Bad Company, he was the drummer and co-founder of Free.

Kirke was born in Lambeth, South London, the son of Vivian Percy Kirke and Olive May (née Pollard) Kirke, who married in 1948. Simon's father was from a junior branch of a family of Nottinghamshire landed gentry, and descended on his mother's side from the Gibson-Craig baronets.

Kirke spent his early years living in the countryside of Shropshire. Leaving school at 17, he returned to London and set about finding a drumming job in the booming blues scene. After a fruitless 22 months he was resigned to returning to the country when he met Paul Kossoff, who was playing in a band called Black Cat Bones. Kirke was offered the drumming position in the band, and played with Black Cat Bones for six months.

Kirke and Paul Kossoff left the band and with Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser formed Free. Their biggest hit, "All Right Now", was a number one in more than 20 territories and was acknowledged by ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) in 1990 as having received more than one million radio plays in the US by late 1989. In 2000, an award was given to Paul Rodgers by the British music industry when "All Right Now" passed two million radio plays in the UK.

By April 1972, Free had reformed with Andy Fraser and Paul Rodgers making peace, and Kossoff appeared to pull it together if only briefly. Kossoff resumed taking drugs during the US tour to support the last album by the original quartet Free at Last. On the eve of their Japanese tour Fraser fought with Rodgers and once again left the band, to be replaced by Tetsu Yamauchi. Rodgers and Kirke elected to fill in the band bringing John "Rabbit" Bundrick on board as a member of Free for the tour and the last Free album, Heartbreaker. After the disbanding of Free in 1973, Kirke and Rodgers again teamed up to form Bad Company. They were joined by guitarist Mick Ralphs (Mott the Hoople) and bassist Boz Burrell (King Crimson).

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.