Terry Williams (drummer)

Terrence "Terry" Williams (born 11 January 1948) is a Welsh rock drummer,[1][2] whose résumé includes work for Dire Straits, Dave Edmunds/Rockpile and Man.

Williams was born in Swansea. During the 1960s, he played in a number of Welsh bands, including Commancheros, The Smokeless Zone, Dream and Plum Crazy, before joining Dave Edmunds' band Love Sculpture.[3] In 1970 he joined the Welsh rock group Man, which included two former Dream and Smokeless Zone members, Deke Leonard and Martin Ace. With Man, he originally appeared on 7 Studio albums, 3 Live albums and 2 Various artists, live albums, and has subsequently appeared on a number of retrospective releases. When Man split in 1976, Williams re-joined Edmunds in the band Rockpile with Nick Lowe and Billy Bremner, and continued working with Leonard.

Between 1981 and 1982, Williams was part of the Neverland Express band, backing Meat Loaf. In November 1982 Williams joined Dire Straits as the replacement for drummer Pick Withers, shortly after the release of their fourth studio album Love Over Gold. Williams played with them for the first time on the 1983 EP titled ExtendedancEPlay (featuring the hit single “Twisting by the Pool”) and on the 1982–1983 Love over Gold Tour. The band's double live album Alchemy: Dire Straits Live was a recording of excerpts from the final two concerts from that tour at London's Hammersmith Odeon in July 1983, featuring Williams, and was released in March 1984. In 1983 Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler wrote and produced the music score for the film Local Hero, which also featured Williams.

Williams remained with Dire Straits for the recording of their fifth studio album, 1985's Brothers in Arms, however according to a Sound on Sound magazine interview his drumming performance was considered to be unsuitable for the desired sound of the album during the first month of the recording sessions, and he was temporarily replaced by jazz session drummer Omar Hakim, who re-recorded the album's drum parts during a two-day stay and then left.[4] Both Hakim and Williams are credited on the album,[5] although Williams' only contributions were the improvised crescendo at the beginning of "Money for Nothing" and the whole song Walk of Life. Williams would be back in the band for the music videos and the 1985–1986 Brothers in Arms world tour that followed.[5]

Williams left Dire Straits in 1989. One of his final concerts with the band was the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert staged on 11 June 1988 at Wembley Stadium, in which Dire Straits were the headline act. In 1996, Williams briefly rejoined Man, after John Weathers left, but left the following year.

Williams ran a blues club in Swansea from 2000 until 2007.