Simon Kirke

Simon Frederick St George Kirke (born 28 July 1949) is an English drummer, best known as the co-founder and original drummer of the supergroup Bad Company. Prior to helping form Bad Company he was the drummer and co-founder of Free. He has been the only continuous member of Bad Company since its inception. Life and career Kirke was born in Lambeth, South London, the son of Vivian Percy Kirke and Olive May ( 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 Wales. 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 1,000,000 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 2,000,000 radio plays in the UK.