Blair Cunningham

About

From Wikipedia:

Blair Cunningham (born October 11, 1957, Memphis, Tennessee) is an American drummer who has played with Echo & the Bunnymen, Haircut One Hundred, John Foxx, The Pretenders, Paul McCartney, Alison Moyet, Sade, Paul Rutherford, the Indigo Girls, Roxy Music, Tina Turner, Lionel Richie, Mick Jagger, Ray Davis, Andy Taylor, Marius Müller-Westernhagen, Kevin Rowland and The Big Dish. He played drums at a one-off gig by Sharks, and on “All Things Are Nice” and “My Baby” from Blancmange’s album Mange Tout.

Blair Cunningham joined Paul McCartney’s band at the end of 1990, and stayed for Unplugged, the 1991 tour, Off The Ground and The New World Tour in 1993.

“Blair played with us when we did Wogan [to plug ‘All My Trials’] and in the dressing-room after the show I thought we’d better invite him to join us, make it official. And Wix was funny, he said, ‘Yeah, welcome to the group, Blair, and a year off, because they knew I was going to do the Oratorio. And Blair was saying, ‘I love playing, I love playing’ so I thought, ‘I can’t get him in the group and then have nothing for him until October…’”

Paul reveals that Blair Cunningham’s joining was another good reason for playing on the MTV Unplugged show. “It kept the band’s hand in, gave us a little bit of a challenge and, yes, it introduced Blair. And now it’s an album, so suddenly he’s on an album, which settles him further, and now we must play. I can’t just be rehearsing the Oratorio all the time.

From Club Sandwich 58, Summer 1991

Blair Cunningham played again with Paul in 2001, backing him for an appearance on british TV show “CD:UK“.

Here is what Paul has to say about working with Blair:

Blair is a really smashing drummer. He comes from a long line of drummers, all his brothers are drummers and all his nephews are going to become drummers! We met his mum, actually, in LA, and she’s really nice too. Blair doesn’t try to get too complicated with big solos, and his feel is great. He also has a great personality, he’s always smiling and willing to work, and that means a lot. 

Paul McCartney, Club Sandwich interview, 1993

Last updated on June 19, 2019