Viv Prince, the legendary drummer for the 1960s British rock band The Pretty Things, has passed away at 84 in his home near Faro, Portugal. Known for his insatiable appetite for chaos both on and off stage, Prince famously inspired other wild drummers, including The Who’s Keith Moon.
His passing was confirmed by Jack White, former frontman of The White Stripes, in a social media announcement that did not specify the date or cause of death.
Jack White lauded Prince as “an incredible drummer, wild and full of abandon,” an “inspired and eccentric rock and roller” who might one day be the subject of a documentary.
Prince’s eccentricity was undeniable. During his brief 18-month tenure with The Pretty Things, a band celebrated for its raw, aggressive blues rock — often dubbed proto-punk — he was truly a force of nature. His unbridled stage presence and fiery drumming earned him a reputation as one of music’s most notorious figures.
Standing out as a “maniac among maniacs” in The Pretty Things was quite an accomplishment. This formidable group was notorious for their relentless partying and was often seen as a rougher, wilder counterpart to The Rolling Stones, who were themselves challenging British societal norms with their raw sound and rebellious attitude. Interestingly, The Pretty Things’ guitarist and founder, Dick Taylor, had a stint with The Rolling Stones before their rise to fame.
Following his death, The Guardian revisited a 1965 interview with Prince from Record Mirror, a British music newspaper. In it, he was questioned about his wild behavior during a particularly infamous tour of New Zealand.
During that interview, Prince denied allegations of setting fires on stage but confessed to disrupting a performance by teen idol Eden Kane by unrolling carpet during his act. Prince reportedly commented that “Everyone was digging it.”
He also addressed reports of releasing live crayfish in an airport lounge, quipping, “The fish were dead when we bought them. They always are. How on earth can dead fish run around?”
The Pretty Things came together in southeast London in 1963, with Prince joining the following year. Prior to this, he gained experience as a session drummer and performed with several bands, including the Jazz Cardinals and Carter-Lewis & the Southerners – a group with an Everly Brothers-esque sound, where he even shared the stage with future Led Zeppelin guitar legend, Jimmy Page.
Despite his impressive background, Prince was brought into The Pretty Things with the intention of injecting professionalism into their notoriously rowdy dynamic. However, things didn’t quite pan out as expected.
Phil May, the band’s lead singer, recounted in Richie Unterberger’s book “Urban Spacemen and Wayfaring Strangers: Overlooked Innovators and Eccentric Visionaries of ’60s Rock,” “We were sort of novice lunatics, but they suddenly hand us, like, the high priest of lunacy.”
From his earliest performances, Prince captivated audiences with his explosive drumming and untamed stage presence. May vividly remembered a young Keith Moon, who would later become famous for his own rock excesses with The Who, watching Pretty Things shows, seemingly mesmerized by Prince’s dynamic drum fills.
May noted how Prince transformed drumming: “Before that, playing drums was quite sedentary. Boring. And through Viv, you’d suddenly realized that you could be a drummer, but also an extrovert. You could be a star.”
Vivian Martin Prince was born on August 9, 1941, in Loughborough, England, a city located northeast of Birmingham in Leicestershire.
Following in his father Harry Prince’s footsteps, who led a big band, Viv quickly embarked on his own musical journey. During his time at Loughborough Grammar School, he established the Viv Prince Skiffle Group. Skiffle, a popular blend of American folk, blues, and jazz with a country twist, was a major youth craze in 1950s Britain, even influencing a young John Lennon.
Prince later immersed himself in another contemporary musical trend, joining a band that specialized in the New Orleans-style “trad jazz” revival. After playing with several other groups, he left his position at the local tax office to relocate to London, eventually becoming a member of Carter-Lewis’s Southerners before finding his place with The Pretty Things.
Although often regarded as a cult band, The Pretty Things experienced periods of mainstream success. They achieved a series of charting singles in Britain, including “Rosalyn,” which reached No. 41 in June 1964, and “Don’t Bring Me Down,” which climbed to No. 10 that October. Both tracks were famously covered by David Bowie on his 1973 album “Pin Ups.”
Their song “Honey, I Need” hit No. 13 the subsequent March, and their 1965 self-titled debut album, “The Pretty Things,” reached No. 6. Despite their potential to become major stars in the British Invasion, they never toured the United States during their mid-1960s prime.
Ultimately, Prince’s wild and untamed nature proved to be too much, even for The Pretty Things. Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones famously quipped that Prince “was one of the great debauched people of our time, even worse than Keith Moon.” Wood recalled, “They’d be playing live and you would suddenly hear the drums crumble and Viv fall off his stool. That used to be quite commonplace, actually.”
According to Unterberger, Prince’s dismissal from the band was cemented when he refused to perform a concert after being denied service at a nearby pub – a refusal rooted in his apparent forgetfulness that he and his friends had trashed the establishment the night before.
May ultimately told Unterberger, “We had to sack him because he was so bad in the end. We couldn’t finish a concert.”
Following his exit from The Pretty Things, Prince briefly substituted for an unwell Keith Moon on tour with The Who (though he reportedly overstayed his welcome even there). He then managed a club in London before returning to his hometown to play with a soul band. He eventually found a long-term home in Portugal, living for decades on a farm complete with a citrus grove.
Details regarding his surviving family members were not immediately released.
A persistent legend about Prince claims that after his time with The Pretty Things, he joined the Hells Angels. He later asserted that he was expelled from the notorious biker gang, suggesting he was, perhaps, too unmanageable even for them.