Viv Prince, the electrifying drummer of the 1960s British rock band The Pretty Things, who famously inspired other wild drummers like Keith Moon of The Who with his onstage and offstage antics, has passed away at 84 in his home near Faro, Portugal.
The news of his passing was shared on social media by Jack White, the former frontman of The White Stripes. Details surrounding the exact date or cause of his death were not immediately disclosed.
Jack White fondly remembered Prince as “an incredible drummer, wild and full of abandon,” an “inspired and eccentric rock and roller,” even suggesting he might spearhead a documentary about the late musician one day.
And eccentric he was. Throughout his intense 18-month tenure with The Pretty Things, a band often hailed as proto-punk for their raw, aggressive blues rock, Prince earned a reputation as one of rock’s most unbridled figures. His explosive drumming was matched only by his notoriously wild offstage persona.
Being the wildest member of The Pretty Things was quite an achievement, given the band’s reputation as a relentless, hard-partying group, often described as a more untamed counterpart to The Rolling Stones. The Stones themselves were notorious for shocking conservative British society with their raw sound and rebellious attitude. Interestingly, Dick Taylor, a co-founder and guitarist for The Pretty Things, was an early member of The Rolling Stones before their rise to fame.
Following his death, The Guardian published an appreciation piece that revisited a 1965 interview with Prince from the British music newspaper Record Mirror. In it, he faced a barrage of questions about his outrageous behavior during a tumultuous tour of New Zealand that year.
During the interview, Prince denied igniting fires on stage. However, he freely admitted to a memorable act of mischief: disrupting a performance by teen idol Eden Kane by rolling out a carpet on stage mid-song. “Everyone was digging it,” he quipped.
He also addressed reports of him releasing live crayfish in an airport lounge with typical deadpan humor: “The fish were dead when we bought them,” he explained. “They always are. How on earth can dead fish run around?”
The Pretty Things came together in southeast London in 1963, with Prince joining their ranks the following year. Prior to this, he had a rich background as a session drummer, performing with groups like the Jazz Cardinals and Carter-Lewis & the Southerners, an Everly Brothers-inspired ensemble where he once shared the stage with none other than Jimmy Page, who would later achieve legendary status with Led Zeppelin.
Ironically, Prince was initially brought into The Pretty Things to lend a sense of professionalism, given his extensive experience. However, events unfolded quite differently.
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” that he and his bandmates considered themselves “novice lunatics,” but with Prince, they were suddenly joined by “the high priest of lunacy.”
From day one, Prince’s explosive drumming and unrestrained stage presence captivated audiences. May vividly recalled a young Keith Moon, later to become The Who’s iconic drummer known for his powerful solos and destructive hotel room antics, attending Pretty Things shows and appearing utterly captivated by Prince’s dynamic drum fills.
May explained that before Prince, drumming was often seen as “quite sedentary” and “boring.” He added, “And through Viv, you’d suddenly realized that you could be a drummer, but also an extrovert. You could be a star.”
Born Vivian Martin Prince on August 9, 1941, in Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, a city located northeast of Birmingham.
Following in his father Harry Prince’s footsteps, who led a big band, Viv quickly embarked on his own musical journey. While attending Loughborough Grammar School, he established the Viv Prince Skiffle Group. Skiffle, a genre blending American folk, blues, and jazz with a rustic, ‘hillbilly’ sound, captivated British youth in the 1950s, even influencing a young John Lennon.
Prince then explored another popular musical trend of the time, joining a band immersed in the New Orleans-style ‘trad jazz’ revival. After several other musical ventures, he left his position at the local tax office and moved to London, where he found his place with Carter-Lewis & the Southerners, ultimately leading him to The Pretty Things.
Though often remembered as a cult band, The Pretty Things certainly had their share of successes. They landed a series of singles on the British charts, including “Rosalyn,” which reached No. 41 in June 1964, and “Don’t Bring Me Down,” climbing to No. 10 that October. Both tracks were famously covered by David Bowie on his 1973 album, “Pin Ups.”
“Honey, I Need” peaked at No. 13 the following March, and their self-titled 1965 debut album reached No. 6. Despite being perfectly positioned to capitalize on the British Invasion and achieve greater stardom, The Pretty Things never toured the United States during their mid-1960s heyday.
Ultimately, even The Pretty Things found Prince’s unbound personality to be overwhelming. Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones famously remarked that Prince “was one of the great debauched people of our time, even worse than Keith Moon.” Wood recounted, “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.”
His tenure with the band met its end, as documented by Mr. Unterberger, when he once refused to play a concert because a nearby pub had denied him service – a pub he had, ironically, trashed with friends the night before.
May candidly told Mr. Unterberger, “We had to sack him because he was so bad in the end. We couldn’t finish a concert.”
Following his exit, Prince briefly covered for an unwell Keith Moon on a tour with The Who, though rumors suggest even that wild band found his antics too much to handle. He later operated a club in London before returning to his hometown to play with a soul group. Eventually, he found peace in Portugal, living for decades on a farm complete with a lush citrus grove.
Details regarding his survivors were not immediately disclosed.
A particularly legendary tale that followed Prince throughout his life involved a stint with the Hells Angels after his time with The Pretty Things. He later claimed he was kicked out, apparently being too much to handle even for the infamous biker gang.