Doug Sandom

Doug Sandom

Doug Sandom (often misspelled Doug Sanden) was the original drummer for the English rock band The Who. During the infancy of the band's career, while they were playing as The Detours (around mid 1962), Sandom, a bricklayer, joined as drummer. However, while the other members of the group were in their late teens, Sandom was already in his late twenties, and the difference in age eventually made him something of an outcast in the group. His wife also objected to him staying out at all hours of the night.

When the band secured, but failed, an audition with Fontana Records in early 1964, the label's producer, Chris Parmeinter, didn't like Sandom's drumming. The band's guitarist, Pete Townshend voiced a similar opinion, and suggested to the other members of the band, John Entwistle and Roger Daltrey, that Sandom leave the group. Sandom gave a month's notice, and left in April. Within a month of Sandom's departure, Keith Moon was hired after he had approached the band at one of their gigs and told them he could play better than the session drummer they had hired to fill the vacancy left by Sandom. After Moon became the band's drummer, (having smashed the session player's drum kit to pieces during his "interview" in the interval that night), the band experimented on changing it's name, finally settling on The Who, and recording. No recording exists with Sandom playing with the band; even the earliest demo tapes were made with Moon.

On his departure from the group, Sandom said, "I wasn't as ambitious as the rest of them. I'd have done it longer than what they had. Of course, I loved it. It was very nice to be part of a band that people followed, it was great. But I didn't get on well with Peter Townshend. I was a few years older than him, and he thought I should pack in more or less because of that. I thought I was doing all right with the band, we never got slung out of nowhere, we always passed our auditions."

External links

• The Who.com official site
• TownshendBio.com