Early life White was born in the village of
Pelton, County Durham, England. His father had different jobs, working as a clerk, shopkeeper, and a lorry and bus driver who also played the piano in local pubs. His grandfather played the piano and his uncle was a drummer in local dance bands. He attended a technical school and, at age seven, moved to the nearby town of
Ferryhill, where he spent the rest of his childhood. At age six, White began to take piano lessons, playing the instrument "very percussively", which his uncle noticed and informed his parents who bought him an Ajax drum kit for Christmas when he was twelve. White named his uncle as a big influence. White felt he was pushed to learn and play like his drum instructor and wished "to be more individual" on the instrument, so he began to develop his own style. His parents went on to buy him a metallic silver
Ludwig kit.
Early bands and session work Several months into formal drumming lessons, White joined his first band, a local group named the Downbeats, at thirteen. They performed songs by
the Beatles,
the Searchers, and
Gerry and the Pacemakers. The group became well known in the
Newcastle area, playing working men's clubs and dance halls as much as seven nights a week until late. White's school teachers only found out about his activities when the band were featured in the local newspaper. In 1964, the Downbeats changed their name to the Blue Chips and travelled to London to enter an amateur band contest held at the
London Palladium by
Melody Maker. They won the contest and were awarded money, new equipment, and a recording contract and recorded several singles which did not chart. They returned home, and disbanded soon after. White reduced his music commitments in order to pass his school exams, after which he became interested in studying
technical drawing at college with the plan to become an architect. At seventeen, he pursued music and toured the
cabaret circuit as part of
Billy Fury's band the Gamblers, which included several gigs in Germany. White went on to play in Happy Magazine, later known as Griffin, with Alan Marshall and
Kenny Craddock, and put out several records with
Alan Price as their producer. White continued to tour and play with Price in his group, the
Alan Price Set, and took up several jobs as a
session musician. In 1969, White received a call from
John Lennon who invited him to join his
Plastic Ono Band for their live performance at the
Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival. Lennon had attended a Griffin performance in a club and wanted White to join the band of
Yoko Ono,
Eric Clapton, and
Klaus Voormann. White disbelieved Lennon's call and offer and thought he was a prankster, but accepted the invitation for the show which took place on 13 September 1969, at
Varsity Stadium in front of 20,000 people. The set was later released as a live album,
Live Peace in Toronto 1969. The gig landed White further session jobs, including drum work on
Imagine and "
Instant Karma!" for Lennon and
All Things Must Pass by
George Harrison, as well as the opening track, the epic "
Govinda", for
The Radha Krsna Temple (produced by Harrison). Around the same time, White worked with
Denny Laine in his band
Balls for several months, which was followed by a ten-week stint with the fifteen-piece band,
Ginger Baker's Air Force and
Terry Reid.
Yes To save time commuting to London from the house he shared with his Griffin bandmates in
Sussex, White shared a flat with engineer and producer
Eddy Offord who worked with
Yes on their albums and tours. In early 1972, White attended their session at
Advision Studios to record a promotional film for their arrangement of "
America" by
Simon & Garfunkel. Soon after, he turned up to one of their rehearsals of "
Siberian Khatru", a song for their fifth album,
Close to the Edge. Their drummer
Bill Bruford had to leave the session early, leaving White to sit in with the band for the rest of it. White then joined
Chris Stainton's All Stars for a European tour in support of
Joe Cocker, which included a show at the
Rainbow Theatre in London that Yes bassist
Chris Squire attended. On 19 July 1972, after Yes had finished recording
Close to the Edge, Bruford left to join
King Crimson. In the same week, White was offered a place in both
Jethro Tull and
America. White's performance was documented on their first live album
Yessongs, in 1973; this was followed by his first studio album with them later that year,
Tales from Topographic Oceans. White played drums and percussion on over 40 studio and live Yes albums, additionally adding piano parts and collaborating on the songwriting, notably "The Remembering (High the Memory)" and "Ritual (Nous Sommes du Soleil)" from
Tales from Topographic Oceans; all the
Relayer album; "Turn of the Century" from
Going for the One; "Future Times" and "Release, Release" from
Tormato; all of the
Drama album; "Changes", "Our Song", and "Hearts" from
90125; "Big Generator" and "I'm Running" from
Big Generator; all of
Open Your Eyes; all of
The Ladder album; all of the
Magnification album; "The Gift of Love" from
From a Page; and "To Ascend" from
Heaven & Earth. White played over 3,070 live shows during his tenure with Yes. Due to various health problems, White missed a 28-date tour with Yes in 2016, with
Jay Schellen substituting for him, after which White returned to the live touring band, accompanied by Schellen in 2017,
Dylan Howe (son of guitarist
Steve Howe) in mid 2017, and Schellen again from early 2018, contributing to some double drumming not seen onstage since Yes's Union tours in 1991–2. In 2019, during
The Royal Affair tour, Yes acknowledged White's career pre-Yes by performing "Imagine" as the first encore, with the
Moody Blues'
John Lodge sharing lead vocals towards the end of the tour. The video wall backdrop to "Imagine" featured unseen footage of the
Imagine album sessions featuring Lennon, Ono, Harrison, Voormann, White and other contributors to the album and sessions. The
COVID-19 pandemic saw the postponement of US dates around
Cruise to the Edge, plus a 35-date European tour which was postponed to 2021 and then to 2022 and then 2023 and later to 2024; White died before he could participate in the rescheduled performances. His last work with Yes to be heard was the studio album
The Quest (2021).
Other projects White released his only solo album,
Ramshackled, in 1976. During the recording sessions for Yes'
90125 album, White recorded multiple drum tracks which were sampled into the
Fairlight CMI (by CMI programmer
J. J. Jeczalik) and re-processed in its Page R drum programming function. Some of the discarded parts were salvaged by Jeczalik and reused for what would become the debut
Art of Noise EP
Into Battle with the Art of Noise and subsequent debut album ''
Who's Afraid of the Art of Noise''. Most notably, White's sampled drumming was used as the basis for the early Art of Noise hit singles "
Beat Box" and "
Close (to the Edit)", anonymously bringing his work to the attention of hip hop and dance club audiences, with "Beat Box" becoming a surprise number one hit on the
American dance chart and a number ten hit on the
Black Singles chart, The band played live (with various keyboardists) in the Seattle area. They were due to join the abortive More Drama Tour, scheduled to begin in North America in August 2005, with three acts: White,
The Syn, and
Steve Howe, with Yes members Chris Squire, Steve Howe and Geoff Downes playing Yes material at the end of the evening (with Currie handling lead vocals). The tour was cancelled shortly before it was due to begin. White later joined The Syn touring band for dates in the first half of 2006. In 2010, the band White re-emerged after a hiatus with a new line-up of White, Haug and Boyce joined by two musicians from Yes tribute band Parallels, who had previously worked with White: vocalist Robyn Dawn and keyboardist Jonathan Sindelman. On 28 October 2017, to celebrate his induction into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, White played in a halftime performance with the
University of Washington Husky Marching Band. == Personal life and death ==