Taught by childhood friend Richard Storer, Withers first played a drum in the Boys' Brigade in his home city of Leicester.[4] He became a professional musician at the age of 17, in an Italian band called The Primitives. This was followed by a band called Spring who had a record contract but little success; they released one album on the RCA label. In the mid-1970s Withers was a house drummer at Rockfield Studios near Monmouth, Wales. He played on records by Dave Edmunds, Michael Chapman, Hobo, the John Dummer Band and the Gary Fletcher Band, amongst others.[5]
His nickname has been subject to some variations in spelling. During his time with Spring, he was billed as "Pique Withers". He is billed as "Pic Withers" on the second Brewers Droop album.
Withers has also studied at Drumtech drum school in London.
He met Mark Knopfler c. 1976 in North London. Knopfler called around to the house Withers was living in to borrow Simon Cowe's reel-to-reel tape recorder, and recorded some music with Withers that same day.[6] Withers was briefly a member of folk-rock outfit Magna Carta in 1977, but once Dire Straits gained a recording contract, turned to drumming for that band full-time.
His style with Dire Straits is distinctive for being restrained, favouring sparse snare drum and hi-hat combinations rather than heavy beats, speed and technical flourishes. He played on the Dire Straits albums Dire Straits (1978), Communiqué (1979), Making Movies (1980) and Love Over Gold (1982).
Withers left Dire Straits in the summer of 1982, soon after completing the Love Over Gold sessions. In a 2021 interview in which he was asked why he left, Withers said that the band was becoming too loud, he was tired of the treadmill, and he wanted to try new things.[7] His replacement in Dire Straits was Terry Williams, who like Withers had been a Dave Edmunds sideman.
Later career
In 2021, Withers re-surfaced with a new rhythm and blues band called 'Slim Pickin's', [8] later renamed 'Pick's Pocket'.[9]
