Over the recent festive season, I was sorting through the mountains of drum related bits and bobs cluttering up the garage and potting shed and found myself ruminating over the many kits that have had the dubious honour of being on the receiving end of my playing.

Truth be known, my first “kit” was a collection pots, pans, ice cream tubs and one Chad Valley tin drum, complimented by a Quality Street tin lid atop a piece of bamboo cane supported on a Christmas Tree stand. After spending many months driving assorted family members and pets insane with the resultant racket, my first kit was purchased for the sum of £30, in return for me keeping my bedroom tidy for six weeks.

This kit consisted of a blue brass shell Ajax snare drum with tube lugs and collar hooks, a 12” x 8” pre international Premier tom with pre-67 badge and Lokfast lugs, a pre-international 16” x 16” Beverley floor tom from the 50’s (complete with Premier basket legs) and a 22” x 12” pre-67 Olympic marching bass drum with calf skin heads. To complete the kit, I has a pair of 12” Krut hi-hats on a 60’s Premier stand (matching the snare stand), and an 18” Ajax cymbal on a hoop mounted holder. The spurs and tom holder were Premier hoop mounted.

This kit saw many transformations during my teenage years; the first trauma being the discovery of pre-international sizes when it came to head replacement. The floor tom was discarded in favour of a “proper” sized 16” Edgeware floor tom (by now the kit had changed from various shades of blue, to red and to match the latest addition – black Fabulon) and the 12” tom had international sizes by sitting the hoop on top of the head hoop. A Premier 14” x 8” tom was added and the bass drum was treated to a pair of Rogers Swivomatic holders which eventually were relocated to a floor stand with a Star (Tama) top and Lokfast feet. I had also upgraded to a Premier Lokfast hi hat stand and purchased a Rogers Swivomatic bass drum pedal. The cymbals were replaced with 5 star Super Zyn hi hats, a Hayman 20” ride and a couple of Tosco crashes, a pair of 8” and 10” Maxwin toms were then added and with this kit, I made my first forays in paid live music.

It was soon clear, that despite my inventiveness with drum kit construction, that some of my musical peers thought this lovable hotch potch of drums, was not up to semi pro standard – even though they sounded great according to some of my musical chums. After finding a buyer for the kit, the proceeds were used purchase an early 60’s 4 piece Ludwig comprising 13” x 8” tom, 16” x 16” floor tom and a 22” x 14” bass drum. I could not afford the snare with the kit, so I settled for a wood shell Autocrat. This kit saw me through to my first recording contract and was used for the first two singles I recorded with HM outfit – Aragorn. It was about this time that I first discovered Paiste 2002 cymbals and gradually replaced all the cymbals bar the pair of 15” Avedis Zildjian hi hats I had recently acquired.