The kit consists of the following drums and hardware as did Keith's original from 1966/67;
2 22”x 14” Premier 1960’s bass drums
with red sparkle wrap & mid to late 60’s pattern tensioning lugs (arrow head type) but earlier scalloped claws incorporating a single arm tuning bolt with a small ball at the end. As per Keith's original the hoops are black painted wood with red sparkle inlay strips.
The bass drums have 3 Rogers (U.K.) Swivomatic base plates
for tom toms & 3 Rogers Swivomatic base plates for cymbals to be attached.The first bass drum with THE written on the head has two straight Swivomatic (U.K.) base plates for the tom-toms, plus one angled base plate to be used for cymbal attachment, this being located halfway down the right side of the drum as you sit behind it partly under a tensioning lug toward the batter side head.
Keith had the Swivomatic base plates flattened out and placed this way round to get the two tom toms as close as possible, but led to them becoming weaker each time he kicked the drums over, the same problem happened with the Pictures of Lily kit as can be seen in some of the later pictures where he wound tape around the two tom arms and then together to stop them bending outwards.
On the opposite side are two disappearing tom holder base plates being used to connect the two bass drums together securely.
The second bass drum with WHO written on the head has a single angled Swivomatic (U.K.) tom-tom base plate not quite halfway down the right side of the drum this is positioned toward the batter head, then on the same side but toward the display head is another angled base plate but for cymbal attachment.
Below these are the Premier disappearing tom base plates that hold the old style tom arms which connect the bass drums together. Moving to the opposite side of this drum we have the last Swivomatic (U.K.) base plate this one again being used for cymbal attachment.
The Premier logo on this kit was only present on one head with THE written on. I hand cut it from fablon using a photo copy and managed to get it pretty much the right size straight off! Luckily for me.The legs are the disappearing type found on early 60’s bass drums, these are positioned close to the floor.
The badges are the rectangular early to mid 60’s type with the silver border and small air hole and chrome eyelet.
3 14” x 8” Premier 1960’s tom toms with red sparkle wrap and cast alloy (beer barrel type) hoops.
They have eight tensioning lugs (arrow head type) with slotted tuning bolts, they have a damper fitted on the inside that makes contact with the underside of the batter head and is adjustable with a knurled nut to the outside rear edge of the shell.
The badges are the same as that on the bass drums and the whole kit.
Keith used Rogers (U.K.) Swivomatic base plates and to attach the toms to the bass drums Rogers Swivomatic (U.K.) tom arms. To source these was like trying to discover Rocking Horse Sh*t !!
Keith used many different types of heads for these and subsequent kits basically taking whatever was available at the time so in photos of this period we can see Rogers used alongside Ludwig and Premier Everplay and Remo too. I have opted for 3 Remo Weatherking heads for the batter side and 3 budget cheapo’s for the resonant side, all are white coated, I wanted to try smooth whites by Remo (similar to Premier Everplay Extras) but couldn’t get them easily.
These toms sound awesome!!!
3 16” x 20” or 16” x 16” Floor toms (pre-international) With red sparkle wrap and cast alloy (beer barrel type) rims and 10 tensioning lugs (arrow head type) with slotted tuning bolts, they have a damper fitted on the inside of the shell that makes contact with the underside of the batter head and is adjusted with a knurled nut to the outside of the shell, the badges are the same as that on the other drums in this kit. The floor toms each have three legs adjusted by depressing a small lever within a chrome cover (with the Premier logo embossed on) and pulling the legs out or pushing them in, they aren’t meant to be detachable like the floor tom legs that are around today.
Keith originally mixed the sizes of the floor toms using one 16” x 20” and one or two 16” x 16” floor toms, he would always have two to his right side (16” x 20” / 16” x 16”) and the one on his left was only used for his towel, sticks and “refreshments”.
Then later around the time he started using Swivomatic tom arms he pretty much only used 16” x 20” floor toms …. three of them. The actual size of these is 16 ¼” x 18” when they had ten lugs, known as pre-international size.
2 Pairs of Early Premier disappearing tom holders used to hold Bass drums together !
3 Rogers (U.K.) Swivomatic tom Arms.
These arms were particularly difficult to find as mentioned before. Also the base plates too, British made ones with Swivomatic written on as opposed to the U.S. ones with Rogers on. And a turned solid nut as opposed to a cast one, which tend to split over time.
Early Premier drum stool.
Keith used this type of drum stool by Premier for a number of years, right from early on when he had the single bass drum red sparkle kit to the early seventies and the introduction by Premier of the black topped version. There was a version in between with just a red covering but Keith seemed to only use the earlier one with cream piping around the top.
In this picture but unclear to the eye is where the Premier name is stamped.
2 250-S bass drum pedals with wooden beaters
Keiths kit my views and ideas!
The first photo I’ve found of the kit with just one bass drum was the rehearsal shots taken on Ready Steady Go before Roger fell ill on 6th August 1965, then later the band played with Roger at the 5th National Jazz & Blues festival in Richmond, but Keith didn’t use the red sparkle kit he used his silver sparkle Ludwig, so I’m assuming that he used two kits side by side if there were two gigs one after the other on the same day, he would’ve had the kits at the location to be set up & ready etc.So the 1st red sparkle kit as it was for my copy and in the picture at the top of this Blog lasted approximately 7 months, but all together including from the time when it started out as a single bass drum kit & had the Premier tom arms 6th August ‘65 - 28th May ‘66 then up until roughly 5th April ’67 about 20 odd months, not bad, I suppose for a kit that got trashed so badly nearly every night.
Keith wasn’t the only famous drummer to use Rogers Swivomatic items on a non Rogers kit, there’s photographic evidence that Ginger Baker and Ringo star both used them on their Ludwig kits.Also I believe John Bonham used one for his single Tom Tom along with a snare stand (a heavy hitter!)
The first photo I’ve discovered with Keith using the Swivomatic tom holders and tom arms on this kit is from the Anyway Anyhow Anywhere book, on the 21st September 1966 The Who appeared on Top of the Pops, Keith used the red sparkle kit with two bass drums Swivomatics and two unusual looking extra bass drum spurs attached to the hoops at the front (he stopped using the Ludwig ones when he switched to Swivomatics) if anyone could give information as to who they are made by I would be most grateful as I need a pair for my kit (still have two of the Ludwig types!)
I think if Keith used this kit when The Who played the Murray the ‘K’ shows this would explain why there are no photos of the kit after this period, 5 SHOWS A DAY FOR A WEEK! it was probably completely destroyed, that’s my theory anyway.
I've just been (23rd April 2007) directed to with the help of someone from The Shout Who forum 3 photos of the RKO shows where Keith can in fact be seen using this kit, the only difference I can see at the moment is that he has changed the second display head with WHO on (probably because of the hole that I mentioned earlier) and the style of writing is slightly different.
Then on they're return to the U.K. Keith procured a knew red sparkle kit for the next tour that took them to West Germany, while there they appeared on The Beat club show which is available on The kids are Alright and Who’s Better Who’s Best with Keith miming to Pictures of Lily on the NEW 2nd red sparkle kit. This one retained the use of the Rogers Swivomatic tom arms and holders but dispensing the services of the cymbal holders, also the bass drum claws changed to the later type which were wider to allow for a better "grip" of the bass drum hoop.
Back to Original 1st Double bass drum kit again.
On Keiths kit you can see that the 14” x 8” tom tom to his right didn’t have a badge, the only reason I can think of is not that it fell off (there’s no hole) but that due to damage to the shell, Keith or the guy (Kevin East?*) repairing his drums after every gig moved the drum around using the next section between the lugs for the Swivomatic base plate and tom holder to be positioned, further evidence of this is that the damper has been removed on this particular drum leaving the hole present in the wrong place, visible in a photo of this kit next to the serpentine when shooting the promo film for the kids are alright! (page 87 of Andy Neill & Matt Kent's book “Anyway Anyhow Anywhere”).
The middle tomtom seemed pretty normal but the one on keiths left has the badge too low and this would indicate that the badge has been spun around when the drum was turned upside down! The reason for this one can only assume as being down to damage and again good evidence is found amongst the multitude of photos of this kit but in particular just behind John Entwistles head on the photo on page 95 of the same book mentioned above, you can see a lovely large patch of what I suspect is filler.
With his second red sparkle kit he appeared to only use 16” x 16” floor toms, at least one of which seemed to have specially fabricated giant long legs!! Looked quite strange but maybe he liked the drums to be all on the same level…. almost. This would include placing the floor toms on his right onto a suitcase occasionally.
With the chrome and subsequent kits Keith proved his love for 16” x 20” floor toms by reintroducing them, but the later toms (on the chrome kit) had only eight lugs and were 16” in diameter. I do believe though that they were still only 18” deep.
*If anyone can shed some light on this guy I would appreciate it, I spoke to Bobby Pridden briefly and he mentioned his name but also said no one has seen him for many Moons (pun intended)
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