I’ve played drums for 12 years, have lived in London for 3 years & love leering at shiny drum kits that i’ll never be able to afford. Somehow these things have never culminated in me going to The London Drum Show. Finally, last weekend I went to the place that, in theory, should be utopia for me. I think that any place that hands out ear plugs as standard on arrival you can’t quite describe as utopia, but it’s definitely how I picture my afterlife.
Immediately when you come out of the elevator at the Olympia Conference Centre you are met with a wall of noise. Every manufacturer had a pitch, every pitch had a drum kit for the purpose of public consumption & every kit had a drummer behind it in their element.
After I’d acclimatised to drum theme park & shook hands with Mike Dolbear (didn’t play it cool), I started wondering round with Steve Forrest who was my wingman on this one.
After we got our bearings we pulled over at the SJC pitch. They are Steve’s drum company and hooked him up with an acrylic kit for Placebo earlier this year. After hearing how that sounds, I was extremely interested to see what they had on show. After instantly falling head over heels for a bamboo/acrylic hybrid snare I tried out this sparkling gold number. It sounded massive with big dimensions of 24” kick & 13”, 16”, 18” toms. I think its what I’m asking for from santa this year.
At the Mapex pitch they had 5 kits all set up in a circle round a central kit. Throughout the day on the hour a Mapex endorsee set a beat, for the next ten minutes you felt like you were in stomp. Making a wall of noise with a bunch of strangers was an awesome feeling.
With barely intact ears & an SJC beanie & coffee cup I hit the road, looking forward to next year. Bangin day!
www.wearekites.com
twitter.com/kitesonline
twitter.com/weareplanes
www.weareplanes.com