NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION….. (drummer edition).

My brothers and sisters and I were blessed and lucky to be brought up in a home where we were well taken care of and loved.
However… we were not spoiled.

Above is a picture from the late 70's of my first drum set.

Of course, the passion and desire for drumming that found me throwing this little “kit” together was the proving ground that led to my Mom eventually buying me a real drum set.
Let’s walk through what we’re looking at here…
The kick drum is from a toy drum set that belonged to my best friend and neighbor, David FitzGerald. It was in his attic where we would listen to records every day after school and I somehow convinced him to give it to me. The heads were paper thin. I could easily carry it with one hand.
The snare drum has no bottom head or snares and the top head rings a lot so I’ve thrown one of my Mom’s dish towels on it to deaden the ring. This also gives me two sound options. Dish towel part. Non dish towel part.
A cracked cymbal is mounted on a broken stand that doesn’t go higher than a couple of feet so it sits on a white lawn furniture coffee table to give it some height. This table also keeps the bass drum from creeping away from me on the concrete basement floor.
The “toms” are made from two empty Chock Full O’ Nuts coffee cans taped to a hockey stick shaft that is shoved into a box filled with books.
My “hi-hat” is a little dinner bell taped to the frame of that metal shelving rack.
This “drum set” was so awesome to me that I took this picture of it.
In my dream world Peter Criss from KISS was my drum hero. In the real world it was my cousin Ronald Sliney.
I can remember sitting on the floor in Uncle Ronny and Auntie Rose’s basement in Waltham watching Ronald Jr. play along to RUSH songs like “Xanadu” and “La Villa Srangiato” cranked through his band’s p.a. speakers.
The sound was huge. The drum set (a 5 piece Ludwig Blue Vistalite flanked with a full compliment of high and low roto-toms) was huge and my cousin was bigger than life behind it.
The core pieces of this first drum set were a gift from him and an absolute treasure to me.
Thanks, Ronny!!!

Stephen Hart.