Welcome John. It's great to have someone on the VDF that was instrumental in drum manufacturing during the drum explosion of the 60's. I read the information on the link Jim posted. Wow! If I may ask, how did you find out about the VDF?

It says you also worked for Premier in the mid to late 60's and produced 505, 404, 303, 202 and 101 sets. I just picked up my first Premier kit, a 100 (minus floor tom) in Mahogany Duroplastic (pre-international). The chrome plating on the hardware is excellent. Even after 45 years, there is very little, if any, evidence of pitting or bubbling. Can you share with us any stories about hardware design and manufacturing? Was Rolls Royce the plating company? My kit is the 3-ply birch shell style with re-rings and they really sing. They are so light too. I can comfortably pick up the 20" bass drum with just two fingers.

Any back stories of the infamous Ringo Starr transition from his Premier Mahogany Duroplastic kit to the Ludwig Black Oyster Pearl kit?

Thanks for joining the group,

-Tim

Hi Tim,

The plating on Premier's shells and hardware was all done in the factory. The cymbal stands, high-hats and snare drum hoops etc etc were all triple-plated...that's why they have stood the test of time so well.

How did I find VDF? I just stumbled across it while surfing the net.

I had left the company just before Ringo did his switch, so I am afraid I don't

know the back ground to it. He certainly did Ludwig a big favour! Despite getting his outfit for free.

Regards,

John

Tim,

I forgot to mention that all the hardware for both Premier and Beverley was designed by Clifford Della-Porta, one of Albert's three sons. Clifford is still going strong, well he was last time I heard, but I don't know what happened to the other brothers when Premier went bust. The only lugs that Clifford didn't design were on the Beverley drums. I handled that, again trying to get as near to Ludwig as I safely could. Clifford was a brilliant absolute boffin and would go off in a trance when asked a technical question, before coming up with the answer.

John

John. this is fantastic. there are a lot of little missing details out there that you may be able to help with. One of the things about Beverley that has confused me , is whether they had shells to use up when Premier began making them? I've seen a few drums from the early 60's that look like they don't have Premier shells.

John very good to have you here. It was mentioned a while ago in a different thread here that Rolls Royce did some of the chrome plating for Premier. True? I know it's not really Beverley related but was curious if you know.

Thanks,

Glenn.

As mentioned in one of the other posts, all the plating was done in factory and the Premier plating was all triple plated. that's why it has lasted so long with few blemishes.

As regards the shells, all the Beverley drums were built on Premier shells. Maybe the ply varied in colour occasionally but they were all Premier stuff.

Thanks John. :)

Of course, you may have seen the original Beverley shells that were made in the North East of England. That could account for the fact that you think you have seen shells that were used up by Beverley. But they were'nt "used up". When Albert Della Porta took over Beverley, the original shells were dumped. All the shells when Premier took over making the shells were from the Premier factory. If you have seen a shell from the original Beverley company, you have got one over me, cuz I haven't!

So what Premier shells were used for the Cosmic 21?

Best.

Stephen

Hi Stephen.The shell for the Cosmic was a very early original Premier shell, made round about 1920, which had a central bead. Premier didn't want the central bead, but I did, so I arranged for Beverley to buy the shell design from Premier and lo and behold, the Cosmic 21 was born!