Other Acrylic Drums - Premier

Premier never put acrylic drums into production, but legend has it that a small number of kits were produced on a trial basis, and sold off privately.

.....and there the story ends.....until......

A couple of months ago, I received a note from Tam Rankin at the Vintage Premier site - he said that he had a lead on one of these (almost mythical) kits. I managed to make contact with the seller via the recent UK drum fair and finally got to see (and buy!) the kit at the end of September 2002.

I bought the kit from Christine, the widow of Graham Cunliffe who lived in Stockport near Manchester. Graham passed away in May 2002. He had bought the kit from the original owner when it was only a couple of months old; it was 1974 and Graham was 23 years old.

The kit is a standard 5-piece; 22, 12, 13, 16 and 5 inch snare. The kit includes all the original Lokfast hardware, Zyn cymbals and Premier cases.

I stripped each of the drums down; cleaned and polished the shells and chrome. The acrylic is a very dark smoke colour - darker than the Ludwig equivalent I think, but you can see through it.

The shell construction differs from the Ludwig drums in two significant ways. All of the shells are made from two pieces of acrylic of equal size. The edges a glued with flat "butt" joints as opposed to the 'V' channel found on the Ludwig drums. the picture on the right shows work in progress with the 12 inch tom broken down into the two halves of the shell. I used the smallest amount of glue to re-assemble the shell before putting the drum back together. The strength gained from the two heads tensioned at each end of the drum means that there is very little need for a strong joint at the shell seam - the drum literally holds itself together. The other main difference in construction is the shape of the bearing edges - much flatter than the Ludwig equivalents. Being an engineer, Graham kept the drums in excellent condition and the repair he undertook on a split in the bass drum shell was done to the highest standard.

Apart from the shells, the drums are standard Premier in every way. The classic one-piece lug design and the die-cast rims, shown here on the snare drum, were standard Premier equipment at the time.

Each drum has a dealer label underneath the Premier badge; this was common practise in the 1970s though many kits had these labels removed. The drums were originally supplied by Mamelok Ltd in Manchester, though the Manchester telephone directory does not list the shop now.

Graham knew that the kit was rare - one of only '6 or 7' ever built and it was the only serious kit he ever owned.

Graham played in a band playing instrumental rock - "Temudjin" in his twenties and later started getting better paid gigs playing Country & Western. He ended up playing with a band called "Steppinstone" and in the mid-80s was faced with the decision to turn professional. He decided against it and, with a young family, the drums took something of a back seat during the late 80's and 90's.

Towards the end of the 1990's Graham fished the drums out of his mothers cellar and started playing again - a few small gigs with some of the old C&W crowd. He became ill towards the end of 2001.

I received an email from Brenda Vann-Murphy - Graham's sister:

"I don't know if it was a good or a bad thing but he knew he was terminally ill and so we had a couple of months before he died when we were all aware that he didn't have long. During that time was talked about all sorts of things, as I'm sure you can imagine. One of the conversations that sticks in my mind is when we talked about his music and he said how much joy it had given him over the years.

He got a lot of fun out of using the kit and used to save up to buy stuff for it. He was aware of it's rarity and was very proud of owning it, although it was a very personal pride - I don't think he realised that it's rarity would be of such interest to other people. I know he would be pleased to see what you have done with it."

I have been incredibly lucky to find this kit and have the chance to own it. Graham Cunliffe treasured these drums and the quality of his workmanship in repairs and maintenance is a testament to that fact.

With thanks to Christine Cunliffe, Brenda Vann-Murphy, Tam Rankin and Pete McDonald.

Andy Youell
23 October 2002