London’s West End is a unique place. With over 15 million visitors and more than 18,700 shows performed in 2018, this little half square mile of London undoubtedly is the world’s capital of musical theatre. While this is great for tourists and musical theatre fans, it’s even better for us - drummers - because it

This is a drum I only picked up recently, although I’d been aware of the actual model for ages. I’ve had a lifelong interest in Sonor drums going back to the 1980s after seeing adverts in Modern Drummer magazine. In 2010 I was lucky enough to be able to visit the Sonor factory in Germany.

This month’s snare drum isn’t just as much about what the drum is but also who it was originally made for. Gary Husband, for those who aren’t aware, is a noted British drummer (and pianist as well). Whilst he’s mainly known for playing another company’s drums, for a short time about twenty years ago Gary

For the longest time - and by that I mean pretty much since I first saw one around 1999 - I wanted one of these drums. In fact, up until this year it was one of my bucket list drums, although I never realistically thought I’d own one. However, through a bit of good luck

If you caught the fairly recent issue of [UK mag] Rhythm which featured Red Hot Chili Pepper’s Chad Smith, or if you type in ‘Chad Smith busking’ into YouTube, you’ll have seen this drum. It’s one of the original DW Titanium snares - not one of the ones Drum Workshop currently markets - made by

The Q Drum Company hails from Los Angeles, USA. It’s a company  that has made a bit of a name for itself creating drums which are both visually and constructively a little different. This drum has a heavy 14x8, 3mm steel shell which is made from a plate that is riveted together. It’s got a raw

If you’re not familiar with Joe Morello, you might want to read up on him. This special snare drum was created in 2011 as part of a small run of five drums commissioned by Steve Maxwell to both pay tribute to Joe Morello following his passing and raise some funds for his wife. The drum

And so it comes to an end for another year – the Young Drummer Of The Year 2019 competition has seen Nathan Shingler come out with the prize in what was a very close final. As mentioned by so many who attended, the standard was higher than ever and all those who took part deserve a big

Adrian Kirchler (AK Drums) is a master snare drum maker and restorer. He’s particularly well known for creating drums modelled after those made in the 1920s/30s. As well as making drums under the AK name, he’s also made drums for Craviotto and Ludwig. I’ve been a big fan of Adrian’s work since about 2007 when

Something a bit brighter for the New Year! This is a fairly stock drum in the sense that it was a regular production model for the few years the Club Custom line was available. That said though, I think it’s cool for two reasons; one, the finish - which I’ll come to - is different