In recent times, I have, on occasion extended the courtesy ( I am Mr Generous) of chatting either in person or indeed online, with a number of young drummers about our fabulous art and the pros and cons of ‘going pro’.

The conversations were all wide ranging, interesting and thought provoking. However one theme did recur in almost all cases, that theme being the vexed issue of blagging drum gear for nowt. I have found myself becoming more dismayed at the number of players who apparently considered the zenith of professional drumming achievement was to get a full endorsement and therefore, absolve themselves of the responsibility of paying for it. Interestingly, these particular conversations were also peppered with words such as; ‘biggest kit’, ‘loads of cymbals’ and ‘fastest’.

It must be said, some of them did redeem the situation by mentioning the importance of self discipline, practise, application etc, but few of them actually understood the responsibility and furthermore; the expectations that a potential endorser would likely have of them. It was akin to someone who delights in making fraudulent benefit claims whilst working for cash in hand – the perception appeared to be that it was the ‘done’ thing and there were no consequences to be worried about.

If a company ‘gives away’ its drums (very few do in reality) to all its endorsers, there is an expectation that the lucky recipient will wax lyrical at every opportunity about the tubs and not let slip in unguarded moments that they’re OK, or will do for now. This of course, will come to an abrupt halt when the lucky drummer gets a new deal with someone else and proceeds to tell world how he’s ‘found HIS sound finally’, some years after he previously ‘found his sound’ with a different name on the bass drum reso head!

As ever in life, nothing is free, someone somewhere pays for ‘free’ stuff. And that someone in the case of endorsements is the paying customer. Not big surprise there, buy a chocolate bar and the first mouthful has probably paid for the advertising that got you to buy the thing in the first place! I’m not about to decry the manufacturers marketing strategies, they are proven and are unlikely to change much. What concerns me is the aspirations of some is solely; free stuff!

An ‘endorsement’ request we received a while ago involved a 17 year old drummer, assuring us that if we gave him a free kit and cymbals, he would tell everyone how great we are and our drums are the best. Which is quite a testimonial considering at the time, we hadn’t actually finished making our first kit! We resisted the temptation to ask him what experience he’d had of our products since we were confident his CV of three school gigs would have much bigger companies beating a path to his door.

This is not to suggest he shouldn’t be encouraged and won’t be a ‘name’ in the future, but I relate the story to illustrate the point. He didn’t give a flying fart about our drums – he just wanted drums for nothing.

To be fair, it’s not just the naïve who have a poor attitude to endorsements. I was reminded recently of a story from about 10 years ago of a drummer from a multi-mega-million-selling band (at the time) who abused his status with endorsers by essentially ‘living for freebies’. Drums, hardware, t-shirts, sticks, anything he could grab at shows or the distribution centre were thrown into his obscenely expensive sports car. There are many top flight players who have done a large tour of all the available manufacturers over the years and have returned, passed GO, collected £200(0) and started again!

I have difficulty with the whole endorsement scene, I only ever attained the level of ‘first rung’ endorsements and still I felt marginally uncomfortable with the modest requests from the providers. This problem is circumnavigated now since I took the route of buying all my current gear – so I can play what I bloody well please and flog the stuff I get bored of. Hopefully, the big names will only play drums they actually like, but I think the truth more often is the decision making process is a business one. I know of at least one drummer who had to relinquish playing his treasured custom made kit because the band’s new management company had a deal with another manufacturer and that’s what he WAS going to play.

Having said all that, many drummers DO only play what they like, they believe in the product and would more than likely part with their own hard earned for the same gear should circumstances prevail. I do believe the majority of young, upcoming drummers have their heads screwed on and sensibly treat any endorsement offers as the icing on the cake – not the filling.

I suggest all endorsement claims should be taken with a pinch of salt, saying you use something is not the same as saying you like it.

Mike Ellis
DM Drums

March 2005