Jet Playing a Tribute to Tony

[anniv 63]

Glad to hear there are other left handed people who play the guitar right
handed.
Thought it was just me when trying to struggle with the fretboard in my
right hand.
My old Grandpa did everything right handed but used his soup spoon
a la Paul McCartney !!!

Mike

[neil2726]

Our drummer was left handed and set his kit up left handed. My son who is left handed plays guitar right handed! When he started to play it was my right handed guitar he used! Being left handed doesnt seem to be a problem - look at Danny Martin!

[donna plasky]

I watched a couple of random Shads videos with Tony as the drummer...and it occurred to me that since most of the videos I've seen of Tony are miming for TV appearances, I probably have not seen his full drum kit. Am I right, that if you're going to mime a song, you don't necessarily set up the entire drum kit...why go to all that trouble? If I am wrong about that, I meant no disrespect. Here's an often-watched video of the Shads, but it gives me a good view of Tony. I guess this looks like a right-handed drum kit? I tried to compare it to the photo(s) you so kindly posted. And...thank you, Rob, for telling me who The Shadders are.

Kind regards,
Donna

[GoldenStreet]

Yes, Donna, this was Tony's regular kit (right-handed), consisting of snare, bass, small tom and large (floor) tom drums, hi-hat, ride and crash cymbals, which was pretty much the standard set up for the period.

The rudimentary components are snare and bass drums, hi-hat and ride cymbal, with additional items (e.g. two bass drums!) and other more sophisticated paraphernalia having become the norm with the passing decades!

Bill

[donna plasky]

I was just thinking...and I know this is a naive statement to make...but Tony was so incredibly talented at such a young age. He was two or three years younger than the other Shadows. And that would put him at 15 or 16 years of age, when they were 18 or 19, which is still young. I think it showed a lot of character to be that young but to have the confidence to play in front of an audience, appear on TV, etc.

I never really looked at the drum kit Tony used until now, and I see it's the same thing you've told me about guitars. It's the player, not the instrument. I guess I somehow thought a person would have needed more gear to create such great music, but you said his was a pretty standard drum kit...I don't mean to mumble. I am just impressed.

Thank you for listening.

Kind regards,
Donna

[JimN]

I don't think there was anything deficient about Tony's drum kit.

Around 1960/61, he was playing a (UK-built?) Ajax kit, which was probably not the greatest drumset in the world, but in early 1961, he acquired the gold-metallic finish Gretsch kit seen in "The Young Ones" and various photos of the era, and which he continued to play at least right up into the Diamonds / Scarlett O'Hara / Applejack recordings of 1962/1963. The kits were essentially the same combinations and sizes as Joe Morello was then playing with the Dave Brubeck quartet and Tiny would have been pleased with that comparison.

Remember, though, that he might have been playing other drums in the studio.

JN

[GoldenStreet]

The basic kit... Champagne Sparkle! At some point, Tony replaced his name on the bass drum with the standard Gretsch logo.

Bill

Fore.JPG (29.02 KiB) Viewed 4206 times

[donna plasky]

Thanks, Bill. I liked it when Tony had his name on the drums. I came across this edited clip from Expresso Bongo. The IMDB website lists Tony as a "drummer in an uncredited band." That's OK, we know who these guys are.

Kind regards,
Donna

[JimN]

The basic kit... Champagne Sparkle! At some point, Tony replaced his name on the bass drum with the standard Gretsch logo.

Fore.JPG

That's the (white) Ajax kit in that picture.

The Gretsch kit seems to have arrived in the late spring or early summer of 1961.

[GoldenStreet]

I was assuming the 1961 Fore EP picture, as with that on the cover of the book The Shadows by Themselves (pub 1961), from the same photo session, was taken after Tony acquired the Gretsch kit, but I could be mistaken... certainly, Tony refers to the Gretsch in the book, and it is not, perhaps, entirely clear from the picture which they are.

It could be, of course, that Tony's name never featured on the Gretsch bass drum, and the kit shown in the FBI performance on Crackerjack is clearly the white Ajax set.

Bill