Re: FIRSTS

[Alan McKendree <amck@thenetdr.com>]

At 9:53 -0800 11/22/1998, The Who Mailing List Digest wrote:
>Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 12:53:32 PST
>From: "cole nelson" <glowgurrl@hotmail.com>
>
>I think Keith Moon wasthe first to use 2 bass drums.

No, according to Tony Fletcher's book.  From p. 151:

[On The Who's first "package tour" in April 1996, a]mong the support groups
... were the Merseys ..., the Spencer Davis Group and a couple of Keith's
Wembley contemporaries: singer Paul Dean and, as drummer for the Jimmy
Cliff Sound, Phil Wainman.  "Phil Wainman was the famous drummer in the
area," Gerry Evans recalled of growing up around Wembley.  "He was the
first drummer we ever saw with two bass drums..."

Fletcher states that Keith, hating the idea of being upstaged by another
drummer's kit, borrowed half of Wainman's kit (presumably including a bass
drum) for The Who's part of the show, then after the tour ended had a new
sparkle-red drum kit made (by Premier) for himself which included two bass
drums.

On the subject of  "firsts" (or at least, counter-trends), Fletcher does
note that

1) Keith, "alone perhaps of all the drummers of his generation, opted to go
without a hi-hat cymbal on his new kit.", and

2) that later, in the 1969-70 period, after the release of Leeds and with
the group at the top of their fame, Keith "in stark opposition to other
successful groups of the time...committed to playing on stage level, on the
floor with his team mates.  It was another example of the dual personality:
the apparent extrovert, the born show-off, the man who had always
maintained the biggest drum kit in rock, refusing to be put on a pedestal."

Alan
Be sure to read _McKendree: A Burning Novel of Murder and Revenge_
by Douglas Hirt, ISBN 0-8439-4184-7  (available at www.amazon.com)