British Drum Company

Woolwich

Silver Member
Hi All,

The British Drum Company recently came up in a discussion on a thread about Premier drums that disappeared due to a technical glitch.
For those of you who's interest was piqued, or who are currently none the wiser, here's a video that's just appeared today on the Mike Dolbear website to coincide with their NAMM appearance.
I've got no affiliation to them but I wish them well and I've got very definite aspirations to own one of their kits as soon as I can afford one.
https://youtu.be/rrtEpdIRitA
 
Liberty makes great drums. They are British as well.

Yes, I live relatively close by. They repaired the bass drum hoop off a Yamaha Rock Tour for me a few years back. Textured ash finish so a repair was pretty much the only option.
 
I love the lugs and hoops on those drums.
I have a Premier One Series snare made by Keith and it's a work of art, sonically and visually.
 

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In the former Premier post that has disappeared , I said something like this :
The near death of Premier sounds like real pity

I don't much understand the energy and money spent in building a new drum company from scratch instead of rebuiding a brand with a great history and a strong brandname.
In France, Premier used to be strong, and the 80's - 90's models (I own one) are well-known, even the basic line like APK / XPK have better reputation on the second hand market than Tama RS, Mapex or Pearl Export.

British Drum Company or Natal may make great products (I don't know their products), nevertheless, they'll take a long time to get the reputation of a more than 60 year old brand. I understand that you're mostly from the US where Premier isn't as popular.
When I started drum in the 90's, Ludwig and Gretsch were out of the market, they came back really big time in the 2000's. Premier can (should) be saved the same way.
I think Premier is a great name (it sounds great - this french word, isn't it? And the red P is a strong symbol) ; it deserves really better. At least in Europe they should boost their distribution and communication But It looks like they're under paliative care...

About British drum company, I like their badge and their products are nice. the legend serie is beautiful and seems perfect, the snare seems great, too, but by now how about distribution ? I don't even find any prices.
 
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In the former Premier post that has disappeared , I said something like this :
The near death of Premier sounds like real pity

I don't much understand the energy and money spent in building a new drum company from scratch instead of rebuiding a brand with a great history and a strong brandname.
In France, Premier used to be strong, and the 80's - 90's models (I own one) are well-known, even the basic line like APK / XPK have better reputation on the second hand market than Tama RS, Mapex or Pearl Export.

British Drum Company or Natal may make great products (I don't know their products), nevertheless, they'll take a long time to get the reputation of a more than 60 year old brand. I understand that you're mostly from the US where Premier isn't as popular.
When I started drum in the 90's, Ludwig and Gretsch were out of the market, they came back really big time in the 2000's. Premier can (should) be saved the same way.
I think Premier is a great name (it sounds great - this french word, isn't it? And the red P is a strong symbol) ; it deserves really better. At least in Europe they should boost their distribution and communication But It looks like they're under paliative care...

About British drum company, I like their badge and their products are nice. the legend serie is beautiful and seems perfect, the snare seems great, too, but by now how about distribution ? I don't even find any prices.

I was a huge Premier fan even before I got my first drum kit in 1982. But Premier can't "come back". The factory has been sold, the tooling has probably done likewise, none of the employees or management are the same, in short there's no lineage and if there comes a time that KHS or someone similar buys "the brand" (& why would KHS, Mapex is the very epitome of what Premier should have been or could be in a parallel universe) then it'll be nothing more than them fooling us with a red "P" badge and us suspending our disbelief and allowing ourselves to be taken in. And sadly even for people who are taken by a brand and have affiliations to a brand, those many years of brand excellence have been tainted by the events of the last 10 or so years.
Keith at British Drum Company was working for Premier, if he'd been able to buy the Premier name it wouldn't have made one jot of difference to how big his company is now, simply buying a defunct brand doesn't give a leg up and admission to the top tier. If anything this has been proven already by successive management teams (mis)use when they bought the Premier name.
 
the tooling has probably done likewise,
Keith took over the UK shop & tooling to form BDC. This was the shop that built the recent Premier One series stuff.

As for Brand power - it's huge, but it depends on reputation too. Buying a defunct brand that evokes mostly fond memories or "the golden years", has massive value that often more than exceeds anything the actual product quality can bring to the table. Brand is by far the biggest investment element of any larger drum company, & it's cost forms a substantial portion of the price when you buy that product. In the case of Premier, it has so much baggage, that any brand recognition benefit would initially be greatly overshadowed by a lack of faith in both buyers & the industry.
 
From the States and a Premier fan, I wish them the best.

I like the look of the kits, the hardware reminds me of the Beverley lugs and looks like what Premier could have been in this decade.

edit, I'll also say. That I wish they'd also design a floor tom bracket to replace that Gibraltar OEM piece they use, it looks out of place
 
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Just a bump to this thread.

I just watched several interviews with Keith and staff and a lovely demo by Ian on a bop Lounge kit (very nice Gretschy sound), and I have to say I'm interested in the drums. I think BDC has just found distribution via EDM to get their drums to North American retailers.
 
I like Keith Keogh and I like his drums, I was fortunate to play some of his segmented snares back in the day. I genuinely hope that he can resurrect something out of Premier as I have never had a bad word to say about them.

Owned a Project One and an XPK snare, played on many APKs, XPKs and Genistas, excellent drums.

And then they go and garnish it all with a huge steaming turd the size of Al Murray
 
British Drum Co build wonderful instruments. One of my mates has one and I am making the trip to Stockport at the weekend to chose a shell pack and a snare. Cant wait.
 
Their website shows they're still alive and well. I found they don't stock parts as I had a snare that was missing 2 lugs that I couldn't find anywhere.
So is the BDC the new Premier or is the original company still going strong?
 
And then they go and garnish it all with a huge steaming turd the size of Al Murray

Not quite sure of the reason for that attack on him, but without Al Murray (who is actually a very intelligent and genuinely nice bloke), the company probably wouldn't exist at all as I believe he's financed a good chunk of it.
 
Their website shows they're still alive and well. I found they don't stock parts as I had a snare that was missing 2 lugs that I couldn't find anywhere.
So is the BDC the new Premier or is the original company still going strong?

Premier is fundamentally dead, at least in terms of kit manufacture. They have no dealers, no parts back up, no real advertising anymore. They still appear to be active in the marching world but I suspect anything 'new' is actually NOS from a warehouse somewhere. The 'company' appears to consist of three people in an office somewhere and my feeling is they're trying to keep it going so they can sell the name as a going concern, when the truth of it is that it isn't really anymore.

I've raised this directly with them via their Facebook page on a number of occasions and had exactly no response at all about it, which if it wasn't correct you think they'd want to dispute.

BDC is basically the re-invented UK manufacturing side of Premier from the last incarnation, though it's probably closer to say that BDC is a renamed and re-financed KD Drums (Keith's previous business).
 
Not quite sure of the reason for that attack on him, but without Al Murray (who is actually a very intelligent and genuinely nice bloke), the company probably wouldn't exist at all as I believe he's financed a good chunk of it.

All that may be true but it doesn't change the fact that I think he is a dick.
 
All that may be true but it doesn't change the fact that I think he is a dick.

For what reason? If you must think of him that way, think of him as a dick that enabled a master craftsman to carry on making high quality instruments, as that's what he's done! No Al Murray, no BDC...
 
For what reason? If you must think of him that way, think of him as a dick that enabled a master craftsman to carry on making high quality instruments, as that's what he's done! No Al Murray, no BDC...

Who cares? I now add you to that list for not being able to accept someone elses opinion.

I couldn't care less if he is part of the funding for BDC. Anyone who starts a new drum company in this climate is.......yep, you guessed it..... a dick.

But there are many other reasons for calling Al Murray a dick, starting a new drum company is not one of them, even though in this climate, it's a pretty good reason on it's own
 
I didn't quite grasp al the fuzz around al Murray - I may not be British enough (!)

Still I really wish the best to this new company - Their lines are great, they didn't scattered in multiple lines. I especially like the Legend line, I'd just wish more colour choice, the one I see seems dull like hell. But craftmanship and hardware seem top notch and nicely designed.
The main problem is the distribution !
Would I want to buy one, I would neither know the price tag, nor where to get it !
- edit for better English sentences ;-) -
 
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