Fantasy Gigs

[Al Strange]

Would’ve loved to have sat in for Mr Aldridge on this beast of a kit when Whitesnake headlined the UK Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in August 1990...in reality, my twin brother and I were just two of 70,000 rockers in attendance.Awesome memories, Tommy blew me away!

 

[J-W]

Would’ve loved to have sat in for Mr Aldridge on this beast of a kit when Whitesnake headlined the UK Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington in August 1990...in reality, my twin brother and I were just two of 70,000 rockers in attendance.Awesome memories, Tommy blew me away!
View attachment 94809

Arrghh......I had the opportunity to buy that custom Voelker rack and backed out. It was just slightly out of my justifiable budget, but more importantly the tubes are larger than standard (2" instead of 1.5") so any additional clamps would have to have been custom made.
I wish I would have just pulled the trigger.

 

[PorkPieGuy]

View attachment 94809

THAT'S where Wailin' Smash got his "cymbal tree" idea from.

 

[Al Strange]

Arrghh......I had the opportunity to buy that custom Voelker rack and backed out. It was just slightly out of my justifiable budget, but more importantly the tubes are larger than standard (2" instead of 1.5") so any additional clamps would have to have been custom made.
I wish I would have just pulled the trigger.

If you don’t mind me asking, can you elaborate on your story? How, what, where, how much?! No worries if you’d rather not say. I guess the rig was specifically designed for a huge Arena rock tour and too unwieldy and expensive to transport over time? Were you offered the carbon fibre drums as well?

 

[J-W]

THAT'S where Wailin' Smash got his "cymbal tree" idea from.

LOL! It does give the illusion that they are stacked, but they aren't.

If you don’t mind me asking, can you elaborate on your story? How, what, where, how much?! No worries if you’d rather not say. I guess the rig was specifically designed for a huge Arena rock tour and too unwieldy and expensive to transport over time? Were you offered the carbon fibre drums as well?

I can't remember exactly when, but it was in the early 2000's. An aquaintance of mine "in the biz" told me about it being for sale and put me in touch with the seller. I already had one of Voelker's "standard" racks (see my sig pic) but he knew I had always admired Tommy's custom "X rack". At the time, even the standard racks were hard to find, but also hard to sell since the days of this type of setup had long since passed. The seller was asking around 2k but was willing to come down considerably. But by the time we figured freight, and the fact that it didn't have enough clamps for me, and would require custom clamps, I decided that I just couldn't justify the expense. Had I not already had the standard rack, I probably would have gone through with it. The other problem with racks that are designed specifically for one person/set up is that they can be pretty limiting as far as how you want to place things.
I was not offered the carbon fiber drums, and would have passed on them anyway.
Yes, those racks are designed for larger venues and arenas. but their actual footprint is fairly small considering the size of kit you can put on them. Mine only touches the floor in a 4' x 5' area but obviously takes up more stage space than that. As for transport, Tommy's X-rack doesn't break down quite as far as the standard rack, but with semi trailers available, it didn't really have to. Mine breaks down fairly small (two 2'x5' platforms and ten 3' bars), since I don't have a "halo" but obviously it's not something you can pack in the car and take to the local dive bar gig.

But back to the topic at hand, yes sitting on Tommy's kit at that show would have been quite an experience. At least you got to attend. ?

 

[Al Strange]

LOL! It does give the illusion that they are stacked, but they aren't.



I can't remember exactly when, but it was in the early 2000's. An aquaintance of mine "in the biz" told me about it being for sale and put me in touch with the seller. I already had one of Voelker's "standard" racks (see my sig pic) but he knew I had always admired Tommy's custom "X rack". At the time, even the standard racks were hard to find, but also hard to sell since the days of this type of setup had long since passed. The seller was asking around 2k but was willing to come down considerably. But by the time we figured freight, and the fact that it didn't have enough clamps for me, and would require custom clamps, I decided that I just couldn't justify the expense. Had I not already had the standard rack, I probably would have gone through with it. The other problem with racks that are designed specifically for one person/set up is that they can be pretty limiting as far as how you want to place things.
I was not offered the carbon fiber drums, and would have passed on them anyway.
Yes, those racks are designed for larger venues and arenas. but their actual footprint is fairly small considering the size of kit you can put on them. Mine only touches the floor in a 4' x 5' area but obviously takes up more stage space than that. As for transport, Tommy's X-rack doesn't break down quite as far as the standard rack, but with semi trailers available, it didn't really have to. Mine breaks down fairly small (two 2'x5' platforms and ten 3' bars), since I don't have a "halo" but obviously it's not something you can pack in the car and take to the local dive bar gig.

But back to the topic at hand, yes sitting on Tommy's kit at that show would have been quite an experience. At least you got to attend. ?

Thanks for your reply, really appreciate it...I can see why you didn’t take up the opportunity at the time. Your set up looks awesome by the way!