Rattlin' Bones
Gold Member
Premier made a bop kit I think kick was 20x12 or 18x12 maybe? I'm looking for such a 3 piece kit bass drum, rack, and floor tom. If you come across such a kit let me know. Thanks!
Premier Bop Kit
- Thread starter Rattlin' Bones
- Start date
jda
Diamond Member
well at least there was the Name..
reverb.com
evidently made still...
www.premier-percussion.com
Artist Club
"Artist Club 100 is a special centenary edition of the original and popular compact Club kit, launched in 1999."
Premier Artist Birch Club Kit 2000s
Premier Artist Birch Club Kit 2000s | Reverb
Premier Artist Birch Club Kit 2000-2010 (at a guess) in Silver Sparkle Lacquer20x8 Bass drum10x6 Mounted tom13x11 Floor tom13x5.5 Snare drumOverview:- One of Premier's best drum-sets IMHO. Beautiful-sounding thin birch shells. - Very difficult to find in the US.- Upgraded model with Elite Series ...
reverb.com
evidently made still...
Artist Club 100 - Premier Drums
Launched to celebrate Premier’s 100th anniversary, the Artist Club 100 is a special edition of the original and popular compact kit in British Racing Green.
www.premier-percussion.com
Artist Club
"Artist Club 100 is a special centenary edition of the original and popular compact Club kit, launched in 1999."
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Benthedrummer
Silver Member
well at least there was the Name..
Premier Artist Birch Club Kit 2000s
Premier Artist Birch Club Kit 2000s | Reverb
Premier Artist Birch Club Kit 2000-2010 (at a guess) in Silver Sparkle Lacquer20x8 Bass drum10x6 Mounted tom13x11 Floor tom13x5.5 Snare drumOverview:- One of Premier's best drum-sets IMHO. Beautiful-sounding thin birch shells. - Very difficult to find in the US.- Upgraded model with Elite Series ...
evidently made still...
Artist Club 100 - Premier Drums
Launched to celebrate Premier’s 100th anniversary, the Artist Club 100 is a special edition of the original and popular compact kit in British Racing Green.
Artist Club
"Artist Club 100 is a special centenary edition of the original and popular compact Club kit, launched in 1999."
Yeah jda.........that's awesome.
I had a look at their website and they've reintroduced the Genistas too..... with a sneaking suspicion that they've got the oversized bass drum lugs as well.
No Signias though.
I've just looked at the Genistas on the Premier site and I think you could be right, the bass drums do look like they're fitted with the larger sized lugs again. This might sound like something minor to non Premier-philes but it's a very big deal! An attention to detail and history I wasn't expecting.
Benthedrummer
Silver Member
Benthedrummer
Silver Member
I think these are a one off series.....no other colour, just this one kit configuration.
They'll be rare in about 200 years.
But goodness me, beautiful.
The video confirms that yes they've gone back to the 90s and are using different sized lugs between Tom's and bass drum.
After years of loving Premier, it was my first kit and I've owned several, I was done with them and viewed the new Premiers as nothing more than a kit with nostalgic badges on it. I'm impressed by what the new owners are doing, it'll never be the same as the Blaby Road factory is long gone. However I bought into the rebirth of Premier in the 2010s and on the evidence shown here the new "owners" have done a better job than the last ones did so absolutely fair play to them.
C
C. Dave Run
Guest
I dont really know about the history of Premier, but I have one of those Genista kits. Got it from @someguy01 actually. The drums themselves are fantastic. What is/was so wrong with them? Was it just a management thing?
Benthedrummer
Silver Member
What, with Premier?
I have no idea in terms of their profile here.
They were the darling of the town, champagne and oysters on the mere mention of their name.
I bought my Genista then the next thing pffffffft.....poooof.......they were gone.
No kits on the floor in shops, banners and posters were gone.
All over red rover.
I bought 2 of them, a 5 piece in British Steel wrap and a one up two down in purple to black fade sparkle. Both excellent kits, nothing wrong with the product it was the management side. Premier have lurched from one owner to another to a management takeover since the 80s. The most recent management in the 2010s ish lasted a couple of years and I thought Premier had disappeared forever, this new incarnation with the attention to detail, thick shell badges etc is genuinely great to see, it only remains to cross my fingers for them as at the end of the day many upper mid/lower high end kits are a muchness of a much and may indeed share manufacturing plants, the looks and badge can be the selling point and I don't know how much cachet the Premier badge/brand has now.
Rattlin' Bones
Gold Member
Those would be cool kits, JDA. The Reverb is sold. Anyone know where I can find a kit like those? Green looks cool, too.well at least there was the Name..
Premier Artist Birch Club Kit 2000s
Premier Artist Birch Club Kit 2000s | Reverb
Premier Artist Birch Club Kit 2000-2010 (at a guess) in Silver Sparkle Lacquer20x8 Bass drum10x6 Mounted tom13x11 Floor tom13x5.5 Snare drumOverview:- One of Premier's best drum-sets IMHO. Beautiful-sounding thin birch shells. - Very difficult to find in the US.- Upgraded model with Elite Series ...
evidently made still...
Artist Club 100 - Premier Drums
Launched to celebrate Premier’s 100th anniversary, the Artist Club 100 is a special edition of the original and popular compact kit in British Racing Green.
Artist Club
"Artist Club 100 is a special centenary edition of the original and popular compact Club kit, launched in 1999."
Not exactly the more vintage kits, though I think there was a made in England kit. Heritage? Bop?
someguy01
Platinum Member
That is the exact finish on the kit I gave to @C. Dave Run
someguy01
Platinum Member
I want a new issue one. Even more so after seeing rdavidr's review.
One of a string of "why on earth did I sell it?" Kits.
Attachments
equipmentdork
Junior Member
I think they were actually called the Heritage Club. Had them since 99/2000 or so. Mine are British made. The 20" kick is wide-open thunder, the 13" snare is a keeper, sounds phenomenal with brushes, floor tom(13"ithink) is good, but I wasn't wild about the 10" tom. I don't consider a 10" a great all-around tom anyway. I actually run a 5-piece version of it, 10(deeper one)/12/13ft.
I think the reason that you don't see these up for sale is that no one wants to part with them. This kit came out when Pearl was doing their Rhythm Traveler thing, which as a small kit, left me cold with single headed toms and entry-level build quality. The Premier had a silver sparkle lacquer finish and shells from the Artist Birch series. They got it right, and almost everyone that sees/hears the kit wants one. Why they didn't sell a million of these is beyond me--I've even recorded with this kit.
The kick is 8x20.
Dan
I think the reason that you don't see these up for sale is that no one wants to part with them. This kit came out when Pearl was doing their Rhythm Traveler thing, which as a small kit, left me cold with single headed toms and entry-level build quality. The Premier had a silver sparkle lacquer finish and shells from the Artist Birch series. They got it right, and almost everyone that sees/hears the kit wants one. Why they didn't sell a million of these is beyond me--I've even recorded with this kit.
The kick is 8x20.
Dan
Premier bop kit?
Here’s one:
https://www.drum-attic.co.uk/shop/s...birch-shell-pack-in-terraverde-green-1214-20/
Looks nice.
Here’s one:
https://www.drum-attic.co.uk/shop/s...birch-shell-pack-in-terraverde-green-1214-20/
Looks nice.
The previous owner, a chap called Ken Tonkin, owned a range of businesses, only Premier was a musical one. Premier completely lost their way under him and ended up for a while as almost two separate companies under the same brand.
There was the APK/XPK/Genista version, which covered the Chinese/Taiwanese stuff. The Genistas were sort of alright-ish, the APKs and XPKs were really quite poorly designed, nowhere near as competitive as the UK built drums of the Yamaha period and slightly later. Production sort of dribbled to a halt at the end of 2014 to noone's great surprise.
The other bit of Premier was fundamentally a British company called KD Drums, originally owned by a very talented builder called Keith Keogh, and basically working under the Premier brand after Premier bought them in 2012. He built the One series kits and snares, the Modern Classic Kits and the more unusual Spitfire snares etc. Nicko ended up playing a Taiwanese kit with a Keith Keogh UK built sycamore snare for a while.
These drums were fabulously built but had no relationship at all with the lower ranges in terms of hardware, looks, series continuity or anything else. In addition there were some things that came out that were commercially questionable (anyone remember The Beast snare drum, with a UK RRP of £2995?) and were great as design studies but shouldn't have been anywhere near production. In addition some of the marquetry on the One series was very well executed, but to be blunt, resulted in some properly fugly drums.
Premier and Keith parted ways in 2015, I don't know but presumably due to Premier's finances starting to fail, and he went off to set up British Drum Company, which is much more commercially astute and is clearly very successful, and that was basically the end of Premier (although it still existed as a single director (Tonkin) company making significant losses) until Gear4Music bought the name and the non-Keith related intellectual property in early 2022.
So far they appear to be doing a better job than the previous owner but there's nothing made in the UK now with the exception of the limited edition anniversary snare, and that was contracted out to another UK drum builder (not sure who at this point).
Certainly in the UK and Europe they're likely to remain online purchase only, G4M have no physical stores other than one at their York base. In terms of sales it's noteworthy that they haven't sold all of the 100 Anniversary snares yet, they have plenty in stock (though they are £1500!).
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DutchDrummersDreams
Platinum Member
I don’t see the mention of the Premier Series/Elite/Classics and Modern Classics. First build in the UK, later build in Taiwan.
The modern classics even saw a rare partnership with Craviotto in 2005.
Those were proper sets/snares and had quite the endorsers too (and following, with an own group on FB).
They all predate the period when it started to properly disintegrate, which was when the Leicester factory closed. The last flurry of UK built Premier was in about 2010 when they displayed a bubinga kit at Musikmesse but they never followed into production.
Whilst the UK drums were great, the Taiwanese Classics/Elites/Gen X died a rapid death in reality, hardly anyone had any stock and they were very expensive for what they were given that they were in direct competition with and priced similarly to Keith’s far superior drums. I’ve no idea why they carried on with them once Keith’s drums came online, they seemed to have no place in the lineup, but that’s just another example of the inept management of that period that saw product support for endorsers fall off a cliff and everyone with a profile leave, leaving Premier with a handful of endorsers that no one had ever heard of.
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