Flour on the toms!

supermac

Senior Member
I was watching an archive show with Queen on TV last night.

The show was from 1975.

When drummer Roger Taylor came to his solo spot, what looked like flour had been placed on the toms and he was enveloped in a white cloud as he played.

It looked fun but probably quite messy!

It was the first time I'd seen this.

Does anyone know if this was a common practice in the era?
 
Mac, I saw Queen in 1975, and the front row! Brilliant concert, fantastic. Roger did the flour thing then too ... or was it water? Or was that Rob Hirst with the water? Too long ago. Anyway, someone put something on the drums that went whoom! when the drums were struck :)

I do remember that it looked great in the lights but it must be hard on the gear and cost them plenty.
 
More than likely it was talcum powder, or something that wouldn't turn into glue if it got wet. Flour would be a disaster given the amounts of water, sweat, rain, humidity etc... that you might contend with during a live performance.
 
not sure of his name, but im pretty sure the drummer from twisted sister did that too except he used glitter on his floor tom.
 
I once saw a drummer pour water all over the toms and snare during an encore. It looked so cool. Lit-up, airborne water beads. Sweet!
 
I've always wanted to get that UV makeup powder stuff, and put it on my toms and cymbals and do some awesome band hit and take it down to black lights... I think it'd look pretty awesome. I just a) Can't find that powder and b) Don't have a good enough reason/big enough show to do it for the moment.

I hope that made sense!
 
Isn't talcum powder made with cornstarch nowadays? I assume that would get just as sticky with water/sweat as flour would.

And I do remember a Twisted Sister video with sparkles coming off the drums. I should get a pack of silver, star-shaped sparkles! That would be fun!
 
the blue man group does that kind of thing today. they put fluorescent liquid (colored water?) on their drums and then pound them under a black light. it looks really awesome!
 
Hello folks,
It was actually beer he poured onto the heads. If Freddy had been a drummer he would have used champagne.
 
Back
Top