Monthly Archives December 2021

The Rockula Drum Retrospective Pt 2 1981 to 1984 REAL DRUMS

When we left off, I had destroyed my toy drums and was drawing pictures of ridiculously large drumsets & hanging them on my wall
My parents knew that I was ready to play an actual instrument so, on Xmas day 1981 at 13 years old, I was given REAL DRUMS!
The set consisted of a 20″ bass drum (w/pedal), a snare (w/stand), a 12″ mounted tom and a 14″ cymbal that was stamped “KRUT”

I couldn’t find a picture of the actual setup but this is basically what it looked like (minus the stool but my snare was bigger)
This is the tom and cymbal of the red sparkle kit
I was playing my snare off to the left side of my leg and hadn’t figured out where it went yet
My goofy uncle Gary was “playing” my bass

It was red sparkle and came from a department store like Sears, JC Penny and Montgome...

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The Rockula Drum Retrospective pt 1 1968 to 1981 (pre-drumset)

My earliest memories of having toys was that I gravitated toward two things
One was a toy Penguin called Sammy Sound that had different sound effects on it like a clicking wing, a squeaking nose and a tom tom tummy
There was a record that went along with it and you were supposed to play the appropriate body part
I played that thing over and over until I had it memorized
Sammy broke and ended up in the trash
My other toy was a set of bongos which I called “Babalus” because I saw Ricky Ricardo sing “Babalu” on TV
Those soon ended in the trash after I broke the heads
https://youtu.be/Baip6gZR4PU

My next memory was visiting my relatives in Georgia and being at someone’s house who had a country band rehearsing there
I can remember heading straight for the drums and they let me hit them with a stick

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All of my side hustles under one roof

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