BEATLE Drumheads HISTORY

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  The Origin of the ‘Drop-T’ Logo and Drum Head No. 1

The origin of the Beatles’ logo itself is held within the history of this, the first logo drumhead. In April 1963, Ringo Starr, along with Brian Epstein, visited Drum City in London. Drum City was London’s largest drum dealer at the time and it was here that Ringo purchased his first Ludwig kit. It was a small 20” set in oyster black pearl. The deal for the new drum set was basically promotional in that Drum City was making little or no money on the transaction and trade in- Ringo’s old Premier kit. In exchange, Ivor Arbiter, Drum City’s owner, wanted the Ludwig nameon the front drum skin since he had recently started distributing the brand. This was long before drum companies routinely splashed their name across the front like they do today. In response, Epstein wanted the band’s name on the front, as well. Obviously, the Beatles’ name would have to be larger than the Ludwig sticker that Ivor wanted to use. Arbiter claims that, on the spot, with his only instruction from Epstein being to emphasize the word ‘beat’, he pulled out a piece of paper from his desk and designed a couple of crude Beatle logos. On one of them, Arbiter isolated ‘beat’ by elongating the “B” and lowering the tail of the “T”, leaving the rest of the letters symmetrically the same height. The soon-to-be world famous ‘drop-T’ design was chosen and approved by both Epstein and Starr.

This is where a gentleman named Eddie Stokes comes into the picture. Stokes was a London sign painter who worked around the corner from Drum City. On his lunch hour and in his spare time, Stokes was employed by Arbiter to paint band names on bass drum fronts. Stokes, using Arbiter’s scratched out design, hand-painted the new Beatle logo on the 20” Ludwig Weather Master drumhead below the Ludwig sticker. Credit for the official ‘drop-T’ logo goes to both Ivor Arbiter and Eddie Stokes. Ringo took possession of his new Ludwig drum kit and logo on May 12, 1963, for the taping of Thank Your Lucky Stars, a U.K. TV. talent show.

By November of that year, the Ludwig sticker started flaking and chipping away from all the pounding and transporting of the drum. So much so that by the time The Beatles finished their autumn tour on December 13th, only the letters ‘Lu’ were left. By this time John Lennon had taken to making ‘loo’ (English slang for toilet) jokes on stage whenever he introduced Ringo. This was obviously not good for Arbiter’s Ludwig promotion idea. The drum head was brought back in to Drum City to have the remaining part of the sticker chipped off and Stokes was asked to permanently hand paint the Ludwig logo back on, only this time larger.

The last time we see this logo drum head is for the Olympia Theater shows in Paris ending on February 4, 1964. This drum skin has never shown up for public auction at any of the major auction houses.

‘Drop-T’ Drum Head No. 2 - The Sullivan Head

In January 1964, preparations were being made for the Beatles first American visit. Ivor Arbiter was contacted and asked to prepare a second logo drumhead for the all-important trip. Eddie Stokes was again brought in to work his skills. This time Stokes used a 20” Remo Weather King drum skin. The Remo heads are identified by the small crown logo located at the very top of the head near the rim. Drum City was also an authorized Remo dealer and Arbiter thought he could kill two birds with one stone by promoting both Ludwig and Remo on the same drumhead. “At the time, the Beatles were huge in England and I was counting on fairly wide exposure,” says Arbiter. This time Stokes painted the 

Beatle logo much larger, stretching completely from edge to edge. He also used a 

much fatter typeface than on the previous drumhead. His faint pencil guide marks 

can still be seen on the front of the drumhead today.

It was decided that the Beatles would travel to America as light as possible. The decision was made that Ringo would travel without his drum kit. Only his snare drum and cymbals would make the trip along with the new front drum skin. A new set of drums would be purchased when they arrived in the States. The reason for this was that a second kit was going to be needed in any case. Once the Beatles returned from America, filming was going to commence on their film, A Hard Days Night. One drum kit would be needed on the film set and, since the soundtrack was going to be recorded at the same time during breaks in the schedule, a second kit would be needed at Abbey Road. The powers that be concluded it was easier to pick up the new set in America, rather than carry the old one over.

Manny’s Music Store in Manhattan, delivered the new Ludwig set to the Ed Sullivan studio in time for the 1:30pm Saturday, February 8th rehearsals. One problem- Manny’s mistakenly sent over a white marine pearl kit instead of Ringo’s familiar oyster black. By the Sunday morning dress rehearsal, Manny’s had switched for the correct color kit. Just 

before that afternoon’s taping of what would become the Beatles ”third” Sullivan Show appearance, the new logo drumhead was fitted on the front of the bass drum. This logo drum skin was used for the duration of the Beatles first American visit that included three Sullivan Show appearances, two Carnegie Hall concerts, and their American debut concert at the Washington Coliseum.

As evidenced from photos, the Sullivan logo drumhead endured 

As evidenced from photos, the Sullivan logo drumhead endured a few scuffs and scratches during its travels up and down America’s east coast. Most notably is a half moon scrape running across the “B-E” and into the “A” in Beatles. This was probably caused by laying or packing the 14” hi-hat cymbal on top of the flat lying head. The curve matches perfectly. This logo drum head, with the entire new set of drums, went back to London’s Abbey Road Studios when the band left America and the skin was not publicly seen again until being auctioned by Sotheby’s London in 1984. It is considered to be the most famous of the seven Beatle drum heads and is the only one to ever appear on a Beatles Album cover- it appears on four.

 ‘Drop-T’ Drum Head No. 3 – The “Hard Days Night” Head

After returning from America, the Beatles immediately began recording the soundtrack for A Hard Days Night. Filming for the movie would start a week and a half after returning home. The decision was then made that a brand new pristine logo drum skin would be needed for their film debut. The drumhead chosen this time would be a Ludwig Weather Master and again, the drum brand logo was hand painted. One of Stokes’ identifying characteristics for this skin is the elongated tail on the “L” in Ludwig. This time it extends well 

below the “d” and the ‘drop-T’ design is also much narrower and a little smaller than the Sullivan head. The 20” disc was mounted on Ringo’s new Sullivan drum set and head No. 2 was discarded. The kit remained in this configuration throughout the filming of the movie, the NME Poll Winners concert at Wembley, and the TV special Around the Beatles on April 28, 1964. This drumhead was then only publicly seen one more time and that was almost a full year later. 

It shows up in the Help movie scene where the Beatles are in the mock 

recording studio miming to You’re Going To Lose That Girl. This drumhead has never been offered up for auction by any of the major auction houses.

Drop-T’ Drum Head No. 4 – First American Tour Head

The Beatles took a well-deserved holiday break in May 1964 and reconvened on May 31st for a show in London at the Prince of Wales Theater. This show marked a significant change in Ringo’s on-stage appearance. That same day he took delivery of his first 22” Ludwig OBP set and, obviously, the requirement of yet another new front drumhead. Stokes went back to using a Remo Weather King head for the new larger kit. For this skin, Stokes’ font was a little more closely related to drum head No. 1 and again the Ludwig logo was hand painted on. This setup was used exclusively for all appearances from May 31, 1964, straight through to August 1, 1965, for their Blackpool Night Out U.K. TV broadcast. Actually, from this May 31st date forward, Ringo never went back to playing his two 20” drum kits- whether publicly for concert/film appearances or as far as we can determine, for recording purposes- the one exception being that previously mentioned scene from Help. The use of this new 22” set included the Netherlands and Australian tours with Jimmy Nichol sitting in for Ringo and the Beatles first full-fledged American tour. This configuration is also seen in all Help scenes (with the exception of the one mentioned) and, in addition, their European tour of June/July 1965. This drumhead has never been publicly auctioned through any of the major auction houses.

‘Drop-T’ Drum Head No. 5 – The ’65 American Tour Head

The Beatles returned to New York in August, 1965, to start their summer American tour. For this occasion, Ringo would debut his fourth and last oyster black pearl Ludwig drum set. For this new head, No. 5, they went back to a 22” Ludwig Weather Master. For the first time since logo head No. 1, a sticker was used for the Ludwig logo. The sticker was larger and thicker than the previous logos and the application was somewhat haphazard as it was put on crooked, running slightly uphill from left to right. The lettering in Beatles was not very pleasing on this one, differing from what had traditionally become the accepted logo. The lettering was fatter and much less italicized. This head/kit setup made its debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, taped on August 14, 1965, the day before their triumphant Shea Stadium show. The Sullivan show was broadcast four weeks later, the first show of the new TV season, on September 12th. The drum kit, in this form, was used throughout the 1965 American tour and into the fall, including the famous Shindig taping on October 3rd. The original ‘drop-T’ No. 5 is currently known to be in the collection of a well-known celebrity drummer who wishes to remain anonymous. A consignment resembling this drumhead has twice been entered into sales at major auction houses, most recently in Bonham’s Tokyo sale in March, 1997. This skin, however, had a silvery sheen to the head surface and it was not a Ludwig Weather Master. After consultations, the head was withdrawn prior to the auction.

‘Drop-T’ Drum Head No. 6 – The ’66 American Tour Head

On November 1st and 2nd, 1965, the Beatles went before the cameras again for another TV special. This one centered around their songwriting and was entitled The Music of Lennon & McCartney. On this night Ringo reverted back to his first 22” kit and another new logo head was broken in. Logo drumhead No. 6 was again a Ludwig Weather Master and this one was a little less opaque than its predecessors. Ringo appears to have used this drum set and logo head from this point exclusively through to Magical Mystery Tour. That is, every live and film appearance in 1966 was done with this set/head configuration. It’s also this setup that is evidenced in numerous studio photographs during the recording sessions for Sgt. Pepper throughout the first half of 1967. The skin was temporarily removed from the bass drum for the Our World live world broadcast on June 25, 1967. It should be noted that this logo head was still in use for the Our World rehearsals, but was switched just prior to broadcast. In its place for the transmission was the orange/red ‘Love’ head that you also see in the Magical Mystery Tour film, which began shooting on September 11th. By November of that year, drumhead No. 6 was back on the drum kit and ready for the Hello Goodbye promo film shot at the Saville Theater. ‘Drop-T’ No. 6 turned out to be the longest used of the seven logo skins.