Memories…
When you experience the good things in life and you connect that in your subconscious with places or with music or practically anything.
I'm sitting on our flight to South Africa for the third leg of this world tour.
When you have time for your own and get the time to think, I was reflecting over what made me motivated to do what I do.
First of all I am blessed with great colleagues, when we got picked up I was genuine happy to see them.
They become your second family for a period of your life, one live 24/7 with them.
When quickly and with great new energy adjusted back in tour mode after 2 weeks off with the flu and some other nice work,
also with great people I started to think of what might be worth to remember.
Well a whole lot of things I can say!
Since thins is not about my life I shall tell you what connects this with Yamaha.
The music, once in every 4th year I reconnect with music in a joyful way. I can really understand what motivates me and other restless souls.
The music is memories for me, I put my iPod on shuffle by mistake and that started my mind.
When the iPod came to Lisa Miskovsky I travelled 10 years back in time in no time!
I was back on stage with Lisa as support act for Bryan Adams German and Scandinavian tour.
And I clearly remember Micky Kurrys White Yamaha kit [with small sparkles] 24" Kick and 10" rack tom and 16" floor tom.
And well polished Zildjian cymbals [so well there was no logo left] I was impressed by that, and thought it was so good looking and the front head on the kick was white with a Yamaha logo in a different kind of white. A small notice is that he is or was a endorser of our swedish drum stick company Wincent.
Then there was a newer, not memory but I would call it motivation, the inflight entertainment system on the flight showed a super cool film with Beyoncé called I'am…World Tour. The girls in her band kicks big ass, or: booty! Man they are cool as h**l, the drummers, yes two sure can play.
It just smattering in a cool kind of american gospel groove. Like the good [often black] drummers with hip hop acts. that is motivating to see!
The documentary/Live concert got my motivation to spin, to see a person so passionate and god given talent. And the eager for perfection.
When we where in Buenos Aires I had the opportunity to go visit my colleague Sam O'Sullivan, drum tech and backline crew chief with the mighty U2. They are still on the 360° Tour.
He welcomed me and our Light designer with warm arms.
After first meeting up with our Swedish light tech friend Anders and look at the basics of the huge stage Sam picked us up and brought us up on stage and into the little tent over the drums [because of the rain and support act]
There he told us about what Larry Mullen Jr uses, the color of his kit was very similar to Mickys white sparkle. It was off course custom made for Larry. He uses Yamaha PHX 24" Kick 14"x10" Rack tom, 16"x16" Floor tom 14"x6.5", Ludwig Snare, plus some extras like a 10" side snare without snares for Where The Streets Have No Name. and another floor tom on his left With Or Without You. And some bongos and a djembe.
It was fun to see that we both made about the same small custom things to the kit. Like changing some special screws etc.
For the Per Gessle solo tour Party Crasher in 2009 I decided to change Pelle Alsings whole hardware setup. Which is still with us.
He has always used the rack toms mounted on the kick drum but I went for a solution with the cymbal and rack tom from one stand. WS865A
Looks like this with us:
First he was sceptic but he gave it a try and like I told him he would not notice any difference. Since the tom mount holder in the bass drum is not used I took one short drumkey bullet and sealed that hole with it.
I put on the CH750 cymbal boom arm to get the cymbal in right position. On all cymbal stands used the wing nut is changed from the new small one back to the bigger more classic Yamaha nut. PWN8A they can be ordered as a spare part. Sam did the same thing to Larrys kit…
For Hi hat we chose HS1200 old model, a regular stand with 3 legs for stability. And the same kind of foot pedal for the kick so it's not different on the right and left foot, even if there has released new pedals we stay with this to have the same on left and right foot, it is a FP9500D Old model. The bass beater is a Orange Danmar felt beater
The stool is a DS840
Snare stand is the SS950, the old version with the holder for the basket coming out from the side. This keeps the hight of the stand down 2 inches.
Ride cymbal stand is a CS865 with a boom from a CH755
Same with the last cymbal stand but with a boom from a CH750
CS865
CH750
CH755
The booms are changed because the original is to long and it does not look good.
And since I wanted to go for the classic Yamaha look it's the cymbal holder that is round and center positioned.
The stands was delivered with the new cymbalholders but I don't think they look too good. Why change a winning concept?
Samara | Russia
Montevideo | Uruguay
The older looking cymbal wing nut.
Pelle during Sound check in Uruguay, the warmest day of this tour so far.
The silver wrapping is heat protection for the drums when not being played.
Rock It Cargo take care of our transports during the tour.
The Hardware during set up.
I'm also concerned about the quality of the metal in all NEW hardware, we got some new pedals to try out but they did not feel good and missed the spikes, the quick release was also removed. Tried to change the parts between models but the did not match, I tear both the old and new apart i molecules and tried everything. Did not get it to work.
The Oak Custom floor tom is delivered with drumkey bolts unlike the Absolute and PHX so these had to be changed to U0123310 for quicker tare down.
On Pelles left there is a custom made table for setlist, metronome, inear, lamp and a fan underneath.
The drum carpet is special ordered with extra thick rubber and heavy duty quality for the drums not to move.
All marks are painted onto the carpet. I do not need to use anchors or other extras. The Yamaha hardware is one of the best on the market!
Except the face that it does not come with memory locks!!! Thats a BIG no-no for any manufacturer, it should ALWAYS be memory locks from bottom to top where ever you can adjust the stand. Only DW have a routine for this thing. from foot to all heights to boom and even an TECH LOCK! for the angel on the cymbal holder. That's respect.
We are having good times out on the road, or more like in the air.
The venues are about 7-14.000 seaters, to be compared with any big indoor ice hall like the Globe in Stockholm.
They are all sold out and it's great fun! Here in Cape Town we are doing 3 shows and in Johannesburg 4 shows.
Talk soon again!
/ Micke | Cape Town | South Africa | 2011 05 07 |
