Keith Moon’s Drumkits: 1970–1971: Zickos Drums

1970–1971: Zickos Drums details

Keith bought a transparent acrylic drumkit from Zickos drum company, during The Who’s 1970 U.S. tour, before a show in Kansas City on July 2. Several weeks later, Moon ordered one more drumkit. Zickos had only been in business in less than a year, and Keith was the second drummer to order a kit, so Zickos didn’t have all of their own hardware available. Zickos have reported that some of the hardware used was probably Sonor and Camco in addition to Zickos’ own.

In 1971, Keith ordered at least two (and maybe three or more) Zickos drum sets, each of which consisted of:

• Two 22″-diameter × 18″-deep bass drums
• Two 18″-diameter × 18″-deep floor toms
• Two 18″-diameter × 16″-deep floor toms
• Two 14″-diameter × 10″-deep rack toms (tom tom)
• And one 14″-diameter × 7″-deep rack tom (tom tom)
• One 14″ × 7″ snare

All were in clear untinted acrylic and had either Zickos hardware or perhaps some Camco or Sonor hardware as well.

Keith’s intention was to use the drumkits live, but he thought they had a poor sound … to his standards anyway.

According to The Who Concert File by Joe McMichael and ‘Irish’ Jack Lyons:

Moon played his Zickos kit on Oct. 6 1970, Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, Wales. This was the first gig on the UK tour.

Review excerpt from South Wales Echo (October 10) by Neil Hughes.

Moon “bashed away for nearly two hours on an incredible set of completely transparent drums, stopping only to make occasional wisecracks to the audience or the group”.

Townshend “in a white jumpsuit”, Entwistle “sported his joke-shop skeleton outfit”.

It is very possible that Moon used the Zickos kit on some of the following dates on the tour, though this has not been confirmed.

Otherwise, his Zickos kits were then used for mimed television performances, such as the BBC1’s Top Of The Pops Into ’71 New Year’s Eve special on 30 Dec., 1970.

The Who again appeared on Top Of The Pops in summer 1971 to promote Who’s Next where they mimed to Won’t Get Fooled Again (single edit) and Moon returned with his Zickos kit. On this show an extra floor tom was used from his second kit. (For a clip of Keith in action on this kit, see The Who perform Won’t Get Fooled Again on Top of The Pops, 1971 (Real Media), on the BBC’s Artist Profiles.)

As far as the whereabouts of this kit, a photo of John’s home studio appears to show this kit in use there, so it is assumed Keith gave the kit to John.

Resources and Information

Contributors:

Many thanks to the following, who have made this page possible:

• Martin Forsbom (forsbom@gmail.com)
• Brad Rodgers at whocollection.com.
• Huw Owens (huw.owens@ntlworld.com)

Additional information:

• Brad Rodgers at whocollection.com.
• David Brewis at Rock Stars Guitars, for pictures of Moon’s drumsticks, timbales, claves and drumheads.
• Tam Rankin at vintprem.moonfruit.com for information on vintage Premier drums.

Bibliography:

• Drums & Drumming magazine, October/November 1989.
• Modern Drummer, September 2003.
• Moon, the Life and Death of a Rock Legend, by Tony Fletcher. 1999.

Manufacturers’ sites

• Premier Drums: premier-percussion.com
• Ludwig Drums: ludwig-drums.com
• Paiste Cymbals: paiste.com
• Zildjian Cymbals: zildjian.com
• Slingerland Drums: slingerland.com (now owned by Gibson)
• Vistalites Drums: vistalites.com
• Zickos Drums: zickosdrums.com