Its that time again, and it seems to come quicker every year!
Those who know me, know that I’m not a big user of social media and I rarely often update the blog/posts section of the site. This is primarily because I generally don’t have the time to do this sort of thing alongside all the restorations/repairs/customisations , running of the shop emails/phone/customers, studio/practice space, backline and recording etc. Now that has all ended for the year, I can have a bit of time to give a bit of a ‘yearly recap’ of things here at Drumattic.
This year marks the first full year that I have been in the Frome premises. As some of you may know, this move was a massive slog in almost every sense, with a huge amount of work having to be undertaken for a long time for it to be at its current stage. Over the past few months the last bits have been completed/finalised, so things are starting to get ‘back to normal’. This premises move has been a heck of a lot of time and effort, but is now starting to look and feel complete. Like a lot of people and businesses, it has been quite difficult financially at times, with constant increasing prices of everything it takes to run a business…
As usual the shop is filled with goodies. From the vintage and desirable to the weird and whacky, there has been loads of cool stuff come through this year, its a pleasure to be able to re-home all of this awesome gear to people who appreciate it and will use it for years to come. I know a lot of this stuff ends up having second lives. Some of it ending up in amazing studios and some going out to tour the world.
Its so hard to pick/remember, but a few of my favourite items to come through the shop this year have been… A 1950s Zildjian K Constantinople 21″ ride, Sonor 80s Signature series 14 x 8″ snare, Yamaha Al Foster Hipgig snr, mint condition 6 piece Premier Resonator and countless small weird and wonderful percussion items. I’ve also started stocking some cool new items over the year, such as Worldmax snares and Bill Sanders practice pads.
A big thank you to all who visit the shop, online and in person, your support is truly appreciated.
The workshop has been incredibly busy this year, I have lost count of the amount of drums/kits I have repaired, restored, customised, rewrapped, chopped down and the list goes on. Some of these has been very enjoyable to work on, others have been very testing and time consuming….thus can often be the nature of vintage restoration and repair.
As usual, I’ve had the opportunity to work on some fantastic drums and kits for people over the last year. Lots of which has been/is being used on tours and in studios, which is always great to see and hear about. There has been so much stuff come through from different people, some big jobs and some small.
Everyone who uses me for their restoration/repair/tech needs is greatly appreciated, I know you put a lot of trust in me when working with your precious drums.
My most notable work this year would include restoration work for the National Trust/Paul McCartney’s childhood Liverpool house, some ethnic drum repairs for Peter Gabriel and some of my custom made drums/percussion being heavily used on a new Tom Jones Album.
The backline and hire kits have seen a good amount of use this year, mostly for recording purposes. From home recordings to massive studio recordings for big film scores.
Some of the backline gear has changed slightly. Some has left and some has arrived. The best thing to arrive on the backline this year is a Carlton 1930s Outfit, complete with 28″ bass, 2 x toms, snare, console and temple blocks! This has already seen quite a bit of recording and a little bit of photography.
One of the most exciting things to happen this year was the competition of the practice room at the back of the shop. If you read my other post, you may remember the nearly year long build this took to complete this room.
The room has been ready since August, and has already seen loads of use already. I have hosted two amazing and sold out masterclasses. One with A J Rousell and one with Rob Brian (a big thank you to all who came). It has also been used a lot for recording, pre tour rehearsals, practice, one to one teaching and a couple of photos/videos.
This will all continue more so in the new year. I will also hopefully be hosting some more intimate masterclasses there, with old and new faces 🙂 so please keep an eye on the website/socials to be the first to see these and book tickets.
2024 will be the 10 year anniversary of me registering Drumattic as a business and deciding to do this as a (more than) full time job. I have a few custom anniversary snares that will be for sale, and I’m sure I will have some sort of event at the shop later in the year.
I think that about covers most areas of the business in a small yearly recap. My own personal life has been slightly overshadowed this year by the amount of work and the finishing of the studio/premises etc. Doing both alongside each other have resulted in some very long days and weeks. Despite this, I have managed to complete and release several singles and albums under my artist name ‘Stoned Lemur’. Feel free to give it a listen on Spotify or whatever platform you use. Hopefully there will be more to come in the new year.
I feel I have not seen my partner as much as I would like to. Though she has been busy completing and graduating her masters with a distinction, working multiple jobs and starting a women’s group…she still finds time to help me at Simon Johns Vintage Drum Show. I am immensely proud of her.
The same goes for my family and friends, who I don’t feel I have seen enough of over the past year. It gets hard. Though I know I have all your support, and thank you so much for that.
I will be closing over Christmas etc for a good break, and to try and catch up with some friends and family.
Online orders will not ship until after the 6th of Jan, the physical shop will reopen on the 11th. Its unlikely that I will look at/answer emails. Its certain I will not answer the phone, as it lives at work.
Thank you all for your support with everything that I do. I hope you all have a great holiday, whatever you are doing, I hope you get to spend it with some loved ones.
Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year
Tristan