Even the vintage Simmons drums made it into Web 2.0. For those who do not know who I am and what I am doing here just a few words:
Simmons Electronic Drums are the mother of all electronic drums and conquered the stages and Top Of The Pops in the early eighties. Only to mention some bands and drummers: Phil Collins, Paul Young, Re-Flex, Herwig Mitteregger, The Cars, David Bowie, Kajagoogoo, Spandau Ballet and many more…. Even non-drummers could easily recognize the drum pads by their significant hexagonal shape. The company founder, Mr. Dave Simmons developed countless innovative features on electronic drums, nevertheless the company was forced to close in 1995 after years of raugh competion. Since then E-Drums are boring (yes, all) 😉
My target is to collect, restore and archive that great vintage gear and of course to go out and show it. Pictures and information about all of my vintage gear is organized on http://www.simmonsmuseum.com. There you will also find almost any manual, flyers, adds and catalogues from that time. Some demo videos are placed on youtube
Since 2006 new “Simmons drums” appear in several music stores. These “Simmons” drums have nothing to do with the old British “Simmons Electronic Drums” factory from St. Albans (GB). On the contrary US retail chain “Guitar Center” undertook the name rights. Since then cheap chinese mass ware E-Drum sets are labeled “Simmons”. If you buy one of those expecting to get a piece of pop history, you have been fooled!
However… old Simmons drums still have a lot of fans and I am proud and happy that I got to know many of them through my site over the years. I am also proud and happy that some former employees of of the Simmons company got in touch with me talking about the “happy times”.
Finally I would like to thank you guys out there for all the great feedback I received so far. I will try to keep you up-to-date about upcoming events. And I can tell you there will be some!
Thanks for reading