All Simmons pads provide the classic hexagonal shape (exceptions: The Colman Saunders “Head Kit” and the prototype bat- and heart-shaped kits). Really all? Almost… there is one particular kit which was named the “lunchbox kit”. Seb Shelton, former drummer of Dexy’s Midnight Runners was working for the British magazine “Sounds” when he met Dave Simmons in his garden shed where Dave assembled the very first Musicaid kits back in early 1981/late 1980. He got SDSV #0004 with a set of the solid wood pads. Some time later he complained that there were 4 people necessary to move the heavy bassdrum on and off stage. So Dave Simmons took some parts and assembled a set of pads which were … quadrangular! The backside shells are ordinary plastic boxes, painted black and screwed to the wooden surface. Technically these pads are just the same as the wooden pads: speakers as trigger, the pearl tom mounts, even the aluminium profile rims have been simply rapped around this construction. Really no beauties but at least light and portable. Apart from one single TV show this kit has never been used and was about to be thrown away many many times in the past (so was the brain!). However I am lucky to have saved those pads from the electronic waste. Although Dave Simmons gainsays that it was him who did those pads I have no doubt about the truth of Seb’s story. All parts, the style of assembling… yes, it’s a Simmons :
A nice opportunity for a one-day trip to London and … St. Albans…
Some impressions from the journey:
3:20a.m. not a nice time to wake up
6:30a.m. somewhere in Belgium
me
7:45 boarding Eurotunnel
England – no wonder…
9:00 the fog has gone. I am a bit early. A nice opportunity to visit…
… [url=’http://blog.simmonsmuseum.com/?p=291′]St. Albans[/url] vorbeifahren :-)))))))
9:20 mission accomplished
The employee’s pub – still standing
Abbey Mill: The womb of the SDSV
10:30: London. Seb Shelton and his SDSV #0004 (bought by someone else but still not delivered)
…my Lunchbox Pads
12:00 On my way back home. The compulsary picture of a doubledecker bus
Good night…