{"id":1844,"date":"2019-04-14T14:50:32","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T13:50:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/?p=1844"},"modified":"2019-07-18T11:33:10","modified_gmt":"2019-07-18T10:33:10","slug":"roger-taylors-drums-and-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedrumdoctor.net\/roger-taylors-drums-and-me","title":{"rendered":"Roger Taylor\u2019s Drums \u2013 and me!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How I got closer to the Queen drummer\u2019s gear<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Roger-Taylor-book-cover\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The internet\u2019s a funny old thing, a double-edged sword at the best of times. One minute you can be finding all sorts of information about stuff you didn\u2019t know existed, the next arguing with somebody on the other side of the world you have never met. The latter is something I steer clear of these days, aided by my shunning of all things Social Media, but the former can produce the most unexpected and fulfilling experiences and truly enrich your life in the on-line world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was sometime in 2015 when I received an email via the contact page on this site, from an Italian calling himself Dario \u2018Blues\u2019 Di Nario. It turned out he had stumbled across my page on Roger Taylor<\/a> where I describe his influence on me during my early teenage years. Dario was keen to communicate with me about all things Taylor because he had a very special project he needed to complete, one of a most highly<\/em> classified nature. It turned out, he was in the middle of producing a book<\/a> (the first<\/em> and only<\/em> book of its kind) detailing every drum set ever used by Taylor, from the pre-Queen days right up to the present day. With so little information in the public domain about Taylor\u2019s gear, I knew this was going to be a tall order, but I was more than happy to assist in whatever way I could. It just so happened, the timing of Dario\u2019s contact coincided with me commencing night school to learn Italian, so this was definitely a good omen in the alignment of the stars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first hurdle for Dario was putting his trust in me so I could see the current status of the project. Seeing as this book would be the first ever written on the subject and with so much information already collected, he had to be very careful about who he shared it with in case I, or anyone else turned out to be plagiarists with designs on making their own book! I had no such intentions and eventually he shared with me what he had achieved, so far. What he sent to me, even in its rough format, I could never have envisaged, not in my wildest dreams\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, the level of detail afforded to the descriptions of the drum set components was nothing short of microscopic. To gather this sort of information with so little of it freely available to draw from, must have been a monumental task and one I certainly would not have had the patience to undertake. As well as being a work of forensic research, this was a dedicated labour of love or as they say in Italy, \u201cun lavorare d\u2019amore\u201d. Secondly, the research Dario had completed on the textual and photographic sides of the story was equally as painstaking in detail. It took me very little time to realise I was dealing with a perfectionist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Dario had asked me not to show or share the book with anyone, I knew I could show it to my boss (Andy Dwyer) who had shared many other secrets with me from the high profile drum world and could be trusted implicitly not to let the cat from out of the bag (I\u2019m sure there is an Italian idiom for that phrase!) Andy was as jaw-dropped as me at the level of detail involved and fully understood the absolute need to keep it confidential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So where did I fit into all this? My knowledge of Taylor was based upon a brief period as a teenager when I received my first drum kit. Dario had already cultivated positive contacts within the worldwide Queen fan club network as well as Brian May, Roger\u2019s long-time Drum tech, Chris \u2018Crystal\u2019 Taylor and eventually, the man himself; so what could I possibly<\/em> bring to the table?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Dario speaks good English and can write enough to communicate extremely well with English speaking people, it would be a tall order for him to write the book’s text to the standard required for general publication. So having graciously put his trust in me not to publicise the project, he asked me to become his Latinesque-English-to-proper-English editor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Learn a foreign language and improve your English!<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Having become involved with this project during my first year learning Italian, it was interesting to discover the differences in the way sentences are constructed between the two languages. Anyone familiar with the Star Wars films will know how the character (Master) Yoda speaks, in jumbled sentences that somehow make sense once the brain has rearranged them. Well, this is a near identical scenario when thinking in English to construct sentences in Italian, which means the translation from Italian to English by an Italian, can often read as ‘Yoda speak’! So much of my work was putting Dario’s words into something more familiar for an English speaking audience. However, I felt strongly about keeping his interpretation as close to the passion he has about his subject matter, so it was important not to over Anglicise his words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Due to my low-achieving Secondary Modern school education of the late 1970s, English grammar was never taught to students of my level in any great depth. The massive eye opener for me during this experience – whilst continuing to study Italian throughout the project – has been how much I have learned about the grammar in my own language. If you want to learn about English grammar, then learn a foreign language!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finishing line (\u2018finire\u2019: to finish<\/em>)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Working sporadically with Dario via email for many months, involving a seemingly never-ending stream of new information, edits, photographs and copyright headaches, Dario finally got his work to print during the final quarter of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a limited run of 1000 copies and all profits being donated to his chosen charities, Dario produced a book with the level of detail in the subject matter I have never seen in any similar publication of its type over the last 30+ years. If a book like this had been available in the 1980s, it would have been like gold dust to a fledgling drummer such as myself. Having idolised Roger Taylor at a pivotal point in my early development, this book would have provided answers to the mystique surrounding the equipment of a personal drumming idol, and the pinnacle of what I dreamed of becoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n