Premier Drums

Premier has been making drums in England since 1922, which makes it the oldest name in British drumming and, for a long stretch of the last century, the sound of British rock. Keith Moon played Premier through the years that made him famous, and Phil Collins was behind a Premier kit for the early Genesis records — the same lineage that put Moon's own white and cream Premier into the hands of a young Zak Starkey as his first kit.

The company today is a smaller operation than it was in its 1970s pomp, and it has spent recent years quietly filling its catalogue back out rather than shouting about it. The new Artist Octobans and the maple and nylon rods both turned up via an Instagram post and nothing else — no press release, no launch video. We cover them as they appear, which is what the news below is.