This one is not about the frozen chocolate concoction so sorry in advance. (??? – Google It)
I have a collection of 18 pairs of vintage drum sticks from my 7 years as a snare drummer. I’ve occasionally pulled them out and had a go at playing again but it reaffirmed that those days are way past.
But what the hell they may one day make great wall art!
You’d think that a stick is a stick right? In reality there is a constant battle to find a stick that has the right combination of performance, feel, strength and tone. (Note to self – I just re read that and it has a kind of porn-esque feel to it. Drumsticks are boring – leave it in.)
You can easily see which ones I preferred to use as they don’t have much in the way of varnish left on them. That could be because from time to time we used them as impromptu stir sticks but more likely it was from hours and hours of practice and performing.
Funny thing is that 40 plus years later I can remember when I got each one, when I used them and who it was from. A few of them are prototypes that were provided to us for feedback – it’s amazing to me that there was a cottage industry trying to come up with the next sure thing, drumstick wise that is.
Alex Connell
Of all the sticks I used my favorites were from a snare drummer named Alex Connell. Alex was a Strathclyde Police Officer and the lead drummer of the Police Pipe Band. I met first met him when I attended a Sheridan College drumming and piping school in 1977. It was there that he gave me my first set of his branded sticks to try. He arranged to get me two others while performing at the Scottish World Festival in Toronto.
I was able to meet up with Alex during my one and only trip to Scotland when my wife June’s family drove us to the Cowal Highland Gathering.
Side story alert – I had wanted to meet in Glasgow but his only day off coincided with a Celtics – Rangers game and subsequent riot.
As tourists that didn’t know any better, we went out that night and watched as the oposing fans tried to kill each other. The most amazing sight was of two double decker buses headed in opposite directions. They briefly stopped and fans from the opposing teams staged a fistfight hanging between the busses from the upper level. The buses pulled away and amazingly no one fell to the ground. No wonder he took the night off.
Back to Cowal.
We had been in Calgary for 5 years by then. I was able to meet and hang out with old friends from the Toronto Police Band and of course Alex. The drive back to Glasgow seemed much shorter because of the time spent socializing with my friends. I recently saw that Alex died in 2019 at the age of 83.
There are quite a few Alex Duthart sticks as well. Considered the grandfather of modern pipe band drumming, he taught my first instructor and lead drummer Andy Baillie. I met Duthart once at the Ottawa games around 1975.
See what I mean though, there are memories in the drumsticks and that’s why I still have them.