David,

I am from Detroit too, I was a teenager in 1973, in fact I was 16/17 and that was a wild time, for me at least. My first show was Alice Cooper @ Cobo 1972 when School's Out came out - it was May 30 or 31. Supporting bands were Wishbone Ash & Ursa Major (Dick Wagner from the Frost, Greg Arama from the Amboy Dukes and Ricky Mangone? on drums).

Those kits were pretty big rocker kits, I always remember Ursa Major song Sinner and the amazing drum playing. But my all time favorite band was the Stooges and Raw Power came out in 1973. Scott Asheton and company - Iggy, Ron, James Williamson, Scott Thurston all got the bottles tossed at them and were forced off the stage at the Michigan Palace 1974 (last show), it was horrible from a musical point of view, but it was a great show! Certain elements of the crowd vs. Iggy / The Stooges.

Anyway I remember Scott Asheton playing with Sonics Rendezvous @ the 2nd Chance in Ann Arbor 1977 - and he had (as I remember it) this great looking Silver Sparkle kit - it could have been WMP but I am pretty sure it was Sliver Sparkle, and it was not one of those big rock kits, it was a basic 4 piece...which I love. In fact when I saw the Stooges reunion show at what is DTE he had a Ludwig 3 piece. NO FLOOR TOM just a Bass, 13" & snare. He is a stripped down basic drummer and I love that stuff. I think it was a green sparkle kit.

Anyway, I used your post to relive some cool times. Never paid alot of attention to the kits, except that Scott Asheton's drums stood out to me when he played with Sonics Rendezvous. I for one am into the late 50's to mid 60's finishes and I love Champagne & Gold Sparkle, and the cool Mardi Gras, Fiesta confetti type finishes, the 22-13-16 sizes with the matching snares.

Mike

I was a teenager in 1973 (actually started playing in '73 and I was totally obsessed with drums - still am actually). Pearls were definitely out by then and looked like a sad relic of a bygone age.

Sparkles were definitely around in large supply (particularly silver). Depending on where you lived (I was in Australia) you had glamrock happening and this was part of the whole kit and caboodle. You were also starting to see chrome finishes, Vistalites and there were a lot of gold and silver finishes (no idea what they were called but Hayman's parallel stripey gold finish was not untypical).

And there were a lot of pretty boring plain block colours like black and white (Asheton's Stooges kit was a black Rogers from memory) but metallic mid-blues were pretty popular then as well. I can also remember some pretty flashy kaleidoscope mirror finishes and tiger's eye type stuff as well and the start of a revival in natural finishes that really become dominant a couple of years later.

In short, pretty much everything except pearls.

I would like one sheet of Red Wine Ripple that would match my Rogers kit.

my god, somebody actually remembers the Amboy Dukes !!

rickfatannie,

Yes I do remember the Dukes, although when I saw them it was more Ted Nugent's band.