But Roger, that is what I said. The drums were upgraded from Olympic clones ,when Boosey and Hawkes took over the distribution. I just sold a 3 piece Gold Sparkle mid 60's Beverley kit 14x5,12(11 7/8)x8,20x12, with a gold circular badge around the vent. In all ways it is identical to an Olympic Blue Satin Swirl kit I sold 6 years ago but had those ugly fluted lugs(28 lugs on all 3 drums combined) that resemble mid-60's Vauxhall door handles. The wrap looks like it was hammered by a surplus Italian P.O.W. cymbal smith displaced from the Zyn workshop.Even the stands were the same as Olympic(which had nice wrap,by the way), except there was a Beverley footboard that looked like a fish and some fancy(?) design work,probably by a laid off Ford Cortina toolroom apprentice . Della-Porta had really thrown the brand to the dogs and it was rescued ,when B&H(who never ever made a crappy drum) began marketing them(if only they had changed the lugs).

I do have pre Della-Porta Beverley drums,with thin 3 ply Mahogany shells,(Honduran---i.e. real mahogany, not that Luan recreation room panelling) ,diecast hoops,16 elegant lugs,4 inch cast strainer arm and a beautiful sound and response, so I have seen the decline in Beverley drums into the 60's first hand. The 50's Beverley's were professional drums,the 60's Beverley's were entry level drums,the 70's Beverley's were again professional drums.

Cool baby!

Beverley were never "Olympic clones", they were (successfully) marketed worldwide as a pro range and sold very well as such.

Well, if you look at the post ----60's ? Beverley Bass and Tom, that you have actually posted on ; what do you see? ----change the lugs and you have 2 Olympic drums-----even down to the 5 lug ,stamped,triple flange hoop, the funny little tom mount with no vertical adjustment, a 6 lug per head bass drum,with key adjustment!---the matching snare had 6 lugs per head, a flimsey little stamped metal(Olympic) throwoff and an entry level stand. The hihat stand has thin stamped steel legs,has difficulty rebounding anything but the lightest cymbal(it was designed for Zyns or Kruts(very light) and has a bottom cymbal seat that looks like it came out of a doll house. There are no mufflers in any of the drums.As a nice little entry level kit(they have , just as the Olympics did---standard Premier shells), they work but these mid 60's models were anything but professional.

So on the basis of this early kit which bears some similarities you have detailed to later Olympics, we must therefore conclude that Beverley Drums were Olympic clones?

no conclusions at all but in the mid to late sixties, I don't see any attempt by the owner of Beverley to distinguish the brand above entry level.Even though,the shells were the same in all of the Premier brands, it would make no business sense to have a competing brand in the marketplace against Premier itself. Beverley had an established dealer network that Premier wanted to access(they were major suppliers of music stands) and by letting Beverley slide , the opportunity existed to enter Premier into the limelight as the elite drum with these dealers. If Della-Porta wanted to keep Beverley as an elite brand ,why did they drop the diecast hoops and replace them with the rather flimsey Olympic stamped hoops. Only when Boosey&Hawkes quit did the opportunity arise to reinvent Beverley as a premium brand,because the former Ajax dealers would have nothing less. All of a sudden Beverley, the football of English drums had a new life amongst discriminating dealers-----some of who previously were excluded by and large from Premiers grasp. Better grab them before Hayman or Shaftesbury. One can't forget that dealers often have sweet deals from certain distributors/mfg. and I'm sure Boosey&Hawkes were not above this.

Hello.

I would like to mention a small correction - forgive me if I misread.

Although today we know die cast hoops are higher quality, they were regarded as old fashioned in the 60's and all the brands wanted to look more American by 1970.

It isn't correct to say that flanged hoops were marketed automatically on lower level drums in the 60's, quite the opposite.

Even the 1957 hot snap Autocrat model had triple flanged hoops, to copy the little gretsch. Then English Rogers in 61, by 69 Ajax nu sound and Dallas hayman, and rm in 71 with Shaftesbury. During this time 8 lug and 6 lug die cast hoops were more associated with the mid range brands and stick choppers with clips fitted to the rubbish.

Sadly, with the move to triple flanged hoops & single ended lugs on the 12" they all chose the mid range shells to fit them on, meaning all the quality of uk drums was gone. Except premier.