The problem seems to be that in every photo you look at, there is controvertible evidence that Ringo mixed and matched his stands at will, just as he did with his later Ludwig kits. In many early photos he’s apparently using the Olympic stands with round legs and different rubber tips instead of the typical Premier T-bar leg construction. But later photos clearly show the Premier T-bar leg stands and cymbal tilters. But one thing is certain, he never used his earlier Ajax stands with any of his Premier or Ludwig kits.
The next controversy is what kind of drum heads Ringo played on this set. Remo began making USA-made Mylar plastic heads in 1960, but they didn’t take off until Ringo displayed his on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. But even if Ringo had found a UK Remo distributor back then Remo heads weren’t made in metric sizes. Back in 1960/61 calf skin heads were still common, even though Premier had begun making its own line of British-made Melanex plastic heads under the Everplay brand back in 1958. As early as 1960 the Premier catalog already stated that every set included “Everplay plastic heads fitted to all snare drums unless otherwise specified.” And since we know his set had a new snare model and a new finish, it’s almost certain that the set was purchased brand new.
But Tam Rankin points out what appears to be the definitive proof in the photos from Ringo’s early Beatles appearances. “I am positive they were calf heads. Look at the amount of flesh hoop sticking out under the die-cast hoops. The flesh hoops on plastic heads would not show like that. It is possible that Ringo tried plastic heads so maybe there was a time they had Everplays. But all the photos I’ve seen suggest calf.”
The most overlooked part of the Premier set is shown in these two rare photos of Ringo playing at Birkenhead in late 1963. They show a pair of matching root beer swirl Premier Model 521 six and eight inch bongos mounted on the bass drum. Ringo used matching bongos regularly with earlier kits, but while this photo proves he owned them, the matching bongos were rarely seen with the Premier kit. This may be the hardest item for any collector to find for an authentic Premier kit reproduction.
