How did the Beatles ‘Drop-T’ logo come about?
The second photo shows Ringo’s new Ludwig kit, which was delivered to the studios on the same day.
Although it was never shown on The Beatles’ original UK albums, it was a familiar sight throughout the group’s years and was registered as a trademark by Apple Corps.
The drop-T logo came about almost by accident. In April 1963, Ringo and Brian Epstein entered a store called Drum City to find a replacement for Ringo’s Premier kit.
“I had a phone call from the shop to say that someone called Brian Epstein was there with a drummer,” said store owner Ivan Arbiter.
“Here was this drummer, Ringo, Schmingo, whatever his name was. At that time I certainly hadn’t heard of the Beatles. Every band was going to be big in those days!”
At first they asked for an all-black kit, but Ringo changed his mind after seeing a swatch of Ludwig’s new oyster black pearl finish on Arbiter’s desk. When told that it was only available on Ludwig drums, his mind was made up.
“That’s what I want,” Ringo told Arbiter, who fortunately had a £238 Ludwig Downbeat kit with the finish in stock.
Epstein didn’t want to pay for the drums, but Arbiter refused to let him have them for nothing. They negotiated, and eventually Arbiter agreed to trade the drums in return for his battered old Premier kit.
Arbiter told Epstein he wanted Ludwig’s name to appear on the bass drum head, as he’d recently begun a distribution deal with the company. Epstein agreed, but asked for The Beatles’ name on it too.
On the spot, Arbiter designed the famous drop-T logo, hastily sketched onto a scrap of paper. The capital B and dropped T were to emphasize the word ‘beat’. Drum City was paid £5 for arranging the artwork, which was painted onto the drum head by a local sign writer.
On May 12, 1963 Ringo took delivery of his new Ludwig kit. The drums, along with new Paiste cymbals, were driven to Alpha Television Studios in Birmingham, where The Beatles were appearing on Thank Your Lucky Stars.
The kit had a 20 inch bass drum, 12×8 tom-tom, 14×14 floor tom, and a non-standard Ludwig Jazz Festival wooden snare.
“I took his old Premier drum kit from him and brought it back to the store,” said Arbiter.
“We renovated it in our workshop, and then sold it. I ripped off the bit of material from the bass drum head where he’d handwritten the Beatles’ name and threw it away. It was a terrible drum kit. It wasn’t old: he’d only had it six months or a year. But it was a brown finish, one of the worst finishes that Premier ever did… I don’t know why he got it in the first place, really. No wonder he wanted to change it. Anyway, we cleaned it up and sold it off the same week – and very, very cheaply. It would most likely be a collector’s item if we still had it today.”
At the end of 1963 the Ludwig sticker on the bass head was flaking away from all the carrying from show to show. It was taken back to Drum City, where the Ludwig logo was repainted, slightly larger than before.
This original drum head was last seen in public at the Beatles’ 1964 run of appearances at Paris’ Olympia Theatre. Ringo sold the kit at auction in 2015 and it was purchased by Jim Irsay, owner of the Indianapolis Colts NFL team.
Abbey Road Tribute
Thank you to Boris for this story and these rare photos.
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