Ed Cassidy's drum kit (drummers, please help)

I'm a huge Spirit fan, and have always been fascinated by Ed's drum kit. I took drum lessons briefly, but never had my own kit, or learned many specifics about drum kit set-ups. I've never seen a kit like Ed's; I checked out Drummer World and another drum forum, and couldn't find a detailed description. It looks like Ed had 2 side mounted bass drums (although I've read references to timpani), plus a regular floor bass drum. Can anyone here give me insight about his kit and the possible advantages of it? Many thanks (and sorry if my wording is lame)!

 

From what I can gather, he set the two mounted bass drums up for visual effect but did use them musically. The only real advantage was probably having big drums that looked cool and went boom.

Oddly enough, another guy who does this is AC/DC's Chris Slade, who obviously shared hair care tips with Ed.

 

Thank you! I never noticed this with Slade...have to check it out.

 

for those who are not familiar...

 

Thanks for your reply & the video!

 

I don't think he does it all the time, but it seems to be his AC/DC tour setup.

 

Wow-thanks! I have an AC/DC Live at Donnington (sp) dvd- have to take a look!

 

Hmmm, but have you ever seen them in the same room together?

 

The drummer for Bob Seger System (Pep Perrine?) used to do this in the early days too--with seemingly homemade horns attached which direct the sound to the front (and these predate North drums which had a similar design by a number of years).

 

Hi KeyXVII, Ed Cassidy's look to be Concert/Orchestral bass drums in the area of 34/36" around on tilting stands. Chris Slade's look to be smaller sizes, like you'd have as a kick drum on a normal kit.
Neil Peart used two Tama "gong" drums, which is like these but have a head that's 2" bigger than the shell. As for Pep, they look like floor toms, or possibly 20" kicks with some HVAC duct for "added projection". Veeery eentreshting.

 

Thanks, Mike Ga. Now I'm confused in re: gong drums. Here's an excerpt from Ed's obit in Modern Drummer:...". With the band, Cassidy used big drums in unusual configurations, employing tilted bass drums on the sides of his kit, like gong drums." <snip>
Ed Cassidy of Spirit Passes Away at 89 | Modern Drummer Magazine
So is the reference to gong drums just referring to their placement? I'll have to check out some Rush on youtube (Peart's kit's so huge it'll be a miracle if I can see the gong drums). Thanks again!
Edited to add: are Tama drums the wooden ones he used in the last concert tour? Thx!

 

Hi @kunstwork ! Thanks for your help and the video! Are North drums a brand? Thx!

 

Ed's first main kit with SPIRIT was a Ludwig set, done in somewhat psychedelic colors of reds and blues. The idea for the huge side/field drums came after a concert at the Santa Monica Civic , April 11, 1969. For that show, using John Locke's USC connections, they borrowed two large marching band drums that were set up on chairs, straight up and down. Cass would then order custom field drums from Ludwig that matched his main kit. He would use this kit until the late 1970's, when he bought an even bigger white Rogers kit. It included two floor toms, three rack toms, as well as 36" and 34" field drums, set on angles as you see in the pictures. He kept the huge early Zildjian 23" and 27" cymbals from his old set up. He would use this kit until the end of SPIRIT, when Randy California drowned. In the later years of the band, the kit was only used for local gigs, as the cost to transport it became too expensive. He would play on the house or rental kits. After SPIRIT, he used a smaller pretty standard TAMA kit with Merrell Fankhauser. The big field drums were NOT just for show. He definitely used them, and there's plenty of video showing him playing them. Check out the ROCKPALAST show from 1978, which you can likely find on YouTube. Cass generally played with 2B drumsticks. Many people don't know that Cass had thirty years of drumming experience BEFORE SPIRIT, coming from Big Bands, Jazz Combos, the legendary RISING SONS w/ Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder, demos and commercials. I would be astonished if Chris Slade wasn't a fan of Ed Cassidy!

 

Here's the Tom Sawyer studio video showing Peart's two Gong drums. One is flat like a floor tom, and the other is angled.
He drastically changed his setup some years ago, but there's still a single gong-type in the back.

As to the name, I think the picture in this article is as good as any. Looks like a gong if you close one eye & tilt your head. Gong bass drum - Wikipedia

 

Hi @Spirit Cass ! Wow, thanks so much for all the great info! It's wonderful to see an Ed fan avatar! I did know Cass played in jazz bands & others before Spirit, but not the specifics you cited. One (of many) things I loved about him was that he was almost always smiling! I'm so glad he had fun!
Thanks again!!!

 

Hi @Mike Ga ! I've seen this video, but wasn't paying much attention to Neil's kit...thanks for posting; I'm going to watch it again now that I know what to look for.
Thanks so much!!!

 

Oh, @Spirit Cass ...what are 2B drumsticks? Are they larger than standard? Thanks! Didn't Peart play holding the small ends of the sticks, or am I thinking of someone else?

 

Thanks @Claus! God, I loved that man!

 

Listen to the opening song of the Rockpalast concert... this drumming is much better than the drumsolo.

 

Thanks @Claus ! I'll do that!

 

This is a great shot. I'll leave it at that cause I'm getting close to thread-crapping, but if you don't mind.

 

That IS a great shot @Mike Ga ! I totally "get" the gong drum (appearance-wise) now-THANKS!
Edited to add: To me, you're not thread crapping; I'm really trying to learn, and if referencing another drummer helps, I'm all for it..JMO.

 

That was awesome. Thanks a ton for posting

 

Cool! Glad to help. I think the term I meant to use was hijacking, but it's your thread & if you're ok, I'm ok. Or something like that.
I will say you've gotten me interested in checking out Spirit. I remember the name, but they've just never registered. I liked what I heard in the video though.