Nicko's drum kits over the years

[Kalata]

With which drum kit Nicko appears on all official music videos ->

*without the videos for live singles (because they are all with the drum kit from the specific tour)!

Spoiler

It's interesting to note that he used the SOT drum kit for the videos of BQOBD and FHTE (1986<->1992).
and the drum kit from RLT '93 for TAATG video (1993<->1998).
Rainmaker with the drum kit from the tour before the DOD tour.
and TROBB and Different World with the drum kit from the tour before the AMOLAD tour.

FOI - drum kit from WPT
The Trooper - drum kit from WPT
2MTM - drum kit from WST
Aces High - drum kit from WST
Wasted Years - drum kit from SOT
SIASL - live footage: drum kit from SOT
CIPWM - the band does not appear on this video
TETMD - live footage: drum kit from STOAST
The Clairvoyant - live footage: drum kit from STOAST
Holy Smoke - drum kit from NPOTR
Tailgunner - live footage: drum kit from NPOTR
BYD... TTS - live footage: drum kit from NPOTR
BQOBD - drum kit form SOT
FHTE - drum kit from SOT
Wasting Love - small white drum kit
MOTE - drum kit from TXF tour
LOTF - live footage: drum kit from TXF tour
TAATG - drum kit from Real Live Tour 1993
Futureal - live footage: drum kit from VXI tour
TWM - small black drum kit
OOTSP - live footage: drum kit from BNW tour
Wildest Dreams - the band does not appear on this video
Rainmaker - drum kit from GME... 'TID tour
TROBB - drum kit from Early Days tour 2005
Different World (2nd version of the video with the band on studio) - drum kit form Early Days tour 2005
S15... TFF - the band does not appear on this video
SOL - the band does not appear on this video

 

[Lego]

TROBB and Different World with the drum kit from the tour before the AMOLAD tour

The Early Days tour kit is seen in these videos because it's the kit he used to record AMOLAD

FOI - drum kit from WPT

This is not the World Piece Tour kit (which was a white Sonor Phonic Plus), rather it's a Sonor Phonic concert tom kit in Metallic Silver - specifically model XK-9212 minus the second bass drum. It's an exact copy of Nicko's kit from the end of his Pat Travers days, which Pat's management bought for Nicko after Pat kept the original kit when he fired him. This kit was used to record Piece of Mind, Powerslave, and Fear of the Dark - but aside from the Flight of Icarus video has never been featured in any videos or used on any tours.

Wasting Love - small white drum kit

It's a bit hard to tell exactly, but this is the 13", 14", 18", and 24" kick from either the Seventh Tour or No Prayer Tour (which may actually be the same kit, I don't think there's ever been any definitive consensus on this).

 

[agtsp16]

Check out this Sonor signature lite without square sizes. You should see the difference when comparing above. View attachment 6748

I really like the discussion of this topic. Good research! Here are the official Signature Lite sizes from the 1988 Sonor price list.




So what if Nicko on his Seventh Tour kit had like: 6x8, 8x8, 10x9, 12x11, 13x12, 14x13, 15x14, 16x15, 18x17 ?

 

[Lego]

I really like the discussion of this topic. Good research! Here are the official Signature Lite sizes from the 1988 Sonor price list.


View attachment 13429

So what if Nicko on his Seventh Tour kit had like: 6x8, 8x8, 10x9, 12x11, 13x12, 14x13, 15x14, 16x15, 18x17 ?

Wow, I've never seen this before! I thought the Sig Lites were only ever available in "2 inches less than square" sizes (12x10, 13x11, etc). This is an excellent find!!! So it appears Nicko's kit, presumably being made in late 1987/early 1988, was of the original specs listed here! Very cool and thank you for sharing @agtsp16

 

[agtsp16]

View attachment 6763 View attachment 6764 View attachment 6765 These pics show that his No prayer kit were the heavy beech shells on the 10 onwards like mine and the 6 and 8 have a thinner shell. The second pic you can see the bubinga inside also like mine. The Fear of the dark kit had no bubinga inside

Nice find! Do the 6 and 8 toms on your kit also have thinner shells?

 

[agtsp16]

Alright, here's a (nearly) exhaustive list of Nicko's Maiden kits, sorted by which albums/tours they were used on:

Thank you very much for this detailed list Lego. Here are a few things (according to Interviews with Nicko and my own research) that I probably would write down different:

1) Piece of Mind album 1983, Powerslave album 1984, Fear of the Dark album 1992

3) World Slavery Tour 1984-1985

4) Somewhere In Time album 1986, Somewhere On Tour 1986-1987, Senenth Son of a Seventh Son album 1988

5) Seventh Tour of a Seventh Tour 1988-89, No Prayer For The Dying album 1990

Sonor Signature Lite custom kit (12-ply birch Lite shells with bubinga on the inside)

6x8, 8x8, 10x10, 12x11, 13x12, 14x13, 15x14, 16x15 toms, 18x19” floor, 24x18” kick

6) No Prayer on the Road Tour 1990-1991

Sonor Signature Heavy custom kit in white (12-ply Heavy shells with bubinga on the inside) the 6x8 and 8x8 toms are 12-ply Lite shells

6x8, 8x8, 10x10, 12x12, 13x13, 14x14, 15x15, 16x16 toms, 18x19” floor, 24x18” kick

6a) Fear of the Dark Tour 1992

Sonor Signature Heavy custom kit in white (12-ply Heavy shells with no bubinga on the inside)

6x8, 8x8, 10x10, 12x12, 13x13, 14x14, 15x15, 16x16 toms, 18x19” floor, 24x18” kick

*as seen on Donnington Live 1992

 

[Nicko77]

Apparently, nobody has ever seen that Nicko's bass drum SIT claws were from the lite / signature series. The square shape design is completely different from the normal rounded shape Hi-tech serie.

 

[Kalata]

Is it just me or Nicko's Maiden England drum kit has artworks with Eddie? You can see it -> here

It's hard to recognize them.

 

[Randalf]

Is it just me or Nicko's Maiden England drum kit has artworks with Eddie? You can see it -> here

It's hard to recognize them.

Yes it has!

It has those smoky, frozen Eddies. You can probably see a few shots of it in this video, for example. Not the clearest of designs, but they're definitely there.

 

[Lego]

Yes it has!

It has those smoky, frozen Eddies. You can probably see a few shots of it in this video, for example. Not the clearest of designs, but they're definitely there.

Yep - they're similar in design to the frozen Eddie versions of the backdrops used on that tour for CIPWM and 2 Minutes

 

[Kalata]

Nicko's unused bass drum artwork for the 2018/2019 legs of LOTB tour.

Edward The Great is one of my favorite Eddies. Maybe it was not used because of a certain song... I wish it was.

 

[Kalata]

Nicko drum kits for LOTB tour 2022 leg (for the 2018/2019 drum kit - click here) !

 

[Kalata]

Is Nicko's drum kit different here? The colour? Purple like for the BNW tour? The bass drum artwork is missing.

- live 1998, Japan (near the end of the tour):

 

[Lego]

Is Nicko's drum kit different here? The colour? Purple like for the BNW tour? The bass drum artwork is missing.

- live 1998, Japan (near the end of the tour):

Interesting find. Very hard to tell what the finish is due to the lighting and video quality. It's also a significantly smaller kit with the regular catalog power tom sizes. I bet it's a rental from a local backline company- probably pretty expensive to ship "the full Nicko" all the way to Japan!

 

[Nicko77]

Another spec of Nicko's SIT drumkit : the bass drum spurs brackets are from Signature models (bigger ones)...
More things to come soon, this drum was really hand made, and "out of series".

 

[Lego]

Another spec of Nicko's SIT drumkit : the bass drum spurs brackets are from Signature models (bigger ones)...
More things to come soon, this drum was really hand made, and "out of series".

These ones? They were standard on the Phonic Plus towards the beginning of its run. The photo below is from the 1982 catalog. I have owned at least one standard production Phonic Plus bass drum with these spurs over the years.




I don't doubt that Nicko's kit was handmade though, I believe Karl Heinz-Menzel made it himself as a prototype for what would become the Hi-Tech series.

 

[Nicko77]

These ones? They were standard on the Phonic Plus towards the beginning of its run. The photo below is from the 1982 catalog. I have owned at least one standard production Phonic Plus bass drum with these spurs over the years.

View attachment 30772


I don't doubt that Nicko's kit was handmade though, I believe Karl Heinz-Menzel made it himself as a prototype for what would become the Hi-Tech series.

Exactly this one! (In black )

 

[The_7th_one]

Don't forget Nicko's drum kit with Pat Travers



…and the polish wedding in 1984

 

[Lego]

Don't forget Nicko's drum kit with Pat Travers

View attachment 30896

…and the polish wedding in 1984

View attachment 30897

Those are different kits - the one in the Pat Travers photo is a silver George Hayman 5pc, it was his second kit he ever bought after his Sonor Teardrop 4pc. He bought it from Top Gear in Denmark street in 1966. He would later add a couple of Staccato fiberglass "horn" toms. Later on, Pat would insist he get a bigger drum kit- that's when he got his first big Sonor Phonic kit (the XK-9212 outfit)

The one in the polish wedding is an unknown brand, presumably belonging to the drummer in the wedding band.