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The finish depicts Maiden's mascot from 1983's Piece Of Mind album.

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• Review

It's fitting that perhaps the greatest character in British rock drumming plays British Premier drums. Nicko McBrain has always had a touch of that pioneering swagger that made Keith Moon Premier's most illustrious son.

Since 1993 Nicko has played some fantastic Premier kits, and via Premier's agreement with Nicko you can, if you're seriously flush, buy an exact replica of Nicko's drums, in a choice of the last six tour finishes. Wait till early next year though and you will be able to buy a more modest Nicko signature kit in maple. What we have here today though is an eminently affordable kit that has been adorned with Iron Maiden graphics under a separate agreement with the band. Hence 'Spirit Of Maiden'.

Build

It's important to grasp this three-tier Nicko-Maiden arrangement since the Spirit is a birch-shelled kit (Nicko plays mostly maple), based on the budget APK series. The idea with this first release is to keep the cost as low as possible and, to quote Premier: "to go with maple made it uncomfortably expensive for a graphic covered kit".

"The big selling point is the wrap finish with artwork that depicts the band's famous mascot, Eddie."

So the Spirit is a five-shell pack, 22"x18" bass, 10"x9" and 12"x10" mounted power toms (normal APK toms are 10"x8" and 12"x9"), 16"x16" floor tom and matching 14"x5½" snare drum. There are no plans at the moment to add any other sizes, unless there is a big demand.

There is a thick-set Roklok double tom bracket and the toms are mounted in the old-fashioned way - directly clamped to the tom shells without isolation brackets. The 'L' arms slot into the receiving blocks and are held firmly by contoured memory locks. The design of Premier's big oval blocks is pleasing on the eye, and the ergonomically-shaped wing nuts with matt silver grip add further class.

The shells are APK Chinese birch, 6.6mm and 6-ply. The insides have a warm, light grain and are left lightly sealed with a hint of nap. Bearing edges are sharp 45° and flat and all-in-all the shells are excellent at the price.

The 22"x18" bass drum has lacquered wooden hoops and heavy-duty spurs. These spurs are slightly different from the ordinary APKs, having Premier's characteristic bulbous extension joint housing.

A matching 14"x5½" wood snare drum completes the five-piece shell pack. This has subtle, shallow snare beds, a simple, effective strainer and 20-strand steel wire snares attached via tapes.

Toms and snare have single-ply UK Coated batter heads, made by Remo in China, with clear resonants. The bass drum has the usual clear batter with perimeter damping ring while the front head is a full ebony head with the Premier logo in Iron Maiden's own font. This lends the kit the same appearance as Nicko's tour kits.

Of course the big selling point is the wrap finish with artwork that depicts the band's famous mascot Eddie from the 1983 Piece Of Mind album. This was the first Maiden album that Nicko was let loose on. The wrap is finished in a two-tone metallic grey and silver, and is produced in the UK at the same facility used for Nicko's personal tour kits. Each drum has an embossed silver-over-black Iron Maiden badge with 'Premier', small and in red, again in the Maiden style.