Saw my first Camco kit in the late 70's in Harry Landis Music in Sydney. They must have just gone out of business around then. I can remember I was fascinated by the round lugs (which reminded me of Hayman drums) and the fact that all the stands and tom mounts looked like they would break in about five seconds (this was the late 70s (and I presume this had something to do with the company's demise).

I actually got my first Camco kit (one of the biggies with 13, 14 and 18 toms and 24" bass drum and LA badges) in Sydney, Australia in around 1983 (bought from my drum teacher). Had previously an LA badge chrome covered brass snare drum at a second hand pawn shop in Sydney for AUD 100 (quite expensive at the time I thought but then again I had no money). This I stupidly sold to another guy who I'd actually encouraged to buy a used Camco kit - he later ended up in a slightly renowned cult alternative act called The Died Pretty - he was my replacement when I quit an early incarnation of the band called The End.

In any case, shipped this kit with me to London n 1984 and used it during what became a brief (three year) professional career in London in British band Salvation Sunday (signed to Polydor Records). The maple finish on the kit (it had previously been painted in a kind of irridescent pearly-white lacquer which was chipped to hell when I got it) had quite a few hacks in it so when a record comapny advance came, I got London-based custom kit builder Eddie Ryan, for many years a fixture in Covent Garden, to re-veneer it in an almost white sycamore. As it didn't have the original tom mounts and had undergone a couple of customisations itself I wasn't going to be too purist about it and with this finish it was a fabulous looking and sounding road kit.

Camco are rare in the U.S. but in the U.K. they were virtually unheard of - at this stage even DW were in their infancy (certainly in the world market). It was only the occasional seasoned roadie who would whisper quietly in admiration but a variety of producers from Tim Friese-Green (Talk Talk) to Ed Stasium (Ramones, Talking Heads) all loved the sound I got out of 'em. The drums even made a trip into Abbey Road's B studio during a brief demoing and B-side recording session. Having said that, via a couple of stategically placed ads, I managed to pick up both a Kansas kit in maple and an Oaklawn kit in blue sparkle (both 13, 16, 22) and then picked up a maple Oaklawn wood snare, all of which got some touring work.

Used most of the big kit with a maple floor tom on the side in the video to Heart In Motion, which I have on VHS somewhere but have no idea how to transer digitally. Have a pic of me with a bit of kit in it which I'll drag out, digitalise and send.

In any case, the band used bucketloads of Polydor's money while doing exactly - nothing. I quit the band, the band got dropped, I got a job with a label and realised I had three very collectable drums kits (and nowhere to store them).

My girlfriend at the time worked for indie labels Rough Trade then Blast First. Somewhere here she came in contact with the Texas-based drummer of a band called Rapeman (a less successful successor to hardcore band Big Black - might have had something to do with the name, I'm figuring) who was fascinated by the idea of Camco drums. He made me an offer and I sold him both the big kit and one of the smaller ones keeping (I thought) the small maple kit for myself.

The absolute disaster was that when the drums were being loaded out of my London apartment (to be shipped to some coastal town in Texas) someone accidentally packed the wrong floor tom - so suddenly I'm sitting there with a maple kit and an odd coloured - and location manufactured - floor tom. Bugger...........

Moved country yet again (to Denmark this time), tried getting the floor tom veneered (didn't work) so gave up and, on a chance trip to L.A., picked up some mother of pearl covering which is what I have now - a bit of a bitzer but still sounds like gold. Am just starting to play again now and the damned thing looks and sounds fabulous - like Max Steinberg's kit on Conan O Brien.