Our Trip To Battersea With The BBC.

It was time for our DW Collectors Series to steal the limelight.

It’s always interesting to see where our drum kits are needed, whether it’s a local pub gig, a council event, a festival, or sending a kit off around Europe on tour with a band. But this one was going to be a little different…

We received an email from Howard Timberlake a senior video journalist and producer at the BBC who was filming a program on music. He needed a kit that was visually exciting and made a real statement on camera. Howard had seen our Drum Workshop Collectors Series in ruby glass with black nickel hardware and thought it would be perfect for the shoot.

The filming was to be done at the Battersea Arts Centre, a venue we hadn’t been to so we were eager to go and check it out and besides, who doesn’t love a trip to London!

A Beautiful Sunny Good Friday.

The filming was to take place on Good Friday, which worked well as traffic in London tends to be somewhat lighter - which it was so we arrived a good 30 minutes early.

Parking was fantastic at the Arts Centre, as the venue owns the road that runs adjacent to the building there was loads of space to park right outside -obviously with permission from them. This made unloading so easy and I didn’t have far to walk to where the kit needed to be placed.

After meeting Howard outside the venue we went in and entered the hall - wow! we were both seriously impressed with the grand hall, particularly the ceiling which was magnificent. Apparently, the arts center had suffered fire damage a few years ago and had been newly renovated to which they had done an incredible job.

I got the kit loaded in but on this occasion, I didn’t need to set the drum kit up as this was to be part of the filming process.

The BBC had the venue for about 6 hours so they were on a tight schedule, I said my goodbyes and left Howard and his assistant to it.

I decided to catch the train into central London as I had a few errands to run and a bit of shopping to do whilst the filming was taking place.

London was looking resplendent as I walked over the Thames and whilst traffic in wasn’t bad at all, the center was another story!

It was the perfect day for visitors and tourists to meander about taking in the sights and sounds of one of the best capital cities in the world.

After a late lunch, it was time to head back to Battersea.

Perfect Timing.

I decided to get back to the venue at around 14:30 pm as the shoot was due to finish at 15:00 pm, and I couldn’t have timed it better. Just as I came out of the station I had a call from Howard to say that they had finished ahead of schedule and the kit was all packed up and ready to go, perfect.

Five minutes later I was back at the venue and Howard very kindly showed me some of the footage that they had captured, needless to say they were exceptional and the use of a smoke machine really enhanced the drama.

Hopefully in the future I will be able to share some of the footage but due to copyright this can be tricky at times. Howard said he would keep me posted on the production and release date etc…

I loaded up and was back on the road by 15:00 pm, looking forward to enjoying the rest of the Bank Holiday weekend.

Drum Kit Hire Made Simple.

We want to make hiring a drum kit as simple as we can for our customers so whatever the event, we will work with you to create your perfect hire package.

For more information please visit our drum hire page on our website, or get in touch with us to discuss your requirements.