NAMM 2009 - Hanging of the Drummer Connection Banner

At NAMM 2009 today, and with great honor, we witnessed the Drummer
Connection "Drummers Wanted" banner being raised by Terry Platt
(Division Manager for ddrum) on the top of the ddrum booth.  It's
important to know that we have absolutely no 'Business' or 'Financial'
attachments whatsoever to ddrum and Drummer Connection remains Unbiased
regardless of our friendships. However, ddrum has given us something
that no other major drum company has: some faith and a little bit of time. 
And trust me, we talked with many of them seeking support since we
started. Based on the friendship and bond that we have built with
ddrum, we are proud to be part of their Winter NAMM 2009 experience. 

Our banner flies high at ddrum and we represent it with pride.  The
ddrum crew is an incredible family and have treated us as part of it.
Their artists are treated with nothing but respect by Terry Platt, Rick
Hughes and the rest of the ddrum staff. We know, as we've been behind
the scenes with them since last Saturday following them around and
going to In-n-Out Burger, Del Taco, and some other wonderful fast and
furious food places. It has been a gutt churning expierence as we woof
in the fast food and then laugh so hard we indigest it due to Rick
Hughe's humor.  See some of the videos.. Rick will be making guest
appearances on quite a few videos at random points. 

Thanks
to ddrum, so far I've had the pleasure of picking up Vinnie Paul's new
Signature kit with Terry at the hotel and assemble it with Keith Thomas
(Drummer Connection) and the ddrum crew. As well, we also assembled
Shawn Drover from Megadeth's kit and put it up on the risers. What an
honor it was to change Carmine Appice's drum heads and help Keith tune
every single drum in the booth after we re-skinned every single drum --
all for the love of drums and our friends at ddrum -- we were not paid
to do so! The ddrum crew was one of the only vendors that we witnessed
on site that actually built their own (and not a very simple task)
booth. Terry's crew has also assmebled an incredible new product line
that is being featured on Drummer Connection here at NAMM 2009. The
Signature Series kits are represented by the actual artists in person,
introducing their kits.

Photo: Keith and Eric assembling the Shawn Drover Megadeth ddrum kit

Photo: Eric Rosebrock (me) and Rick Hughes (ddrum) taking a Mug Shot.

It's a mad house at ddrum's booth. Everyone from Legendary Carmine
Appice, Korn's Ray Luzier, Megadeth's Shawn Drover, to Snoop Dogg's
drummer and many more were on site today. The strange thing is, they
didn't just show up, sign and leave. Every artist hung out at the ddrum
booth for considerable amounts of time and helped with the operation of
the booth, as if they were part of the crew. Carmine Appice even came
over to inspect our operation with firm eyes and decided to join the
site while we were there taking registrations.

Photo: The Legendary Carmine Appice (ddrum artist) gives us a smile

Today was truly a victorious day for us and ddrum... Ironicly this
is only Day 1 of NAMM and it's already been an exlposive event. A huge
thanks go out to ddrum for their support.   Stay tuned for more ddrum
coverage as NAMM 2009 is in full effect.

Oh, also, could someone contact Security and tell them to lighten up
a little? You can't even bring SWAG OUT of the conference. I almost had
my own drumsticks taken away and they have DRUMMER CONNECTION and it's
logo on them..... Also, let us in before 10... we have Media Passes!