another item that recently sold from Ringo’s warehouse of memorabilia. this is (strangely) the VERY FIRST rock and roll logo/brand/id/trademark in history (note: even elvis didn’t have a logo). the story on it is even more peculiar. according to Bodhi Oser’s amazing little book, “BAND ID, The Ultimate Book of Band Logos” (chronicle books, 2008), the story goes like this:
“The “drop-T” logo was born in london’s Drum City music shop when Ringo Starr and Beatles manager Brian Epstein went to buy Ringo a Ludwig drum set. it was april 1963, almost a year before the band’s celebrated trip to the united states, and epstein sought to advertise the mop-topped icons with their name painted large enough to across the front skin to overshadow ludwig’s copyright mark. Drum City owner Ivor Arbiter evidently sketched a few rough logo ideas, one of which contained this subterranean-T concept. epstein and ringo liked what they saw, so Arbiter went to fetch a sign painter located nearby named Eddie Stokes who applied the design.”
and thus the entire history of music marketing changed forever. think of how many millions (nah, BILLIONS) have been made off mr. arbitor’s and mr. stokes’ hard work! bands make more money off their trademarks and logos these days than they do off their music.
oh, by the way, the final auction sale price on this drum? 12.5 million. all for charity. thank you Ringo – for the charity work and for saving this iconic design/advertising/pop culture artifact. good on ya!
