There is no doubting that this year has seen the passing of too many of the world’s most loved creative artists, including David Bowie, Prince, Maurice White, Glen Frey, Keith Emerson and Bobby Vee. Recently, another music legend died, who is not quite so well known. Remo Belli, founder of the Remo Company, has had an indirect influence on so many musicians.
He created the world’s biggest range of drums and percussion. He launched a global percussion revolution and a growing army of drumming facilitators that have taken drumming into every area of healthcare, therapy, conflict resolution, wellness, team building, community building, management training and education for the young.
Let me explain further. In 1957, Remo Belli created the world’s first synthetic drum head. This released drummers from the inconveniences and variability in animal skins that had gone before since drumming had been invented!
With this groundbreaking innovation came new sounds and musical possibilities. I would safely bet that almost every hit, album and live concert performed by all the artists I mentioned above were produced with drummers playing Remo products.
Next came a completely new concept in drum manufacturing. Thinking way into the future, Remo designed drums, not made out of purely wood, but constructed using a new ‘eco’ material called Acousticon. This hybrid composite provided the ability to design almost any size and shape of drum.
This has a direct connection with our own company. By using these drums, our clients get stunning looking and beautiful sounding drums in all our drumming team building sessions.
I’ll go even further. Perhaps there wouldn’t even be any drumming team building without Remo Belli.
He had a vision that changed his company, drumming in general and certainly my life forever because of his statement:
“It’s time to stop thinking of the drum as just a musical instrument. Start thinking of the drum as a recreational tool for every family, a wellness tool for every retiree, and an educational tool for every classroom.”
This was the seed that grew into Remo supporting another innovator, Arthur Hull. They both promoted worldwide group drumming with non-musicians and the concept caught on like wildfire, first in community groups and then in corporate teams. This movement inspired me to conceive DrumPulse, which later became Creative Team Events.
The Remo company has supported us along our journey. In every drum session we lead, we explain to our participants about the unique instruments they are playing. Even though Remo Belli is sadly no longer with us, tens of thousands of our clients have known and will continue to know the name Remo.
The London Drum Show is a two-day extravaganza full of concerts and master classes with the world’s greatest drummers. On the 12th of November at Olympia, almost all of the instrument companies connected to the music industry will be exhibiting to inspire the current and next generation of drummers.
Within the education section of this event, there will be a short dedication and film about Remo Belli’s life achievements. I have the honour of saying a few words about how Remo Belli has inspired all the work that I do. After this, we will have an impromptu drum circle with all the drums provided.
I would like to say a big thank you to the Remo drum company and its UK distributer EMD Music for asking me to be involved. I’m looking forward to a great session, Let’s hope we do the great visionary Remo Belli proud!
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