TAMA Imperialstar Midnight Blue kit

The TAMA Imperialstar Midnight Blue 5-ply drum kit was one of kits Stewart Copeland played with The Police. He had at least two kits: an "A" kit and a "B" kit.

The "A" kit
This Mignight Blue drum kit was acquired and played during the Zenyatta Mondatta tour from 9 August 1980 onwards. It had the Superstar bass drum head for that tour.

For recording Ghost In The Machine and Synchronicity, Stewart Copeland had this Midnight Blue kit (known as the "A" kit) set up in the living/recreation room of the AIR Studios facility, as Hugh Padgham (engineer & co-producer) liked the ambience there.

Besides recording, Stewart had also toured with the "A" kit for both albums, with the standard Imperialstar Bass drum head. For studio recordings the front bass drum head was removed.

According to Jeff Seitz, this kit had originally been set up in the main studio, where the band recorded "Demolition Man", but producer/engineer Hugh Padgham felt the studio itself sounded relatively dead so they moved this kit into the dining room, where it remained for the remainder of the sessions.

The "B" kit
This was the second Midnight Blue Imperialstar kit, known as the "B" kit, which Stewart ordered from TAMA for use as a backup (and a non-touring kit). He had this kit set up in the main studio at AIR Studios on Montserrat initially for Ghost In The Machine and then Synchronicity. The "B" kit was shipped with Remo CS Black Dot drum heads on the toms, which were kept as they sounded good (and didn't get much playing time) - besides the CS heads, the "B" kit is otherwise identical to the "A" kit.

Recordings-wise, on Ghost In The Machine the B kit was used for occasional drum overdubs in the studio and the recording of the drums to "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic". Videos for "Demolition Man" and "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" show Stewart playing the B kit.

1979-1980 kit
This kit is a relatively lesser-known TAMA Imperialstar Stewart Copeland had.