My Story...
I’m Keith Keough, an award-winning drum designer and maker, and for almost three decades I’ve been designing, developing and building drums. But my story really begins long before my first drum—with my father, a hazel stick and the woods of Cumbria.
My father was a keen outdoorsman whose hobby was making and carving beautiful walking sticks. From an early age, I would get up early and head into the countryside with him, searching for the perfect stick of hazel for his next creation. Those days gave me a fascination with wood that has stayed with me ever since.
As a boy, I learnt to recognise different trees from their leaves and bark, and came to understand what those timbers looked and felt like once they had been cut and worked.
When I left school at 16, I began an apprenticeship with a local carpenter, Chris Spencer. It was a small company, just Chris, myself and my older colleague, Alex Benn, and looking back, I still consider Chris and Alex two of the best people I have ever worked for. They taught me the value of craftsmanship and doing things properly. After completing my apprenticeship, I left Cumbria and moved to Manchester, drawn by its music scene. There I met brothers Norman and Colin McLeod, owners of Moolah Rouge recording studio and rehearsal rooms. I began doing odd jobs for them and, in return, they eventually gave me a small space where I could repair drums and experiment with building my own unbranded snare drums. It was at Moolah Rouge that I first met Pete Salisbury, drummer with The Verve. Pete was opening a drum shop in Stockport called DRUMINN and offered me a similar arrangement: help out at the shop and I could have a room upstairs to build and repair drums. I jumped at the opportunity.
Around this time, I approached The Prince’s Trust and successfully secured a £4,000 grant to start my own drum company.
And KD Custom Drums was born...
PREMIER
The next major chapter came when drummer Steve White and Premier’s George Frederick introduced me to Premier. Premier subsequently acquired KD Custom Drums, and I became Head of R&D and Manufacturing for one of Britain’s most historic drum companies.
My time at Premier gave me the opportunity to take everything I’d learnt as a craftsman and apply it on a much larger scale. My work on the Modern Classic range went on to receive an industry award from the Music Industries Association, and during those years I was fortunate enough to design and make drums for artists including Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys, Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden and Philip Selway of Radiohead.
In 2015, Premier made the decision to close its UK manufacturing operation and move production overseas. My team and I suddenly found ourselves without jobs.
So we started again.
KD CUSTOM DRUMS...
The early 2000s were the height of the custom drum-building boom, and standing out wasn’t easy. But KD began to establish a reputation of its own. I was voted Best Drum Builder by Rhythm magazine, and KD drums received six five-star reviews from the magazine.
Through Pete and the people I met along the way, some extraordinary opportunities also began to appear. I built drums for musicians including Javier Weyler of Stereophonics, Andy Hargreaves of I Am Kloot and Mike Joyce of The Smiths.
Then came a moment I will never forget.
Pete and The Verve were headlining Glastonbury—and there, on one of the biggest festival stages in the world, was a drum I had built with my own hands. I remember standing back and thinking, wow! There have been many moments like that since, across the different companies and products I’ve been fortunate enough to create, but that was the first. For a young drum maker who had started with a £4,000 grant and a room above a drum shop, seeing something I had made on that stage was extraordinary.
During these years I was also developing the way I made my shells.
Cold pressing is a traditional method of ply-shell construction, but as modern manufacturing increasingly embraced heated moulding and faster production techniques, I remained fascinated by the traditional cold-moulding process.
I began refining it. One of the techniques I developed became what I call the click method. Rather than simply forcing a ply into position, every ply is precisely measured, fitted, removed and trimmed several times until it reaches the point where it quite literally clicks perfectly into the mould. The aim is simple: eliminate unwanted gaps and unnecessary stresses within the shell before it is ever pressed.
It’s a painstaking way to build a drum shell, but I believe it produces a better one.
Throughout my career I have championed cold-pressed shell making and helped bring renewed attention to this traditional approach. It’s a philosophy that has followed me throughout my career and remains fundamental to the way I build drums today.
PREMIER...
The next major chapter came when drummer Steve White and Premier’s George Frederick introduced me to Premier. Premier subsequently acquired KD Custom Drums, and I became Head of R&D and Manufacturing for one of Britain’s most historic drum companies.
My time at Premier gave me the opportunity to take everything I’d learnt as a craftsman and apply it on a much larger scale. My work on the Modern Classic range went on to receive an industry award from the Music Industries Association, and during those years I was fortunate enough to design and make drums for artists including Matt Helders of Arctic Monkeys, Nicko McBrain of Iron Maiden and Philip Selway of Radiohead.
In 2015, Premier made the decision to close its UK manufacturing operation and move production overseas. My team and I suddenly found ourselves without jobs.
So we started again.
BRITISH DRUM CO.
That same year, I co-founded the British Drum Company alongside Al Murray, bringing together a group of people from the music industry that included my old friend Pete Salisbury and Ian Matthews of Kasabian.
For almost a decade I designed the drums and products that helped establish the British Drum Company. Our instruments received numerous five-star reviews and found their way into the hands of drummers including Nicko McBrain, Joe Donovan of Blossoms and Chris “Woody” Wood of Bastille, amongst many others.
One moment, however, stands apart.
In 2023, we were entrusted with producing drums for His Majesty’s Royal Marines for the Coronation of King Charles III.
For me, there was something wonderfully full-circle about it. More than two decades earlier, The Prince’s Trust—founded by the then Prince Charles—had given a young drum maker a £4,000 grant and the opportunity to start KD Custom Drums. All those years later, drums I had helped create were being played as he was crowned King.
That chapter was made even more special when the British Drum Company went on to receive the Made in Britain Award for Biggest Impact, recognising the impact the company and its British-made instruments had made. For me, it brought the story full circle—from receiving that first opportunity through The Prince’s Trust to seeing drums I had designed and helped create become part of a moment of British history. It remains one of the proudest periods of my career.
I left the British Drum Company in August 2024.
DR LISTON'S.
After leaving the British Drum Company in 2024, I began a very different chapter with the launch of Dr Liston’s, a range of specialist cleaning, care and polishing products for musical instruments.
What began as a new idea has grown into a brand catering for musicians across virtually every instrument family, including guitar, drums, piano, brass and woodwind. Wherever possible, the range is built around pH-neutral and biodegradable formulas, combining effective instrument care with a more considered approach to the products we use.
Today, Dr Liston’s products are available in more than 40 countries worldwide through an international distribution network, something I’m incredibly proud to have built from the ground up.
During this period, I also remained involved in other areas of the musical-instrument industry. I was a Director and shareholder of Code Drum Heads until April 2026, and I also co-founded RAMRODS, a contemporary drumstick and percussion brand.
KEOUGH DRUM CO.
In many ways, this isn’t simply another drum company. It is the culmination of everything I’ve learnt since those childhood mornings searching the Cumbrian countryside for hazel with my father.
I’ve built drum companies. I’ve worked for one of Britain’s great historic drum brands. I’ve designed instruments for some of the world’s most respected drummers. I’ve developed and championed methods of shell making that have become part of my identity as a drum maker. I’ve experienced success, setbacks, beginnings and endings.
And now I’ve come back to where I started: making drums.
Only this time, they carry my name.
Every Keough drum draws upon nearly three decades of experience, but they’re still created with the same fundamental belief I learnt as an apprentice all those years ago—that things worth making are worth making properly.
This is the next chapter of my story.
From my hands to yours.
CONTACT US
KEOUGH INDUSTRIES LTD
4 ASHER COURT
LYNCASTLE WAY
APPLETON
WARRINGTON
WA4 4ST
ENGLAND
Tel: +447450275387
OPENING HOURS:
Mon - Fri: 9am - 5pm
Saturday: By Appointment.
Sunday: By Appointment