Me at the Burton-on-Trent Wurlitzer theatre organ playing "The first time I saw you" which makes use of the Glockenspiel and Xylophone used together.
The organ was originally installed at the Forum Cinema in Wythenshaw - a suburb of South Manchester - not far from the airport. There are 8 ranks of pipes and as standard on British theatre organ layouts, these are divided into 2 enclosed chambers as follows:
CHAMBER 1: Open Diapason, Flute, Violin, Violin Celeste
CHAMBER 2: Tibia, Tuba, Trumpet, Vox Humana.
And of course there are the usual percussions and novelty sound effects such as Fire Bell, Bird Whistle etc. This instrument does not feature a piano.
Me playing "Summer Nights" from Grease on the 3 manual 17 rank Wurlitzer organ installed at the New Victoria Centre in the village of Howden-le-Wear in County Durham. The organ was originally built in 1930 for the New Victoria cinema in Bradford. It is now lovingly cared for by the North East Theatre Organ Assocation (NETOA). The welcome I received here was perfect! For anyone who sees the keys moving on the grand piano be assured it is not a ghost doing a duet with me - I am playing the piano from the organ!
I've played several theatre organs built by Compton and Wurlitzer but never a Christie until today! Im playing "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts" on the Christie theatre organ at the Social Welfare Hall in Harworth near Doncaster. The organ was originally built in 1934 for the Essoldo cinema in Durham and had 2 manuals and 7 ranks of pipes. It was installed here in the 1960s and had an extra manual and some extra ranks of pipes added. When playing a cinema organ my aim has always been to try and play as they did in your average 1930s surburban cinema. In otherwords - knock out the tune! The emphasis these days tends to be on "orchestral" styling etc.
Me at my "local" - the Wurlitzer organ at the Theatre Organ Heritage Centre in Peel Green, Manchester playing the beautiful "Autumn leaves". The Wurlitzer organ here is one of the smallest in the country with 6 ranks of pipes (Diapason, Flute, Salicional, Tibia, Vox Humana and Trumpet) and originally built for the Trocadero in Liverpool. Unfortunately I placed the microphone a bit to near to the organ grilles so the sound is a bit harsh in this video. I recommend listening to this on a modererate to loud volume setting and your speakers about 180cm away from you if possible. Being a public place of course there were other visitors in the building so I expected some background noise. My thanks must go to Pete Taylor for allowing me use of this little gem of a theatre organ and for a tour of the museum afterwards! The Lancastrian theatre organ trust must be congratulated on their work in making this organ and all the other artefacts in the museum look like they were only built yesterday.
Playing "La Mer" which I always associated with the film "Mr Beans Holiday"!!! I used the organs upright piano attachment for most of this piece but the camera microphone was unfortunately not able to pick this up. Like all theatre organs the organ works on the "extension" principal with 20 ranks of pipes in 2 chambers laid out as follows: CHAMBER 1 Open Diapason Flute Clarinet Viol D Orchestre Voix Celeste Quintadena Dulciana Tuba Horn Tibia 1 Solo String 1 Marimba Harp Vibraphone CHAMBER 2 Tuba Mirabilis English Horn Saxophone Trumpet Solo String 2 Tibia 2 Orchestral Oboe Oboe Horn Kinura Vox Humana Xylophone Glockenspiel Chimes Drums, Cymbals, Novelty effects etc Unenclosed is the upright piano and the "master" xylophone. I couldnt help but include a couple of clips of my favourite comedian!!!
Me playing my own arrangement of "Time on my hands" on the Stockport town hall Wurlitzer organ. The day before I listened to a recording I made playing this very piece on the Southampton Guildhall Compton organ and was amazed at how similar I made two very different instruments sound particularly between 0:46 and 1:00.
All of us have a dream. Some of us make that dream happen.
Lots of air guitar players starts to play guitar hero. And some clever ones, starts to play the real guitar!
IMI students celebrate Swiss soccer success stories from U17 Soccer National team fighting for first place in Nigeria and Swiss National team soon playing SouthAfrica WC 2010 - Chum Bring en Hai. Study where world champions live, study at IMI University Centre in Switzerland
On November 17th, catch John Mayer on Fuse live from the landmarked Beacon Theatre in New York City. Be the first to see world premiere performances from his brand new album \
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