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erik neuteboom View Drop Down
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Points: 7659 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: New Mellotron Book !!
    Posted: August 21 2008 at 06:05
 
                                                                 Hello fellow progheads.
 
                                                     I just received this exciting information:
 
 
OUT NOW !

Mellotron
The Machine and the Musicians that Revolutionised Rock
Nick Awde

Hardback £19.95

Published by Desert Hearts, July 2008
592pp. with 300 b&w photos
ISBN 9781898948025

 



 

  
 
 
 
 
 
 
*
 

The definitive Mellotron book The Mellotron changed music forever when it appeared in the 60s. Long before the advent of synthesizers, this extraordinary keyboard revolutionised rock and pop music. For the first time, it brought a potentially unlimited range of sounds to a musician's fingertips. As the world's first sampler, its pre-recorded tapes included everything from a symphony orchestra and church choir to samba combo and rock'n'roll drum rhythms.

Those sounds created legendary moments such as the dreamy flutes intro to the Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever and the soaring strings on the Moody Blues' Nights in White Satin. By the 70s the Mellotron had become an icon of progressive rock and its haunting tones found a climax in classics like Genesis's Watcher of the Skies and Led Zeppelin's Kashmir. Today it has experienced a renaissance after being championed by acts like Paul Weller and Radiohead.

Covering subjects as wide as the baby boomer generation, the Swinging 60s, Sgt. Pepper, Hendrix, Holst's The Planets and the advent of punk and disco, top musicians describe how they were inspired by the unpredictable keyboard affectionately dubbed 'The Beast', explaining too why the Mellotron and post-war society in the UK created a unique melting pot that made the world rock to a British beat.

Featured in this volume are musicians (not all of them keyboardists) who unlocked the Mellotron's potential, many confessing to a love-hate relationship with the keyboard due to its eccentric mechanism: Tony Banks (Genesis), Mike Pinder (Moody Blues), Ian McDonald (King Crimson, Foreigner), Woolly Wolstenholme (Barclay James Harvest), Greg Lake (King Crimson, Emerson Lake & Palmer), John Wetton (King Crimson, UK, Asia), Nick Magnus (Autumn, Steve Hackett Band), Martin Orford (IQ, Jadis), Roine Stolt (Flower Kings, Transatlantic, Tangent), Jakko Jakszyk (Level 42, 21st Century Schizoid Band, Tangent), John Hawken (Renaissance, Strawbs), Doug Rayburn (Pavlov's Dog), Tony Clarke (Moody Blues), David Cross (King Crimson), Dave Cousins (Strawbs), Blue Weaver (Strawbs, Bee Gees), Robert Kirby (Strawbs), Robert Webb (England), Dave Gregory (XTC), Andy McCluskey (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark). Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson) provides a drummer's view of working with four classic Mellotron bands, and there are perspectives from Geoff Unwin, the first Mellotronics demonstrator, John Bradley & Martin Smith of Streetly Electronics, the original makers of the Mellotron, and Planet Mellotron's Andy Thompson.

For more details contact [email protected]

 

 

 
               I hope to you more about this book very soon, now I am going to order it!
 
 
 


Edited by erik neuteboom - August 21 2008 at 06:07
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Angelo View Drop Down
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Points: 13244 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 21 2008 at 16:52
592 pages about Mellotrons? Yikes.... Wink
ISKC Rock Radio
I stopped blogging and reviewing - so won't be handling requests. Promo's for ariplay can be sent to [email protected]
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erik neuteboom View Drop Down
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Points: 7659 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 21 2008 at 16:57

 

                         That's 408 pages too short, fellow Dutchman LOL !
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pierreolivier View Drop Down
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Points: 222 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 21 2008 at 20:34
Hi Erik,
 
I hope to get it soon. My parents will go to London,England next month and I commissionned them to bring me back the book.  I hope that it will be available in library and not just by the internet order.  Maybe you have informations about that, Erik.
 
On the other hand, I read on the Mellotron discussion board that a lot of Mellotron enthousiasts that already purchased the book were very disapointed by this book.  The book subject is mainly about the relation of the instrument with the rock scene, something that Mellotron fans already know.  I don't think that we will be learning something new with this book until you are a beginner with the subject.  I read on the board that all engineering and functionning of the instrument is totally absent in this book.  I will purchased it because books about trons are quite rare and want to make my own mind.  The first book that came out some years ago, "The Mellotron book" by Frank Samagaio is maybe less glamour but, at least, he treated about the technical side of the instrument and the informations there are truly essential for every fans of this instrument.
 
I will give my opinion when I will get my hand on it.  Until then, I cannot judge it but a book with more than 500 pages with more than 300 photos surely need to be checked.
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erik neuteboom View Drop Down
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Points: 7659 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 22 2008 at 11:04
Hello Pierreolivier, I knew you would find this thread Wink I have no problems with the fact the book mainly tells about the relationship between the Mellotron and the rock scene, I think the authors did it on purpose because the average Tronmaniac already owns books with the technical information about the Mellotron ... and they have read my Mellotron special LOL
I am looking forward to your review, thanks for posting.
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pierreolivier View Drop Down
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Points: 222 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 22 2008 at 15:57
Hi Erik,
 
I hope that this book will not be only about the rock scene.  What that will be interesting is having stories from the Streetly manufacture, at the time (60's and 70's).  Ex: what happens when princess Margaret place an order for a mellotron, or Peter Sellers.  That kind of informations is not well known, even by fans and will be interesting.Clap
 
 
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erik neuteboom View Drop Down
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Points: 7659 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 22 2008 at 16:09
 
              Indeed Pierreolivier, very interesting information, never heard of, call The Sun about
                        princess Margaret and the Mellotron and you will be on the front page LOL
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pierreolivier View Drop Down
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Points: 222 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 22 2008 at 16:37
Originally posted by erik neuteboom erik neuteboom wrote:

 
              Indeed Pierreolivier, very interesting information, never heard of, call The Sun about
                        princess Margaret and the Mellotron and you will be on the front page LOL
 
It's something that fans know( see PlanetMellotron article "Oddball owners") and Peter Sellers too.  On the biography of his, there's a chapter dedicated to the Mellotron Organ.Confused
 
In fact, Princess Margaret was a friend of Peter Sellers, who already had the instrument.  Princess Margaret like the sound and ordered one, a rare black and gold Mark II (the same model as Pink Floyd) but never pay it, citing  royal family privileges, but Streetly recovered the mellotron later for non-payement.  I saw a photo of it when it reside in Buckingham Palace, below a very 60's glass mirror, very odd.
 
Another one who owned a machine was L. Ron Hubbard, the Scientology guru.  He was an amateur musician and own a rosewood Mark II.  Apparently, that mellotron is near pristine condition and was never moved since he got delivery of it.  That mellotron is still in possession of the Scientology movement and still in his office of Scientology headquater in UK.


Edited by pierreolivier - August 23 2008 at 05:42
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erik neuteboom View Drop Down
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Points: 7659 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 22 2008 at 16:40
 
                     I wish the Scientology Church became silent after 7-8 seconds LOL !
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pierreolivier View Drop Down
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Points: 222 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 22 2008 at 17:10
Originally posted by erik neuteboom erik neuteboom wrote:

 
                     I wish the Scientology Church became silent after 7-8 seconds LOL !
 
Totally agreed with you Erik,Wink
After seeing that famous South Park episode, you can't take them serously.
 
But on this page, there's a pic of  L.Ron at the tron, as well as what is known about the princess Margaret story:
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erik neuteboom View Drop Down
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Points: 7659 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 22 2008 at 17:52

Your post is the great thing about this site: Tron-maniacs like you and me find each other and exchange their stories, thanks and we will meet again some day Thumbs%20Up
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pierreolivier View Drop Down
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Points: 222 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 22 2008 at 19:25
Originally posted by erik neuteboom erik neuteboom wrote:

Your post is the great thing about this site: Tron-maniacs like you and me find each other and exchange their stories, thanks and we will meet again some day Thumbs%20Up

 
I hope too, Erik! Thumbs%20Up
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