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Topics - Lucien Nunes

#1
To celebrate the 80th birthday of the largest original Compton in the land, we invite you to our Open Day event featuring:

* Special interactive demonstration with mobile camera in the chambers and an organist at the console; showing on-screen, describing and demonstrating the organ's 50 ranks and many features.
* Insights and demonstrations of Compton's ingenious original technologies including the Melotone, luminous stops and the remarkable electrical combination data memory.
* Short open-console sessions for players to try out the beast for themselves.
* Performance by Richard Hills - a master of this uniquely versatile civic-hall instrument.

There should be plenty of Compton Boffins on hand to answer any questions you've ever had about the man and his instruments.

At the 02 Southamption Guildhall, West Marlands Road, Southampton SO14 7LP. 2pm 1/10/17
Tickets £12 / £10 concs. from the box office: 023 8063 2601
or at https://academymusicgroup.com/o2guildhallsouthampton/events/1014825/compton-organ-open-day-featuring-richard-hills-tickets
Refreshments will be available during the interval

Look forward to seeing you at the SGH

Lucien

#2
Robert's search for Electrones on behalf of us electrostatic fiends reminds me that there is another type of electrostatic organ that needs to be found and added to our museum collection by way of comparison and contrast. That is the Wurlitzer electrostatic reed organ, successor to the Everett Orgatron, either of which I would be interested to acquire, working or not.

Models of interest are as follows:

Original Everett Orgatron eg. models 600 & 700
Wurlitzer keyed-reed models 20, 21, 25, 30, 31, 45, 46, 50
Free-running reed spinet models 44, 4410, 4420, 4430, 4460, 4462
Free-running reed console models 4600, 4601, 4602, 4800

This is the last of the main technologies of the era that we don't yet have represented, so if you know of one of these looking for a home you could fill in one of the blanks.
Thanks
#3
The Southampton Guildhall Compton has not been recorded for a long time. Now, to mark its 75th anniversary, we're proud to bring you 'Grand Variety' with Richard Hills at the (two) consoles of Compton's magnum opus - playing classics, show tunes, novelties and more. The Guildhall organ is a comprehensive 50 rank + Melotone instrument with two entirely different 4-manual consoles, one designed for performing classics (the Grand console) and one for light music (the Variety console). Richard has masterful control of this beast whichever console he is seated at, but I need not eulogise any further as a review has just come in from Carlo Curley...

Review of Grand Variety by Carlo Curley: http://www.ssfweb.co.uk/silverst/html/carlo_curley_review.html
Hear samples and buy the CD online: http://www.ssfweb.co.uk/silverst/html/grand_variety.html
Guildhall organ's own website: http://www.guildhall-compton.org.uk/
See us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/groups/211948242234668/

Enjoy the music!

Lucien
#4
Organ building and maintenance / Rockingham Blowers
January 05, 2012, 01:36:03 PM
Please can anyone point me in the direction of historical information on the Rockingham Engineering Co. of Thornton Heath and /or their blowers. I believe that they were in the organ blowing business fairly early on, however they seem to have lost out to Watkins & Watson and their contemporaries possibly due to the latter's more modern and technically superior design of blower. Does anyone have any background on P.W. Rockingham (who seems to have been an electrical engineer) or his eponymous company? So far all that has come to light are adverts from the 20's / 30's  and incidental references in a few books, such as Whitworth.

It was the latter reference that first aroused my interest in the marque, when I was perhaps 10 years old. At that time I was only familiar with the Discus and Duplex blowers. There was mention of 'the colossal Rockingham equipment at Liverpool (IIRC)' and as an enthusiast of big old electrical plant I imagined it would be quite something to see if it survived, given the size of the instrument.
TIA
Lucien
#5
Electronic Organs / Compton CL72 - what was it?
January 03, 2012, 11:02:57 PM
Rather an obscure question but somebody might just know...
Around the late 60s, Compton marketed a home spinet organ with the model number CL72. This should arouse suspicion, because it's just not like an ordinary Compton model number. The 72 could be an allusion to 1972 as many Compton numbers included two digits of the launch year, but it doesn't seem to marry up. More surprising yet is that the voicing is controlled by drawbars. To the best of my knowledge, no other Compton product had drawbars. So... was the CL72 a rebadged electronic made by someone else, and not a Compton Electrone at all?

BTW anyone interested in Compton Electrones can find lots of new material on my site at http://www.electrokinetica.org/d8/1/index.php

Lucien

#6
Miscellaneous & Suggestions / Hello from a new member
December 19, 2011, 09:19:40 PM
Having signed up a few weeks ago I thought I had better actually say hello!

My interest in organs started when just a few years of age. From the outset, it was divided between an enjoyment of the music and a fascination with the instruments themselves. Abiding memories from my early years include:
Sitting on someone's lap on the bench of a Wurlitzer electronic in wonderment at all the music he could get out of it.
Getting a harmonium for my 7th birthday.
Listening to Carlo Curley on his first visit to Alexandra Palace with the Allen.
My first attempt at playing a pipe organ at a school where my then piano-teacher (who had studied organ with George Thalben-Ball) taught organ too.

I took a few organ lessons in my teens, the content of which is now entirely forgotten, and tried to learn a little about organ-building in my spare time both by reading and by poking around inside local instruments. However before achieving a reasonable standard of playing, or learning enough of the craft to be useful at repairing, nor even being familiar with the standard repertoire and prominent artists, my interest in the organ began to wane. In truth it had always been overshadowed by an interest in electrical engineering and the history of electrical technology, also since being knee-high to a flautino. Predictably, I went on to study electrical engineering, work in electrical engineering, collect vintage electrical artefacts as a hobby, and generally be electrically obsessed.

Then one fateful day after a decade of only occasional brushes with the organ, mostly by way of repairing other peoples' Hammonds and electronics, I fell to wondering about Compton 'Electrone' electrostatic organs. A picture of Electrone tone generators seen in a book 25 years previously came to mind; now was the time to find an example to add to my collection of electromechanical stuff. Cutting to the chase, for better or worse I now have a collection of 25 electric organs, a commercial involvement in cinema organ restoration and conservation, and a generally rekindled interest especially in unusual electric actions. These days I can even knock out a semi-listenable version of Give My Regards to Broadway or Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, although I fear my best work will always be inside the back of the console, not sitting on the bench. Well, that's what the listeners tell me!

Lucien