Whats your name? Matt Lawrence Where do you come from? Canterbury, Kent Do You own and organ? What? was crew on Roger Burvilles Mortier for a long time. You mayremember me from Dorset being the guy on stage doing all the barking. Why do you like mechanical music? Well i have basically grown up with it. It was my grandfather Tom Boorman who collected the Kluisberg with David Barlow from Perlees workshops in 1962. The orgn has been part of the family ever since.

Re: New Members- Introduce yourself here
<What’s Your Name? Stephen Simpson Where do you come From? Derbyshire Do you Own an Organ? What do you own? a 41 key Dutch street organ by Heesbeen, Limonaire style, called 'Marina', a Decap Herentals 105 key dance organ, now called 'Joy' after my late wife and a Le Ludion 24 key organ which I have owned since 1988 Why do you like mechanical music? I was fascinated by records my father had of the Thursford Marenghi and the Becquart Hooghuys and became hooked on a visit to Cleethorpes in Lincs where there used to be a gallopers with 89 key Gavioli... I got further hooked being allowed to operate organs at rallies in the 70's and decided to try my hand at arranging. I've never looked back and now send music all over the world under the name of Happy Cow Music

Hello iMOD people My grea-*test*-('") apologies for not introducing myself sooner I have been away visiting my family for a couple of days but came back home before the traffic got too heavy! I find driving a challenge these days. My name is Eddie Harrison I am from Torquay, England I don’t own an organ now, but I used to own a 30 Keyless Dean, which I sadly had to sell a few years ago due to not having the time to rally it, and I thought it would have been quite sad to leave it in my garage un-used. I now regret getting rid of it. I brought me a lot of joy over the 5 years I owned it. I cannot describe where the fascination came from mechanical music, I used to enjoy seeing the public reaction when rallying my dean, and miss seeing the surprised faces of people in my rallying days! I hope I get to know you all a bit better on this seemingly friendly forum, and possibly meet some of you if I am up to a bit of rally visiting this year (although I don’t get out and about like I used to!) With good wishes, Ed, Torquay.

Hi everyone, I notice that only 30 of you have posted anything here, so where are the other 60-odd? What’s Your Name? John Page Where do you come from? Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire Do you Own an Organ? What do you own? A partly-built 32-keyless hand-turned Why do you like mechanical music? Perhaps it's because my father was a mechanical engineer, my mother was a piano teacher, and my brother became a church organist. I didn't have a hope! A potted history: I used to be in mechanical engineering, like my father, but progressed into organ building from spending much of my time over a period of about ten years as an amateur, working mainly on church organs. I gradually got into it professionally and eventually set up a partnersip with Judith Howard. This lasted for about 5 years before we went our separate ways. I moved the business from the railway arch in Brixton to a more peaceful location in West Wales. During the 2+ years I was there I built 6 of the 10 new organs built from scratch, helped by my wife, Anna. Work (and money) was short, so we moved to Milton Keynes, where I gradually picked up more work, mostly on a part-time basis. The 32-keyless organ mentioned above was started in Wales in 1992, and is still not finished, although now I've resigned from the FOPS committee I will have the time to pick up the pieces. John

Hi John, Nice to hear from you and welcome to iMOD. I am sure you will have alot to add to the discussions. Best Wishes, James.

Name? Edward Nickson Where do you come from? Forton,Lancashire Do you have an organ? Not yet,but I am in talks with an organ builder to build a 52key street organ, Why do like mechanical music? Well it started when I was about 6 years old when I was sat under an unbrella in the pouring rain listening to an 89key Gavioli named the Lakelander.

What’s Your Name? Anna Page Where do you come From? Cape Town, South Africa but now live in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom Do you Own an Organ? What do you own? Yes. A nearly complete 32 key hand turned trumpet organ for which I am carving the decorative facade. We've been building it for years because there always seem to be other jobs that need doing (house decorating, studying, looking after children etc) Why do you like mechanical music? I had never heard of fairground organs until a friend in Cape Town suggested I become a pipe organ apprentice, but the local very small firm had too many apprentices so I wrote to firms in England, and eventually through various contacts was put in touch with Page & Howard. John interviewed me by post, I bought a first edition of 'The Fairground Organ' in a secondhand bookshop in Cape Town, then came to the UK a year later to work for John and pretty quickly became hooked on the sound of mechanical organs and poor John (blame his grey hairs on me and our girls!) Although I now work at The Open University rather than in organ building, I'm still keenly interested in pipe organs, and am currently helping our parish church raise much needed funds for refurbishing the church's 3 manual Willis.

What's your name? Neil and Marion Buckler. (Joint effort this one!) Where do you come from? Whitstable, Kent Do you own an organ? What do you own? 41 keyed Dutch Street Organ. 'Magic Accordeola' We brought it at the beginning of 2003 but as it needed a lot of work we did not take it out until the end of 2003. We often look at the forum and kept meaning to register but as Derek (Brice) has put a photo of our organ with his Sellindge photos it has given us that push we needed to introduce ourselves. Why do you like mechanical music? Good question! The varied music, the movement, we could go on. We have been attending steam rallies for over 30 years with various exhibits and Neil had always said that one day he would get an organ. Now we have one and there will be no going back.

Name, Nick Seymour From, Cranbrook in Kent. Organ owner - No - but married to organ owner. Bursens 69 (?) Westonian Ex Ian Crisp. Why - short answer to long story. We like music and have a machine that turns coal to electricity, what better use can that electricity be put to !.

What’s Your Name? Ian Postlethwaite Where do you come From? Salisbury, Wiltshire. Do you Own an Organ? What do you own? Well, not really an organ, but I have a project for an automatic dance band organ that will be entirely electronic. I have been slowly putting it together for over a year now and it is finished (in appearance) and now needs tone generators, electromagnets and a player system. I heard Alan Pell is strarting a new line of dance organs so hopefully I might be able to complete the project to a fully operational instrument. Why do you like mechanical music? I have always loved music, but mechanical organ interest came about when I was around 5/6 and I just remember my Auntie and Uncle when they were custodians of the A&R Marenghi. But it really started when I first seen Pam Corbin’s 54 keyless Dean “The Happy Wanderer” at Salisbury pleasure fair, which had taken place of the A&R, and got to go into the back and see how it works. I can remember after that making cardboard fronts resembling the Happy Wanderer with a tape player of Happy Wanderer organ tapes behind them. I also became interested in manually played organs as well, so now, as well as learning the piano I also play the pipe organ.

My name is Bruce R. Pier, and I live in San Diego, CA. I was a thirty year veteran of the outdoor amusement business. For most of those years tended to a 1890 Looff/Mangels three row carousel, complete with a 52 keyless Gebruder Bruder Model 107 organ. That all came to an end when the family trust that owned carousel was taken over by a bank, which promptly sold it. I'm forbidden by a restraining order to comment any further. After being out of work for a year, I found employment, but not in my previous line. Over the years I have serviced and or restored other carousels, and have worked in conjunction with a local organ builder in the restoration and servicing of numurous other organs of U. S and European heritage. It was a childhood fascination that eventually lead me to follow the mechanical Pied Piper

Richard Hutchinson
Name: Richard Hutchinson Organ: Colossus Type: Home Built (sort of equates to 89 key but meaningless really) Operating system: Laptop running bespoke software Ranks: 4, 8' ranks x 61 note (Glock to be added) Percussion: Bass drum, ride cymbal, Crash, block and snare. Pipework: Church organ pipework, including Flute, Salitional string, Diapason, and trumpet ranks ( All 105 year old Schultz pipework) Pressure: A mere 3.5" wg, but still quite loud! My wife and I live in Peterborough and I am a sales and Marketing manager for the 'National operatic & Dramatic Society' (NODA) First fell in love with mechanical organs when on holiday with my parents in Cornwall and we visited the St Agnes rally. Can't remember what organs were there, but from then on it was a dream of mine to own one! Couldn't afford an organ of the size I would be happy with so ... the rest is history! Colossus has had its share of flak, but I now feel that to some degree, it has been accepted and can stand on its own merit. It only gets tuned twice a year (doesn't need any more than that) and the pipework is very stable in all temps. (after all it started as an experiment to prove the concept, and it has become on-going, getting bigger all the time) Peter Clifton (whom a lot of you will already know) started the facade for me and made a marvellous job too - just have to finish the rest now! Oh for more time! My email is visible so I hope that a few friends I made on the FOPS forum will drop me a line and re-establish contact.