50 years of classy guitar
You
know how it is. You wander into a boozer and there's a band on. Old
guys, enjoying themselves. Stripped down PA, maybe not even a stage.
Seems fun, seems harmless. Nice to have a bit of live stuff while you
drink.
Until you pay attention to what's going down. It may not be radical cutting edge stuff, but, hey, sometimes, those old guys catch you unawares. Comfortable as you
like, not remotely fashionable, but they can play. And if you're very lucky, after the lessons
learned, and the chops polished by years of live work, those old boys
can just... knock you out.
Chains, tape loops, springs, lots of odd moving parts, and a lot of love. Two gentlemen boomers keep a key sound of Progrock alive.
If you're any age at all, you'll have heard the mellotron. The Moody Blues used it constantly. There it is at the start of the Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever; it's all over the White Album. King Crimson fans? There it is at the Court of the Crimson King.
The mellotron sounds... weird. That's partly its appeal. Inside, it's a mishmash of bicycle chains, springs, recording tape and, depending on the age of the machine, more or less tech wizardry. It was built in Streetly, a suburb of North Birmingham which can't decide whether it's dead posh or dead rough. There's a blue plaque marking the original factory site in Aldridge Road. That was nearly fifty years ago. Now, the resurrected Streetly Electronics, creators of the first mellotron, have a thriving business. They make new mellotrons; they fix old ones; they even sell digital samples to add to your range of keyboard sounds.
The miracle is that it was invented in the first place; a second miracle is that mellotron use continues to thrive.
