Mellotronists

On Saturday, March 6, 2004, at 10:10  am, Ignacio Nieto Carvajal wrote:
>
> Um... you are right, in the 60's they must cost much much more :-$. So 
> you are not THAT old, jejeje. But in 1988 getting a working mellotron 
> must have been a complete adventure.


You're right!

My first one was scruffy but worked reasonably well. I bought it at a 
shop called the Music & Hi-Fi Exchange in Kentish Town Road in North 
London for £120. I then saw an advert for a (badly!!) restored 'Tron 
once owned by Manfred Mann's Earthband for £400. This one came with a 
couple of frames with sax sounds as well as the standard frame, so I 
sold my original for what I paid for it and thought I'd done well! The 
second machine never really worked very well, and one tape was missing 
in the standard frame.

As Martinge will testify, a couple of years of high interest rates at 
the bank and ill health meant that  needed to sell my second 'Tron in 
around 1990 to pay a mortgage payment on my house.
Ouch...... Les Bradley and Martin bought it (telling me I was mad to 
sell it!!) and that machine was later restored (PROPERLY!) and became 
the main Mellotron featured on the "Rime" album.

I always kept in touch with Martin, and much later, after years of 
Tronless existence, a night at a Julian Cope gig inspired me to bite 
the bullet and buy a fab restored Streetly machine (viewable on the 
'pics' page of http://www.technostalgia.org ) Very lovely and now part 
of the family!!

You'll have a lifetime of fun with yours!!

C

http://www.s-club.co.uk
        Sundae Club*
    [there ain't no party]