----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 12:30 AM
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] Somewhat OT - Glass Hammer
In a message dated 12/5/2006 5:37:54 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,
capt_carbonarc@... writes:
I just heard these guys on XM. Went to the website, listened to the
samples. My first thought was "It's YES meets Genesis meets Styx
meets Rush meets ELP meets Alan Parsons Project meets......Focus! !!
Plus Rennaisance and Marrillion!" Thoughts? Musings? Flames?
I've met them and some of those guys were A class Assholes. Especially their stage manager. I'll Never forget him telling me that he once had a Mellotron but the tapes kept slipping so he "sandblasted his shaft,∗" in which he claims that he actually sandblasted the capstan. I guess his tapes didn't last long. He was astonished at how good the Trons I supplied to Anglagard sounded. Glass Hammer had bought along a set of barely working Taurus pedals. They couldn't get them to work for their show, but they agreed to lend them to Anglagard for their show. My son and I worked on them for hours and highly modified them(photo available upon request). They worked flawlessly for Johan during the Anglagard show and then died... never to work again. SAD! Mattias, I'm sure, can confirm this story, as during that period, I also repaired his accordion and his Chamberlin Rhythmate as well as a pair of Rhodes pianos.
Note:Glass Hammer's guitarist was a hell of a nice guy.
∗this phrase has now become part of the NEARfest lexicon, as in,"how's your shaft?" Which calls for the reply, "recently sandblasted, thanks." Most amusing is that this story has made the rounds and we Tronists most enjoy laughing about it.
Frank
Nice story, Frank :-) Shame that a) some of them were dickheads (why do so many musicians do this?) and b) the Taurus died. :-( So do we get to see the photo?