I did go and knew about it enough in advance because there was some talk of using the Double Mellotron, though that didn't happen partly because I made samples for him from that machine a while back.
Here is the set list:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The Realization
The Spaceman
Catherine Parr
The Visit
Intermission
Jane Seymour (Rick solo)
(Tony Fernadez solo)
Sea Horses
King Arthur
The Last Battle
Lancelot and the Black Knight
Merlin the Magician
And for an encore
Starship Trooper
It was pretty good overall. The band were all excellent musicians, though I'm sure some might find Ashley Holt's vocals (the fat guy singing on Journey To The Centre of the Earth) not so great. They didn't bother me though.
Rick used Mellotron samples and has a selection from various sources which he mixes together, so this might offset any differences in sound quality. Whether that's a real solution or not is debatable I suppose.
Also, I had Rick autograph a Birotron tape deck. This is out of an unfinished prototype for the model that was to follow the production model. Rick was quite surprised to see it and mentioned that 4 Birotrons went to Germany for use in studios that did electronic music. These studios were the first customers. I guess this would perhaps be Klaus Schulze's studio? What does Andy Thompson think - Andy are you there?? This certainly could be where Earthstar would have recorded.
The original plan was that he would be using my Mini-Moog for one of
his 'boards, but Craig Collette - who was ∗supposed∗ to be handling
back-line for the event - hadn't heard anything from the promoters by
the preceding Friday, so it never happened (he did manage to get my
unit fixed, though). As I was out of town for the w/end, I decided to
stay longer, rather than rushing back and paying $70.
Craig Collett has been a great guy. He's very competent and has been willing to go the extra mile for people. He even gave me some electronic bits I needed once. Unfortunately some of the people he has working for or under him are not the same at all.
When I left the Rick Wakeman Double Tron at his place for additional tweaking, somehow a few of his "people" very clearly dinged up the cabinet, and then wouldn't take responsibility for it. The odd ding here or there doesn't bug me, and should be expected of course, and also that instrument is not easy to move, but there comes a point where it's obvious that either carelessness or negligence has been involved. What was worse was their (shit happens man) attitude when I asked about it. This was years ago so I'd hope by now they've been fired and aren't damaging any more valuable equipment. I can't tell you how pissed I was after spending so many years and so much money and involving other people's precious time (Jerry Korb / John Bradley) in getting that machine up to snuff only to have to deal with such a needless and avoidable problem especially when it was there for repair in the first place.
Anyway on the bright side - James - you're smart to deal with Craig directly. And Jim over there was a good guy too.
Chris Dale
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