Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Mellotronists
Subject: Re: [Mellotronists] First time you ever saw a live band use a
From: lsf5275@...
Date: 2003-08-14
The first time I ever saw a Mellotron on stage was around 1972 I think, at the Baltimore Civic Center. It as The Moody Blues. I was freshly engaged (didn't make it to the altar). As may be expected, I was blown away! That Mellotron filled the entire center and made my jaw drop.
My next live exposure was Genesis at the Tower Theater in 1973. for the Selling England tour. Another Jaw Dropping experience. A year or so later it was#3 at the Philadelphia Spectrum. I was fourth row center with a friend who was blind. He said he could "see" the lights and could feel the music and for him, for many years afterwards, it was a "religious" experience.
Although I had many opportunities to see Mellotrons played live (including me playing one, early on), the next "jaw dropping" experience was this year at NEARfest when I saw Mattias' band Anglagard use three onstage for their show. Consummate musicianship from a wonderful group of people. And what made it really special was to watch them playing three Mellotrons that I had restored and supplied for their show. It was truly awesome!
If you've never seen Anglagard, or if you've never seen Mattias Olsson play the drums (and practically everything else you can think of), let me say that he's a fabulous drummer.
Frank Stickle (400SM #1562 and now currently restoring M400S #1225)