----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, July 14, 2004 6:23 AM
Subject: [Mellotronists] Strawbs at NEARfest (was: Strawbs at the Birchmere, Alexandria, Va.)
Jim/all
Was The Musical Box also using your M400? Besides the M400, they had another keyboard set up to look like a mellotron, but I couldn't tell what it really was... (<cough> sampler?) do you know, Frank? It seemed to me like the tron was set up just for show... when I heard tron sounds he seemed to be playing the other, taller keyboard. I thought maybe he also used the same keyboard for his hammond sounds.
For some reason, I've run into some real unpleasantness on other lists when I've commented adversely on The Musical Box. Nonetheless, I don't mind saying here that they haven't used a real 'Tron since the legendary Pierre V.left them, some years ago. Saying that, maybe they used Frank's at NEARfest? I actually find them astonishingly wooden (the band, not the 'Tron) - more like a theatrical performance with the music as an afterthought, although I've been metaphorically torn apart for saying so. And 'upper-class English as spoken by a native French speaker' does NOT work...
Hmm, any chance of getting Martin Orford to borrow your tron when IQ plays NEARfest next year? :)
After some recent (friendly) correspondence with Martin on the subject of 'Trons, I doubt it! If it's fantastically well set-up, he just might, but I wouldn't bet on it. And yes, it's most definitely sampled everything on the new IQ, apart from some real Taurus pedals, apparently.
Andy T.