> There's no doubt that it's a 400. The 400 Cello sound is in Calling
> Occupants as well, and the present owner of the Klaatu tron (can't recall
> his name) was at Tronto in 2001 I believe.
Not quite - each member of Klaatu had a Mellotron of their own, all of
which feature on 'Calling Occupants'. They sold them in the 1980s to
raise some cash for an ill-forsaken studio project that came to nothing.
In 1998 I had the following exchange with Jaimie Vernon, then of Attic
Records and major Klaatu fan. He said...
> Okay...talked to Terry (and had a previous conversation with John W.
> about it)...
>
> When Klaatu were recording the first few singles, producer Terry Brown
> would get all the latest gizmos and top-of-the-line innovative products
> at his studio before anyone else in North America.
>
> The band got their hands on a Mellotron in 1973 when they recorded 'Dr.
> Marvello' which was rented by Brown...they liked it soooo much that when
> it came time to record 'Calling Occupants' they decided to buy one.
>
> They got it from a place called Larry Sykes (Sikes?) Electronics and
> Music store on Danforth Avenue in Toronto in 1975.
>
> The band kept and used the machine until they disbanded in 1982...
>
> In the early 1990's Terry sold it through an advertisement in a local
> newspaper.
>
> I've since run into somebody who knows the guy that bought it...I will
> track him down and get his name (though after talking to Terry, he's
> sort of interested in maybe buying it back from the guy now).
>
> Meanwhile, Dee and his business partner John Jones (who produced Duran
> Duran's comeback albums in the 1990's) apparently owned one in the early
> '80's and would have sold it upon moving to England in 1984.
>
> I'll contact both of them and see what happened. Jones uses Mellotron on
> a lot of his recordings (most recently on the lead-off single for
> ex-Glass Tiger singer Alan Frew's solo release in 1995).
>
> And...there's a new female artist out of Canada who has been spouting
> off about using Mellotron on her new album...but like, Jones, these
> might actually be samples...OR they might be into the authentic thing...
>
> Lenny Kravitz AND Matthew Sweet in the States both own one (or at least
> did) last time I heard...
It later transpired that they bought one each and couldn't decide who
was to play what so they played them all.
It's funny how things turn out; back then, Jaimie was running a small
repress label in Toronto. When I aske him about the availability of
Klaatu records he went out to an indie shop in Canada and bought them
for me. Now he has the rights to some of the opublication of their back
catalogue and put together the 'Sunset' retrospective boxed set for
them.
> When the Klaatu album first came out in 1976, there was a lot of
> speculation that it was the Beatles reformed under a new name.
That rumour was started by an Australian DJ who really should have known
better.
Mike Dickson (
tron@...) M400 #996
The Official Cynic of Streetly Electronics
Streetly Sample Library
http://www.blackcat.demon.co.uk/tron/