In a message dated 9/28/2009 2:04:42 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time, andy.thompson@ virgin.net writes:
Doubtless, but as someone else said (Mark?), how many people REALLY care about tape-replay instruments? I'm pleased she's made the film, but I'm not sure how many people are going to be interested in the 'outside world'. I have no problem with the contemporary musicians angle - the footage of Patrick Warren (?) 'playing' his Chamby's drive-wheel was fab.
Seriously, does/did anyone on this list suffer from the delusion that our fixation on this wonderful mechanical beast would ever translate to the masses? Both Nick Awde and I knew that our respective books on the Mellotron were for a niche market, would just be a curiosity to the rest of the world (e.g., the dude in the M4000 L.A. video), and would never be candidates for the NYT Best Seller list. Likewise, Dianna's film appeals to the same niche market, and I'm sure she's not losing any sleep over not being nominated for a Palm d'Or or a Golden Globe. As great as I hear the M4000 is, does anyone really think that sales numbers, in the long run, are going to dwarf that of any and all previous models? One can hope otherwise, but the practical reality is that anything regarding the Mellotron is destined for the aforesaid niche market (even within the general music community). While I can't speak for either Nick or Dianna on the following, I know that my experience in writing The Mellotron Book brought me in contact with a publisher that, while enthusiastic about the project, still fell outside the niche market and saw it as a novelty, hence the publisher's (not my) reference to the farcical description of the Mellotron as a "tape loop organ". I didn't lose sleep over that, assuming that those "in the know" already understand.
F.