Mellotronists

Hi y'all,

Must... tell... story....

Oh well, Greg Walker's M400 s/n 968 was there but the most use that it saw
was holding up the Minimoog Voyager in Par Lindh's set. Reportedly it was
tried in Focus' soundcheck but there was some kind of hum when hooked into
the DI and they decided not to use it (Mr. van Leer did not trust it). I
heard about this from the hotel and scurried over to the theater for Friday
soundcheck and it was set up in the back room behind the stage - I had it
working just fine over a little test PA. I popped the lid and checked it
out, seemed to be in fine shape, except for the missing tape bin lid
(another missing tape lid bin? are my machines the only ones with tape bin
lids?). Cut a piece of cardboard and stuck it over the alignment pins, and
declared it safe to use, but nobody wanted to trust it.

During Par Lindh's set there were calls from the audience of "play the
Mellotron!" which made me chuckle, but alas it wasn't even powered up. Like
I said, holding up the Voyager.

The Voyager belonged to Alfonso (keyboardist for Cast, promoter of the show)
as did the beautiful B3 and Leslie 122 and most if not all of the rest of
the huge piles of gear. (He's worse than I am!) Everybody was ga-ga over the
Voyager, so it appeared in the keyboard setups for 4 of the bands in a cameo
role. Except for PFM - Flavio Premoli used it extensively for the famous
"voice of PFM", along with the B3. I was pleasantly surprised to see him
dump the all-digital rig that they've been using live over the last couple
of years, and use the real Hammond and Moog. Boy did that work out well. All
the original band members were playing, with the exception of the
violin/flute player, whose part was filled in by the violinist from the
Italian band Deux Ex Machina. Can't get much better than that.

During sound check the PFM guys were struggling to get the "normal" minimoog
sound out of the Voyager, and I had leaked out to Flavio that I had one
myself, so darnit I was the Moog tech once again... darn all those new
modulation switches! I also got Flavio to sign the inside of Greg's
Mellotron lid. After sound check the band needed a ride back to the hotel,
so I held up the keys to our truck and said "I've got eight seats". My wife
caught wind of this and caught us before we left, squeezing in and sitting
on their laps. I declared that the fare would be everybody signing the liner
notes on her copy of Photos of Ghosts. It's important to have a happy wife.
:)

(For the benefit of PFM fans, they opened with Photos of Ghosts, eventually
played most of it, mixed in some new stuff, some older stuff, a great
rendition of The World Became The World, and everything on "Cook", pretty
much note-for-note.)

Pretty much still feelin' kinda stoked... got lots and lots of jpegs, but
I'm not sure if I should attach to list mail. Unless?

So, sadly, not a lot of Mellotron action when there should have been. Must
try again next time. Didn't manage to hook up with any list members - eager
to hear what you thought!!!

- Gene

M400S #1023
M400S #1213
M400S #1289