I actually heard about this last year from Dave Biro himself. He was in a
band in CT, I think, at the time that "Tales from Topographic Oceans" came
out, and -- wanting to perform the album whole -- he decided he needed a
Mellotron. But! He didn't have the money for such a dear (in both senses)
instrument. So he proceeded to rig up his own homegrown version, using
surplus 8-tracks and a keyboard from an old upright piano that a friend had
donated. Once he'd got the thing working (more or less), and Yes happened to
be playing in town, he nervously went up to Rick Wakeman after the show and
told him what he'd come up with. And thereby hangs a very expensive tale for
Rick and Co.
Biro's in Florida now, working in an audio store, and has a Birotron that
Dave Kean very kindly secured for him. (Biro's old Birotron was *thrown out*
-- augh! -- by the repo men when his house was taken by the bank many years
ago.) I've only talked with him by e-mail, but he seems like a very nice
guy, and pleased that people still take an interest in his old invention.
Cheers,
Paul Collins
In a message dated 1/7/03 7:59:23 PM, mellotrongirl@... writes:
<< I know how Bradmatic, Streetly, Chamberlin, etc. came to be and how
they started up, but a guy only manufacturing a mere handful of units
makes one wonder about what inspired him to design and manufacture
this brief run of Birotrons. Did he hear a similar machine and wanted
to make his own smaller version? Is he a musician? How did this
venture fare for him financially? How did he connect with Wakeman?
Who did he line up to make them...was there a factory with hired
hands? I'd sure like to see an interview on the 'Net with this guy
and how he got motivated and followed through! I get the impression
this is a one-man effort, and I'm sure he's got one heckuva tale to
tell!
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Mellotronists-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
----------------------- Headers --------------------------------
Return-Path:
<sentto-4520792-1874-1041998242-paulcllins=aol.com@...>
Received: from rly-xm03.mx.aol.com (rly-xm03.mail.aol.com [172.20.83.104])
by air-xm03.mail.aol.com (v90.10) with ESMTP id MAILINXM32-0107225923; Tue,
07 Jan 2003 22:59:23 1900
Received: from n28.grp.scd.yahoo.com (n28.grp.scd.yahoo.com [66.218.66.84])
by rly-xm03.mx.aol.com (v90.10) with ESMTP id MAILRELAYINXM36-0107225908;
Tue, 07 Jan 2003 22:59:08 -0500
X-eGroups-Return:
sentto-4520792-1874-1041998242-paulcllins=aol.com@...
Received: from [66.218.67.192] by n28.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 08 Jan
2003 03:57:23 -0000
X-Sender: mellotrongirl@...
X-Apparently-To: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
Received: (EGP: mail-8_2_3_0); 8 Jan 2003 03:57:20 -0000
Received: (qmail 41659 invoked from network); 8 Jan 2003 03:57:19 -0000
Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217)
by m10.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 8 Jan 2003 03:57:19 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO n26.grp.scd.yahoo.com) (66.218.66.82)
by mta2.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 8 Jan 2003 03:57:18 -0000
Received: from [66.218.67.143] by n26.grp.scd.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 08 Jan
2003 03:57:18 -0000
To: Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
Message-ID: <avg7iu+iiih@...>
User-Agent: eGroups-EW/0.82
X-Mailer: Yahoo Groups Message Poster
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From: "mellotrongirl <mellotrongirl@...>" <mellotrongirl@...>
X-Yahoo-Profile: mellotrongirl
MIME-Version: 1.0
Mailing-List: list Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com; contact
Mellotronists-owner@yahoogroups.com
Delivered-To: mailing list Mellotronists@yahoogroups.com
Precedence: bulk
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:Mellotronists-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Wed, 08 Jan 2003 03:57:18 -0000
Subject: [Mellotronists] David Biro's inspiration to build Birotrons.
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
>>
