Mellotronists

Following is a pretty funny excerpt I found on
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,2100-14411-
1429736,00.html:

RICK WAKEMAN So in love was Wakeman with the Mellotron that he
bought the company, Victor Kayam-style, in the late Seventies.
Sadly, the Mellotron's era was ten years before — Sergeant
Pepper, Nights in White Satin, et al — and 15 years hence, when
the likes of Air brought its plaintive qualities back into fashion.

The Mellotron was an unwieldy machine that operated on a series of
tape loops that were frustratingly hard to tune, but Wakeman's
dream-come-true was to create a supersize Mellotron which he
cunningly named the Birotron, which made it sound like a cheap
plastic version that shatters easily underfoot. Thirty-five
Birotrons were built before the company went belly up. Nobody I know
has ever heard one, and only six are said to have survived, one of
which recently sold for $35,000.

Wakeman, broke after a series of divorces, sadly flogged his own
Birotron long ago.


Bernie
M400 #500 in the oven