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