via Brian Kehew:"Two good friends of ours were getting married, and asked Roger Manning and I (the Moog Cookbook) to play the wedding. It's not something we would normally do, but these would really good friends. We decided to surprise them by doing the show in tuxedos and space helmets, on a Mellotron Mk.II. This Mk.II is one of a few made in black, originally came from Graham Nash of the Hollies.
In order to prepare, I did some demos of the tunes, and have some mp3s of this. As you may have seen the LEFT side of the MkII is all rhythm parts and "fills" (instruments that superimpose over the rhythms.) The RIGHT side keyboard has all the main sounds you know from Mellotrons. I've added a custom set of sounds on the right, but what you hear is mainly stock sounds; basically what a 1964 Mellotron demo performance would be like, but with more modern songs. It's only a 2-track recording (left and right) without editing, just played live, but that does show how cool the Mellotron sound was when played as intended. If people like these, I have more to hear sometime..."
1) California Dreamin' (Mamas and the Papas)
2) The Model (Kraftwerk; featuring bits of JMJarre's "Magnetic Fields" inserted)"
mp3s and wma's here
Surely that's the sharpest looking Mellotron currently on the planet. Brian, you gotta dig up and post at least one pic of the MC at the wedding - sounds too good not to.
ReplyDeleteWho wants more?
ReplyDeleteI do! I do!
wooohooo
ReplyDeleteI love it!!
And my kid can't stop laughin!
Super
Thanks, I will try to post more. I wish I had time to redo these with polish, but it was a demo that just barely gets the "parts" across.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few other black MkIIs that look as good out there (at least one more in LA, one in London, etc). And this one has been refinished (alas losing the logo) but the paint cracked all over. Someday it will get redone if I get picky about it.
this is fabulous.
ReplyDeletevery very nice
ReplyDeleteya, told me about 10 years ago about a optigan prototype you (might have been Roger..) found in a record store. what the hell was the story with that? the rival optigan guy who made a repairable one. any chance of that getting up on here? been so goddam curios about that thing!
ReplyDeleteps: any version of Morricone hits filtered thru your Trans/N. Young phased dinner mellotron mk II would be wonderful. actually if you play anything i will listen. natch!