Jump to content
Mander Organ Builders Forum

MusoMusing

Members
  • Posts

    192
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by MusoMusing

  1. BIOS possibly, but I see a huge restriction with that. Compton made such a huge range of things....a photoplayer, a player organ or two, numerous church organs, small Miniatura extension instruments, cinema organs with spectacular illuminated surrounds, fascinating components like npne other, luminous touch consoles, amazing inventions on file as patent applications and drawings; not to mention the electrostatic Melotones and the machinery of them . Producing a paper publication brings with it a restriction; that of photo limitations. With an electronic publication, the number of photographs is virtually unlimited, and believe me, I have a huge collection; many of them donated by other enthusiasts. Also, from a commercial point of view, I very much doubt that the anticipated sales could justify the cost of hard print, but I suppose there is an international interest; especially among cinema theatre-organ enthusiasts. All that is for the future, which isn't far away. I need to revise and clarify the electronic section, which is quite tricky to get right, even though people have been very generous with their time and superior scholarship As things stand, I'm at about 55,000 words, which probably amounts to about 180 pages with photographs. I've already written about the last years of the company, as well as Hull City Hall and the Jimmy Taylor masterpiece at St Brides, so once the electronic section is finished, it should be just a case of revising, tidying things up and correcting any mistakes. Never write a book! It's worse than writing fugues!
  2. The fire at Selby Abbey was, I believe, the result of the gas engine powering the organ blower, which burst into flames. I didn't read the Yorkshire Post spread, but apparently, the local fire brigade couldn't put the fire out, because the town water supply was turned off at night. The Fire Brigade sent a message to their colleagues in Leeds, and they sent a fire appliance "drawn by four fast horses". (25 miles away, or so). Sir John Betjamin broadcast from Selby Abbey, and I always love his description of the benefactor who funded the re-building of the abbey "It was paid for by that ultra protestant, clock-making millionaire; Lord Grimshaw." MM
  3. Malcolm, that would be wonderful, for a very simple reason. John Compton was a very private, refined gentleman, who kept himself to himself. Almost nothing is known about him at the personal level, and in many ways, that leaves a hole in the story. We know what he did, but we never glimpse the inner soul. Apart from crashing his car on the way to see Peter Whitlock, the only thing I've come across was the alleged claim by JC that he had been married and had a son who died in infancy. Going purely on instinct, this just doesn't seem credible, and having told his adopted niece about it, he said that this was the end of the matter and he never wanted anyone to raise the subject again. It would be wonderful to learn that he smoked 40 Woodbines a day and accidentally burned his factory down three times, or that he had a liking for Guiness and hard-boiled eggs....but there's almost nothing to suggest that he was human. MM
  4. Sorry Robert, I was being slightly cryptic, but I think you will understand where I was coming from. Unfortunately, my experience of York only began with Francis and the Walker re-build, but I have heard the organ in recent years, when I popped through the West Door and heard a wonderful performance of the Bach A Minor. It still sounded like it was coming from Hull or Selby! Never mind chamades, you need DIAPHONES! MM
  5. The Compton Story started off as an innocent pastime, but grew and grew and grew. For anyone who has a year to spare, it's worth digging back in the Mander Forum files under 'Compton'. It turned out to be a massive subect, with all sorts of twists and turns, but the lack of a proper company paper-trail, things which obscure what really happened and technical details which are very complex, have all conspired to slow the process down. The trouble is, no-one other than Elvin has really tracked the complete history, but in fairness, he did cover a lot due to the fact that Compton and many of his people were still alive. So in researching the history, I made it a rule that everything must have at least two and ideally three separate sources to back things up, and that has included pouring over patent drawings and application scripts, delving into alternative (often non-musical) sources of information as well as more normal things. For an organ-building company, the story is quite unlike any other, covering almost every aspect of organ manufacture, including player organs, cinema organs, church organs, dual-purpose organs and early electronics.....even one of the world's first combination organs (electronics and pipes). I'm currently battling with the electronic side of things, and when that is done, I should be onto home ground again. Almost certainly, it will be an electronic publication, because I don't expect it to win prizes or go to the top of a best-seller list, and sitting on a couple of pallets of printed books is not an attractive proposition. MM
  6. Utterly depressing....what happened to education and working-class pride? At £250 per pipe, I think I want to be an organ- pipe inspector. At 6,000 pipes, that works out at £1.5 million, less the cost of a noddy suit and breathing apparatus. It's obviously more lucrative to destroy organs than it is to make them, play them or re-build them.
  7. Don't the BBC have some sort of informal "organ club"? I should know more, but I don't. The Maida Vale instrument SHOULD be quite easy to deal with, because there's not a terrible amount of organ there in the first instance, unlike Wolverhampton, which was possibly at least twice the physical size, and suspended from the roof. MM
  8. I await developments with interest. All my life, the York instrument always sounded a bit distant, except at close range, yet after the Walker re-build, at least it had enormous character and colour. I'll stick my neck over the organ-loft curtain, by suggesting that the organ will ALWAYS sound distant, no matter what happens, and this is why:- People go to Alkmaar and marvel at the clarity and cohesion of the whole; suggesting that Schnitger knew best. People tried to copy and import the sound to the UK, with very patchy results. (York was a good example of this) But look at the facts. How many people realise, that the WHOLE of St Lauren's church, Alkmaar, would neatly fit into the North/South transept area of York Minster? How many people realise that a quite large church could be up-ended and placed up the tower at the crossing? Acoutstically, the transepts are almost cut off from the main body of the Minster, and so too is the tower space, yet that is where most pf the sound from the organ goes, before washing back as a confused mess. Tone cabinets? Tone chutes? Enormous scales? Heavy pressures? Sorry guys......but this is York Minster; the largest gothic church North of the Alps. The only REAL way is to knock the building down and start again! MM
  9. I shall have to investigate the past a little, but Steve Tovey and fellow enthusiasts had the removal of the organ, storage and eventual re-installation in hand.....all for free, if memory serves correctly! MM
  10. I'm not sure that the monetary value and/or contractual arrangements make the case for scrapping something which would clearly be very expensive to replace. Councils have a duty to maintain and protect public assets, many of which cannot be valued as if they were items in an auction. All hell broke loose when "they" refurbished the local library, because the owl which used to sit in a bird-box beneath the decorative dome, went missing. (Carnegie Library, incidentally) The bird turned up again, so they stuck it on top of the college. Hoots of anguish! Finally, the bird ended up back on its perch in the bird-box, which put together, must have cost a small fortune. No-one said the bird was only worth £10 as scrap bronze! Perish the thought! "Value" is not just a monetary estimate, as politicians need to be reminded of from time to time. MM
  11. The dangers of asbestos are widely understood in the building and demolition trades, I would have thought. Simple logic tells me that asbestos will float around in the air for some time, or fall in bigger lumps where it lands.....it was a ceiling area they were demolishing. I would make the point, that any contamination of the organ is no better or worse than any other contamination in the building, and it must be understood that most of the organ pipes were contained in swell boxes. The action is almost entirely contained. John Compton was very particular about dust and dirt, and more or less sealed everything from the outside world. Presumably they will not be knocking the whole civic hall down, simply because someone "assumes" that the whole place is contaminated with asbestos? The fact is, they will clean it up, and no-one will be using explosives to rid Wolverhampton of this major health risk. Fact is, they wanted rid of the organ....pure and simple, and the easy way was to pin it on legislation. So £1 million worth of organ ends up in a landfill site, which may actually be a criminal matter. MM
  12. This is how lawyers make their money! The removal of asbestos at ceiling level must, by definition, have involved the forces of gravity. Therefore, it would be perfectly reasonable to ASSUME that contamination fell like snowflakes, then somehow climbed or crawled its way into the (sealed) swell chambers, resulting heavy contamination of the pipes. (As most Compton organs have predominantly metal pipes, that could have been solved by a few buckets of soapy water, a gas mask and disposable microfibre cloths). The bigger question is why the offer of free removal and storage was not taken up by the council, when that was on the table. It was refused for a reason, and we don't need to look far to find it. As for the organ being of "no particular significance", it would be interesting to know the qualifications of those who uttered such nonsense. Are they historians? Are they organ consultants? Are they musicians? Are they of sound mind? Are they experienced in simple manual work? Are they fully trained and qualified in using a vacuum-cleaner? As Dr.Colin suggests, "......asbestos might be one of those kinds of problem which can assume exactly the magnitude that you wish it to assume to suit other purposes." Where is take issue with him, is in the overwhelming generosity of his doubts, because I KNOW they wanted rid of the organ and would go to any lengths possible to achieve it. That much is on record! MM
  13. It is entirely reasonable, it would seem, to demolish all buildings built before 2012:- The Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 came into force on 6 April 2012, updating previous asbestos regulations to take account of the European Commission's view that the UK had not fully implemented the EU Directive on exposure to asbestos (Directive 2009/148/EC). ============================== It's worth reading through some of the regulations and laws concerning asbestos, because it seems that where asbestos has been disturbed, there must be the assumption that the entire surrounding area is contaminated; which is fair comment. So all anyone needs to prove is that something can be ASSUMED to be contaminated, whether or not that is the case. This is how they have got away with it in Wolverhampton, by referring to primary legislation. (They could even blame the EU for it!) The legislation and safety aspects also go on to say how contamination may be dealt with, but of course, if the council had allowed the (unpaid) removal of the organ and (free) storage of the instrument, the problem would never have arisen in the first place. It comes back to what I said originally. They wanted rid of the organ, and they have used primary legislation to justify their actions. MM
  14. I remember reading somewhere, that the hall management HATED the organ, and simply wanted rid of it. Presumably, the theatre-style concerts held were seen as "old fashioned" and only attended by the elderly.
  15. (PLEASE NOTE THAT THE NAME MUSOMUSING IS A.K.A.:MUSINGMUSO - I LOCKED MYSELF OUT OF AN OLD E-MAIL ACCOUNT AND LOST THE MANDER PASSWORD! A NEW ACCOUNT WAS THE EASIEST OPTION) Right! Wolverhampton! All those involved with the refurbishment of the hall should hang their heads in shame! The organ was suspended from the roof/ceiling area in two large swell boxes; the organ being totally enclosed, as many Compton organs were. (Not sure about the piano and percussion additions etc) There were various proposals to restore the organ at considerable cost, which in view of the "sympathetic" restoration of the hall, would have required that the organ first be removed and stored. That was the official line when Steve Tovey was appointed to oversee the entire process as Borough Organist. His death two years ago, opened the way for those who really were not bothered about the organ and wanted rid of it. Why? I'm afraid that populism ruled the day. "They" wanted to turn the Civic Hall into a grand pop venture, which could host "spectaculars" and "pop concerts" etc. That meant increasing the height of the stage area (presumably to accomodate fly curtains/effects/lighting etc) This was seen as a way of creating additional use and revenue for the Civic Hall, which is perfectly understandable. Taking the organ out, and putting it back in again, would not only have been very expensive, it would also have thwarted plans to convert the hall as described above. The moment Steve Tovey died, the obstacles to the original plans and his own wishes flowed thick and fast. 1) The organ was a potential fire risk 2) There was asbestos in the roof area The first thing they did was to condemn the organ on fire safety grounds, and it was unplugged in effect. With a dead organ, perhaps the hope was that people would forget about it. Interestingly, I have on file a comment that the organ was sealed when work commenced on the ceiling area. Clearly, the Wolverhampton CC people were made aware of the need to protect the organ from dust, damage and debris. Considering that the organ was totally enclosed in boxes, the vast bulk of the pipework should have been safe if it was sealed appropriately). If the council are to be believed (?) work commenced on the ceiling area, with the organ beneath, and miraculously, all the pipework became contaminated with asbestos dust in the process. Considering the above comments, this appears to be a complete fabrication, but a nice legal loophole for those who wanted rid of the organ. I would be happy to be proven wrong, but I can't help but think that this was a stitch-up involving myriad lies and deceit. What disturbs me about this debacle, is not so much the loss of the organ to Wolverhampton, but the wanton destruction of a unique instrument. Not only that, the additions made to the instrument also contained some quite rare pipework; some of it from America. (Moller Tibia etc) We may have differing views about the additions made to the organ (as there must have been when the original Melotone unit was removed) but ALL the original Compton organ remained exactly as it was installed, and the additions were just that....nothing more and nothing less. Although the pipe-count was rather fanciful at 6,200 pipes or so (more like 4,500 at an educated guesstimate) it was a particularly fine instrument in all respects, with much less use of extension than many other Compton instruments. In that respect, it was one of the most significant Compton organs ever made, and certainly one of the best sounding. What angers me, is the way the destruction of the organ was allowed, when so much of it could easily have been saved; either as a whole instrument, or as a donor instrument for other projects. Turning it over to such as the Cinema Organ Society, ATOS or any other enthusiast group, would either have preserved the organ or made valuable pipework available for re-use. It is my personal view that the Wolverhampton council have not only acted irresponsibly, but may have acted illegally by releasing a sequence of mistruths, if not downright lies, and it really does call for some sort of enquiry. Considering the fact that I have been writing the Compton story for what feels like decades (now finally coming to a conclusion) this leaves a serious hole in that story and that history, but I will make sure that it contains as many details as possible of this wanton destruction, so that future generations will know the truth and be able to draw their own conclusions. MM
×
×
  • Create New...