Mellotron (book)

Written by writer and musician Nick Awde, Mellotron - subtitled 'The Machine and the Musicians That Revolutionised Rock' is a series of discussions with influential British musicians who innovated popular music through the use of the Mellotron.

Symbol of social heritage

The keyboard first appeared in Britain in the 1960s and, long before the advent of synthesizers, its revolutionary if eclectic tape-replay system instantly appealed to the post-Beatles wave of 'sophisticated' rock composers and arrangers, particularly those associated with progressive rock. For the first time, it brought a potentially unlimited range of sounds to a musician's fingertips. Essentially the world's first sampler, its pre-recorded tapes included everything from a symphony orchestra and church choir to samba combo and rock'n'roll drum rhythms. "This prototype sampler, for all its foibles and irritations (and actually probably because of them) was a catalyst to pushing back the neat boundaries of pop music toward something that was epic, experimental and ambitious."^[1]

As with all major musical catalysts, there was also a significant angle from the point of view of changes within British society. Mellotron "argues cogently and in great depth - probably for the first time - the full musical, historical and social heritage (stretching back centuries) of English prog, its virtues and vices, why it fell from grace and the reason it's undergoing a long-overdue period of reassessment and rebirth. Prog's nemesis, punk, [also] gets a well-argued revision, showing that prog actually outlasted the effects of punk and that punk was in many ways a media-hyped phenomenon."^[2] In fact, interest in the Mellotron is undergoing a resurgence quite against the technological thrust of the decade.

On the musical side, the Mellotron's sounds opened up the sound palette for music pioneers in the 1960s to create legendary moments such as the dreamy flutes intro to the Beatles' Strawberry Fields Forever and the soaring strings on the Moody Blues' Nights in White Satin. By the 70s, the Mellotron had become an indispensable tool for prog rock as well as a cultural icon and its haunting tones helped create classics like Genesis's Watcher of the Skies and Led Zeppelin's Kashmir. Today its renaissance owes much to being championed by acts like Paul Weller and Radiohead - musicians who again act as resonances for how society changes. Those changes are seen in phenomena ranging from the baby boomer generation, the Swinging 60s, Sgt. Pepper, Hendrix, Gustav Holst's The Planets and the advent of punk and disco - the Mellotron was an essential part of the post-war UK society that created a unique melting pot in culture and society.

As a historical resource, Mellotron presents a timeline of continuous creativity in 'progressive' music that was not, contrary to popular opinion and scholarship broken by the advent of punk in the mid to late 1970s, voiced by musicians such as Tony Banks (Genesis), Mike Pinder (The Moody Blues), Ian McDonald (King Crimson, Foreigner), Woolly Wolstenholme (Barclay James Harvest), Greg Lake (King Crimson, Emerson, Lake & Palmer), John Wetton (King Crimson, UK (band), Asia), Nick Magnus (Autumn (band), Steve Hackett Band), Martin Orford (IQ (band), Jadis), Roine Stolt (Flower Kings, Transatlantic (band), Tangent (band)), Jakko Jakszyk (Level 42, 21st Century Schizoid Band, Tangent), John Hawken (Renaissance, Strawbs), Doug Rayburn (Pavlov's Dog (band)), Tony Clarke (Moody Blues), David Cross (King Crimson), Dave Cousins (Strawbs), Blue Weaver (Strawbs, Bee Gees), Robert Kirby (Strawbs), Robert Webb^{[disambiguation needed ]} (England (band)), Dave Gregory (XTC), Andy McCluskey (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark). Bill Bruford (Yes (band), King Crimson) provides a drummer's view of working with four classic Mellotron bands, and there are perspectives from Geoff Unwin, the first Mellotronics demonstrator, John Bradley & Martin Smith of Streetly Electronics, the original makers of the Mellotron, and Planet Mellotron's Andy Thompson^{[disambiguation needed ]}.

Inspiration for MelloFest

The book has helped bring the Mellotron and its related music to a wider audience, and part of this effect has been the founding of MelloFest - a new festival that celebrates the Mellotron and the related Chamberlin keyboards and the music that they inspired. Although it is currently based in the UK, its creators hope that it will evolve into a 'travelling festival' that will tour Europe, North America and Japan, featuring not only the classic/progressive rock era that is most commonly associated with the instrument but also new contemporary directions. The First International MelloFest took place in November 2008, featuring two Mellotrons onstage along with discussions and live Mellotron-inspired music, and a more concert-based MelloFest 2, complete with the possibly unique event of three Mellotrons onstage and a Stylophone, took place, also in London, in May 2009, featuring a virtual appearance from Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater demonstrating the new Ellatron iPod/iPhone Mellotron app. Subsequent MelloFests may include virtual versions.

References

1. ^ King Crimson biographer Sid Smith
2. ^ David Etheridge, Performing Musician