OrganFax

Please note that due to circumstances beyond their control, the North Staffs Organ & Keyboard Club has after almost 18 years, had to change the venue where they hold concerts and all other events to the Wolstanton WMC, Hight St., Wolstanton, Staffs. as from 2nd October 2008.

In addition they have changed meeting nights from the first and third Tuesday in the month to the first and third Thursday in the month.

Kindly note that due to having to re-arrange the programme, the first concert at the new venue on 2nd October features Sarah Foley, this is followed by John Bowdler, on 6th November, and Alastair Keenan on 4th December.

The Club is very excited to have been able to obtain these alternative premises at such short notice, which offer a very high standard of comfort and decor and very much hope all members will continue to enjoy the facilities of the Club at the new venue.

For further details please contact Tony Lawton 01782 858907 or Malcolm Wild 01782 544271

Rumors of the new Tyros 3 have been around almost as long as the Tyros 2 and it's fair to say that the success of the two previous Tyros keyboards places a lot of pressure on Yamaha to once again raise the bar in arranger keyboard quality.

The Tyros 3 is officially launched on the 1st October, and for quite some time now Music-Tyros.com has teased us with demo samples and incrementally completing jigsaw puzzle picture of what Yamaha's new flagship arranger will look like.

But now, Yamaha have lifted the veil on the Tyros 3 and Music-Tyros.com is now open to visitors!

A simple guided tour of the new instrument awaits you as Martin Harris takes us through some of the Tyros's new sounds and backings.

But does the keyboard live up to the hype surrounding it? We can only wait and see; Martin's skillful demonstration of the new styles, sounds and effects packed into the redesigned body of the Tyros have certainly got us interested!

Watch this space for exclusive articles from Yamaha; not to mention the inevetable review of Yamaha's Tyros 3.

More news in from Andrew Nix and Tony Stace - T & A Events...

"In July, a capacity crowd experienced another fantastic organ / band festival at Mill Rythe Holiday Village, Hayling Island. This successful weekend was organised by T&A Events in conjunction with Swift Music. Tony Stace and Andrew Nix (T&A Events) were so engrossed by the superb atmosphere of an enthralled audience that on their last night they did not finish the show until just before 1 o'clock in the morning. A standing ovation was inevitable after a weekend of top class entertainment featuring some of our top stars of the organ world.

As a result of their success, Tony, Andrew, Nick and Margaret have announced that there will be two similar style events at Mill Rythe in 2009. For comfort, they have decided to reduce numbers by 50 places for future festivals. This coupled with a high level of advance bookings and interest means that early booking is advisable.

The first of these will be a Valentines spectacular on February 13th to 16th 2009 and the summertime weekend will be July 17th to 20th 2009. The full board tariff for either of these events will be £169 pp. Book direct with Mill Rythe on 02392 460044."

Many in the UK organ scene will now be aware of Andrew Nix and Tony Stace's collaboration as T & A Events. Under this banner, they successfully run musical breaks across two venues.

The Elmbank Hotel, York, is one of these venues. Having already had four fun-packed weekends there, they have now announced more events to be held in the future.

The next event starts Friday 3rd October for 3 nights. They now only have a few rooms available. The event is £199 pp half board. This includes fantastic entertainment and is excellent value for money.

Due to the popularity of these events, Tony and Andrew have added a 4 night break to their 2009 programme. So, next years events at the Elmbank Hotel are as follows...

February 20th - 23rd 2009 (Fri - Mon)

3 nights half board - £199 pp

February 23rd - 27th 2009 (Mon - Fri)

4 nights half board - £259 pp

October 2nd - 5th 2009 (Fri - Mon)

3 nights half board - £199 pp

Single supplement applies. For further information please contact Tony Stace (01748 811054) or Andrew Nix (01757 708509)

The Wersi weeked that we bought you news of a little while ago has been cancelled due to a lack of interest. A statement from Leigh Wilbraham can be seen below...

"We are sad to announce the cancellation of the Wersi owners weekend in October. Numbers are not sufficient to proceed with the event. All deposits have not been cashed and all deposit cheques have been shredded. Letters have been sent to all of those who have booked for the weekend.

If you have any questions please call 07515 520220."

Penny Weedon will now be appearing at the North East Organ Society on the 10th September 2008 instead of Paul Carmen, who is unable to attend.

The concert starts at 8.00pm at the Greenbank Social Club, Chester le Street, DH3 3SR. More details from Ray on 0191 442 2629.

Also, Ian House will be appearing at Wycombe Organ Club on the 11th of September taking the place of Lucinda Anderson.

The October weekend at Eastbourne has again sold out and EMF are now taking names for a waiting list. The show is headlined by Italian International Star Marco Valenti and home grown talent Pearl Adriano, Harry Hussey and The Crawley Accordion Orchestra. It's a packed accordion weekend with over twelve hours of masterclasses in addition to the evening concerts.

The September Organ and Keyboard Festival still has a few places left and what a line up this show has. Andrew Nix, Brett Wales, Richard Bower, Jean Martyn, Elizabeth Harrison, Colin Ford, Ian House and John Romero will all entertain during the 19th to the 22nd of the month, just three weeks time. So if you fancy treating yourself to a musical weekend break then give John or Jackie a call on (01323) 733700.

For more details and the programme hit this link

Korg UK has produced a 1GB memory stick for use with its PA800, PA2X and M3 Keyboards. The USB stick can also be used with OASYS instruments. This memory stick is available directly from Korg UK and sells for £19.99 plus P&P.

The stick comes loaded with data, the latest operating system and all owners manuals. Designed in attractive metallic red finish with a black Korg logo, the USB stick glows a soft red when in use. The USB1G contains the following data:

A new songbook based on 3 most popular busker books, ABBA gold, 50 Rock & Pop and Film and Movie songbooks. This was created by Brett Wales with 300 additional entries each with 4 STS's. Also, the original songbook has reworked song titles to enable easier identification of the songs with artist names added. There are also extra added custom songbooks.
A collection of I-series styles that can be easily imported.
A collection of free styles for the PA range, created by Korg's worldwide distributors.
All the latest O/S and resources for PA800 and PA2X.
V1.30 songbook editor.
Free sounds.
All owners manuals and updates.
EMC styleworks Korg version.
Latest USB midi driver.
In total over 86Megs of data!!

For more details phone Korg Sales on 01908-857101

Many in the organ world will know the name Chris Stanbury, although not all may know that he is a professor of music. Chris has just added another name to the Stanbury Clan with his marriage to Natalie Pritchard, now Mrs Stanbury.

Chris and Natalie first meet at The London College of Music (LCM) in 1999 and have been together ever since. They both share a deep love of music. Natalie is an accomplished musician playing the Piano, Harp, and Violin. She is now a music teacher at Sutton High School in Sutton Surrey. Chris of course is one of the most popular artists on the Organ circuit.

Chris and Natalie got married on 15th August at St Peters Church, Market Bosworth, which is located in the grounds of Bosworth Hall (A grade II listed William and Mary Mansion, set in 11 acres of landscaped gardens and parkland). It was indeed a day of music and celebration, everything went to plan, they even had the best (only) summers day for weeks.

Natalie had two bridesmaids, her sister Claire and Chris's sister Alix. Chris's Best man was Dan Earley his best friend from his days as a student at LCM, who is now a top UK percussionist and drummer. At the ceremony, as well as the church organist (Robert Foreman FRCO) they had "The Bellini String Quartet" to play before the bride arrived (late true to tradition, although not due to any last minute nerves).

After the ceremony guests were treated to more music from the Bellini quartet on the terrace of Bosworth Hall. The wedding breakfast and reception was also held in Bosworth Hall and during the wedding breakfast a superb harpist played a wonderful selection of music from Handle and Bach to the Beatles!

The day finished in a marquee in the grounds with dancing to Dan Earley's Band. The only thing missing was the photographers from Hello magazine as it was the high society event of the summer. The pair are currently on honeymoon in the Maldives.

From the team at Organfax we wish them all the best for the future

Jean Martyn has recently completed an organathon (see our previous news item on 30th July) at the Church of St Mary and St Chad in the historic village of Brewood on Thursday 14th August 2008. Darling of the organ world, Jean Martyn, played the organ for 12 hours from 10 am to 10 pm in order to raise funds for the Brewood Pipe Organ Appeal. Her programme was divided into twelve one hour slots and included material from all sorts of genres: Big Band to Classical, 60's to Show tunes and everything in between.

The church's pipe organ was built by J.J. Binns in 1910 and its days are numbered without some major restoration work. Although the entry to the organathon was free, contributions to the appeal raised a fabulous £5,200 for the restoration fund. Refreshments were on sale throughout the day and also added to the fund raising efforts. A number of village organisations and businesses pledged their support for the cause and a fun day was had by everyone.

Jean will also be helping to raise money at the Beer Wurlitzer concert on Saturday, 18th October 2008, for their Church organ fund (see our previous news item on 19th August).

Due to popular request Carol Williams has re-released her album "Just Rags". The album is a must for ragtime lovers and is sure to be popular with all.

The CD is a dialogue between classical organ and piano for twenty-five rags spanning the century from Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag right through to recent winners such as Root Beer Rag. It has been hugely popular and was used recently as the background music to a commercial advert on television. The track list is comprehensive to say the least.
Leicester Square Rag
Tiger Rag (Hold that Tiger)
Black and White Rag
Britannia Rag
Maple Leaf Rag
12th Street Rag
Barrel House Rag
Root Beer Rag
Pine Apple Rag
Chatterbox Rag
Tin Pan Alley Rag
Spaghetti Rag
Ivory Rag
The Entertainer
Fiddlesticks Rag
Coronation Rag
Jingles
Kitchen Rag
Zig-Zag Rag
Temptation Rag
Bugle Call Rag
Rhapsody Rag
Peacherine Rag
Russian Rag (Rockies Rag)
Alexander's Ragtime Band
The album can be bought online for $20 from Carols web site

The Friends of BeerWurly present an afternoon concert on Britains OLDEST Wurlitzer theatre organ! Artists include Jean Martyn, Elizabeth Harrison, Chris Powell, Ian Griffin and Richard Bower (Keyklix). Tickets are available in advance for £5. Proceeds in aid of the organ restoration fund.

The concert will be held at The Congregational Church, Beer, Devon. On Saturday 18th October at 3.00pm

Further details can be found at their web site and tickets can be obtained by phoning 01297 21824.

The new KETRON SD4 is a pocket size sound module designed for all PC and Midi applications. It is equipped with the new SD sound engine and has some great new sounds. These include a professional Stereo Grand Piano sound sampled over 88 notes, huge orchestral voices such as Saxophones, Brass, Woodwinds, Guitars, Accordions, Digital Organ Drawbars as well as many others. The quality of these Solo instrumental voices is excellent. In addition, the SD4 has a number of very distinctive Audio Drum and Percussion Loops. Slow, Jazz, Latin, Acoustic, Traditional and Dance backgrounds give a wide selection of genres.

Used in conjunction with a Computer, Master keyboard, Midi accordion or Midi guitar, the SD4 is guaranteed to add some brilliant new sounds to your existing rig. Its smaller brother the SD2 could only really be used in conjunction with a computer as there were no external controls. Ketron have obviously listened to its customers and realized the need for a version with patch change controls and so have presented the SD4. It is a huge step forward!

Its Midi capability allows you to control up to 32 Midi channels and includes DSP effects such as Reverb, Chorus, Delay and Distortion. One of its great technical tricks is it can be directly connected to a mobile PC or keyboard using a USB connection without need of power supply. Another is it can be used to interface Master keyboards lacking in USB ports. The two input Midi ports allow the user to play and have an independent Midi file playing at the same time.

Downsides and yes there's always at least one. With the demise of BCK products, the UK's distributor of Ketron, where are you going to get one? We are not currently aware of a UK supplier to replace BCK, however we will let you know if we find one! In between times it looks like the only option is to import yourselves.

The SD4 allows you to stack and edit all available tones to get new customized sounds that can be easily saved and reloaded at any time. Editing these tones is even further simplified by using the special free PC software. Special configurations with the sound Map (Templates) are provided so the instrument can easily 'work' with the most commonly used sequencer programs such as Cubase, Logic, Cakewalk as well as the complete SD4 Drum Loop Library. Templates and Loop Libraries can be downloaded for free from the KETRON Internet site at www.ketron.it.

This is a great piece of gear and one to look out for if it becomes more easily available.

Carillon Studios have just announced the launch of a brand new style disk range for Yamaha Instruments. The seven new disks, with two more to be released next month, are designed to run on all PSR, CVP and Tyros instruments (even the soon to be released Tyros 3). The new range covers a wide range of musical genres. From Country to Latin and Swing to Famous Names, there's bound to be something to suit all players. Disks can be bought direct from their web site and be delivered by either email or post. You can also listen to many of the styles before you buy, so you know what you are getting before parting with your money.

Top Midlands organ stars, Chris Powell & John Barnett team up for a special one off concert at The Buttermarket in Shrewsbury. Featuring both the mighty Wurlitzer & state of the art Roland Atelier AT900C they will play a variety of music both solo and in duet. Why not join them on Sunday 17th August at 3pm, The Buttermarket, Howard Street, Shrewsbury, tickets £5 on the door. For more information contact, Marie Powell on 01530 833758.