Of course my interest in organs is only but a small part of my life history but it has been an extremely important and at times completely all absorbing. This little autobiography covers that part of my life that has been mainly concerned with organs - both pipe and pipeless.

Although I must have heard organs in my first few years, they made little or no impression as far as I can recollect. Therefore, my first remembered encounter with a real pipe organ must have been when I was shunted off to the wild denizens of Lancashire to Stonyhurst College at the age of 8. Certainly I had been overwhelmed by "organs" as a sound source from my first days at Hodder (the then separate Stonyhurst prep school) since we went up to the main college church for the carol service at the end of my first term. The prep school chapel "organ" was actually a harmonium played by the redoubtable Miss Zena Carus (later to become a well known children's authoress and "semi" nun in her later years - I was in fairly regular contact with her in the Isle of Man until a few months before her passing away). The "organ" at my "middle" school was a nasty little electronic Everett (Hammond) which I was eventually allowed to play on a regular basis for services from the age of 11. (According to the school magazine, "with great aplomb"). We made  occasional visits up to the main college chapel where there was always this huge thing in the vast distance of a choir loft making weird and loud sounds. It was all a little to much for little boys where the entire atmosphere was filled with incense and more people than we had ever seen in our lives were all in one "room". I did end up nearer to the big monster for a couple of BBC films - one a High Mass and the other a documentary called Jesuit Child made by Macdonald Hastings who was another old boy. I was at that time a rather crystal clear treble brought up to the college to reinforce the existing trebles of the college choir. The organ was a Willis III instrument rebuilt by Walker's in about 1965 and produced a very fine sound sufficient to accompany over 500 "roaring" boys. Anyone who has attended a service in a public school chapel will know that several hundred boys don't actually sing as such but roar at considerable volume.

When I moved up to the main college, the chapel seemed to become slightly smaller though still no less awesome - supposedly modelled on King's College, Cambridge on a smaller scale. Whereas before, I had been an exception since I could actually play a musical instrument, now I was one of many more from different schools. We had our own music basement with practice cubicles for piano, woodwind, brass and strings in different rooms and the cacophony from this subterranean world was horrendous. Needless to say the pianos were completely worn out as was every other instrument but they served. Although EVERYONE had to play a musical instrument in their first year regardless of talent or interest, there were those of us who had at least a modicum of talent and I soon "got in" with a group of lads who were "into" the organ, not only musically but historically and technically.

Our very first church visit was to the local Anglican church in Hurst Green (Lancs. not Surrey) the nearest village to the school. It was a rather typical Victorian specimen of about 15 stops. However, the vicar had a very rare book about building an organ by Wicks which was absolutely fascinating. I once accessed the same book in the British Museum where it was classed as very rare indeed. I do now have a copy since it was republished some years ago by Barton Enterprises.

Another local church was at Great Mitton about three miles away where an equally typical Victorian instrument was situated on a rear gallery / choir loft - sadly now replaced by an electronic. Further afield was Clitheroe and since I knew the organist from Menai Bridge in Anglesey where she was the "summer" organist for the little Catholic church that my grandfather had built, I used to play for parts of the Sunday afternoon Benediction on a rather unpleasant Henry Ainscough three manual. The main parish church was totally inaccessible being the domain of Charles Myers the organist. Originally a Binns it became an enormous instrument under Nicholson's and later; George Sixsmith. Famous recitalists came from all over the world to play it. However, there were various other churches and chapels in the town including a rather nice 19 stop Binns two manual at Low Moor which we were able to gain access to.

No chance of any of us really getting close to the monster in the main chapel or even the rather lesser beast ( a Bishop) in the Boy's Chapel but there were a couple of harmoniums in awful condition in a a couple of the something like 17 chapels scattered around the premises which I occasionally got access to. Our little clique looked further afield and visited the various local Anglican churches with their modest and often ineffectual instruments. Because I had at least some playing facility, I was eventually allowed to accompany the odd classroom or "playroom" service - for playroom read "year" or "house" though it didn't quite work out that way. John Parsons was the director of music and a fine musician and composer and he encouraged me. Sadly he developed a brain tumour during my first year and whilst he recovered slightly, he was never the same again and died young.

Our exterior visits took us into all sorts of places though it has to be realised that merely going beyond the perimeter of the school was a serious breach of school rules and severely punished unless prior permission had been granted. Sometimes I got permission, sometimes I didn't and took the risk. The best opportunities were when we had "days out" to this place or that. Blackburn was the nearest "big place" and our little clique became aware of the fact that there was a brand new organ in the cathedral with a 32' Serpent. The Serpent stop was one that was only extant in one other church in the UK at the time so we HAD to see what that was all about. Until this time I had played many of the various small and moderate instruments in the local churches and had been somewhat under-whelmed for the most part. Most of these instruments were typical late Victorian examples of a dozen or more stops with little above a 2' and nothing more than a "big boom" and "little boom" ie; Open Wood 16' and Bourdon 16' on the pedal organ.

Dr. John Bertalot was very kind to allow us youngsters access to a brand new and exceedingly expensive toy which opened our eyes and ears to an entirely new sound experience. Here was a gorgeous instrument which not only was absolutely stunning to look at but was also situated in a very reverberant cathedral. What can one say ? Suddenly there were all these new sounds with chiffy flutes that were percussive enough to make them sound like a quasi harpsichord, fiery reeds, strange mutations, odd quirky solo stops and a plenum that made the glass fall out of the lantern of the cathedral tower and tinkle on the floor after the final chord was released on full organ. I for one was definitely hooked. Who wouldn't be ?

Our little clique revelled in badgering every organ builder for brochures and information. I went further and wrote to most of the well known organists and organ builders. Her majesty the Queen passed on my personal letter to her asking to play the organ in St. George's chapel, Windsor to Dr Sidney Campbell the organist and various other letters received some form of reply or another. I made it my every breathing moment to become involved with everything to do with organs. I cadged lifts or hitch-hiked to this place or that just to see the instruments that they had and in most cases also got to play them.

Our little group also met up during school holidays where Peter Hamblin M.D. of Henry Willis took us under his wing and introduced us to many London instruments including a visit to the then very defunct Ally Pally which Willis had just purchased. I also became a sort of surrogate son to Ernest Davey of Hill Norman and Beard and his family where I spent many happy times of which more later.

It was also in my school holidays when the phone rang at home and a voice at the other end said "Race down here - F£$%^£%$£ Ball" It didn't make much sense until he re-annunciated his introduction and said "RAFE DOWNES HERE FROM THE FESTIVAL HALL" He had had my letter and he said that he would be pleased to meet up with me at 10.30 at night at the R.F.H. after the night's concert had finished. Problem was, that we had the lady organist from a local church coming to dinner so I wasn't sure what could be done. A few phone calls later and it was decided that we should all go up to the RFH after an early dinner. We all traipsed up to the South Bank and went to the stage door where we were expected. In came this rather small, very neat and very smart little man with a briefcase who introduced himself as Ralph Downes. We had to wait for the final curtain call before we could go up into the main concert hall. I played for two or three hours into the early morning with R.D. observing and answering questions as to how to get this sound or that and explaining the raison d'etre behind everything such as why it didn't have a Tuba etc. Subsequent visits at later dates entailed rummaging around the internals of the instrument in his company. I also gained regularaccess to the Walker in Brompton Oratory where he was organist.

So began a long standing friendship with the great Ralph Downes where he wrote copious letters to me and I was regularly invited to go and sit with him at the console in Brompton Oratory and pull stops whilst up and coming organists / students turned pages all with full orchestras and choir. From the age of 14 and onwards...... Quite an experience. We used to run him back to his home in Ealing after services. People say he was very strict and I suppose he was, but compared to most of my teachers in all subjects at school he always seemed to be a very gentle man towards me. At that time he was still teaching at the Royal College of Music.

Through my contact with Ralph Downes and otherwise, I attended an organists course at the Royal Academy of Music where I came into contact with the likes of Douglas Hopkins, Francis Jackson and Nicolas Kynaston. The course was rather a frightening experience for a 15 year old and whilst I could certainly hold my own in the extemporisation / improvisation areas, I was completely at sea with most of the rest of the course. Perhaps the most frightening "class" was with Dr. Hopkins with sight reading from four different staves. My sight reading from just treble and bass was hardly brilliant (and never has been) and I had certainly never ever come across an alto and tenor clef. All in all, I can't say that I really enjoyed the course. Apart from that, I visited this cathedral and that and this parish church and town hall and that and met many famous organists. I cannot remember a single instance where I wasn't allowed to play. At the time, I was wearing out the recording on an old gramophone of Cocker's Tuba Tune; made by Francis Jackson at York Minster along with another by Nicolas Kynaston at the Royal Albert Hall so here I was in the presence of two heros. Francis told me where I could obtain a copy of the Tuba Tune and delighted in telling me that the Tuba was so loud that it could be heard from the railway station. Nicolas Kynaston kindly gave me a list of all of the publishers of the works on his RAH record. 

During one school holidays, I had the temerity to call on the headmaster at Eton who directed me to Alistair Sampson (one of the foremost organ teachers in the world at the time) who delighted in dragging me (or was I dragging him) round all of the many organs at Eton. These included everything from the fabulous 4 manual Hill in the School Chapel through the Hunter in the Lower Chapel, the Snetzler, the Mander extension job in the music school and the newly rebuilt Mittenreiter - Flentrop in the School Hall. We have remained good friends over the years and he gave me many lessons (as did Ralph Downes) whenever we met up. Alistair was the grandson of Sir John Stainer of "Crucifixion" fame and his knowledge of anything to do with organs was phenomenal as was of course Ralph Downes. He had hundreds of 78 recordings which he played through an ancient gramophone with wooden needles and amongst his collection were dozens of recordings of organs including Widor playing Widor and so on.

Several other instruments were accessible during school holidays and these included a very nice new Robert Slater two manual in our local parish church and a superb Norman and Beard instrument containing  a 4 rank mixture on the Great and a 6 rank mixture on the Swell which was situated in Slough. There were a few interesting instruments in Maidenhead and some of the nearby villages but most of the Catholic churches had electronics such as the church in Beaconsfield with its ageing and unreliable Compton now replaced by a modern werk prinzip instrument by Pulham. I also played the two reed organs for mass in our local catholic church when on holiday from school until they replaced them with a "new" Davies / Grant, Degens and Bradbeer pipe organ.

Various trips here and there resulted in some luck in some cases and absolutely no luck in others if only because no one had the keys and the organist wasn't available. Richard Seal allowed me spend time on Salisbury and a letter to Douglas Mews resulted in me gaining access to St George's Cathedral in Southwark. At the time I didn't know that there were two cathedrals in Southwark and I thought I was going to get access to the Lewis in the Anglican one but ended up getting access to the Catholic one with its three manual twenty rank Compton.

Back at school I went here and there spending loads of time at King George's Hall at every available opportunity - a wonderful 4 manual Rushworth and Dreaper, the Cathedral Walker and several other magnificent instruments including originals by Father Willis and Binns. On a visit to Liverpool (some saint's holiday) I spent my time getting in to the Anglican cathedral where I was allowed to play followed later by St George's Hall on the same day which proved to be another "Damascene" moment. In addition I drew up plans and obtained the wood to start building my very own pipe organ in the school metal-working-carpentry shop which was to be a single manual. There was one other boy with similar ideas and he was concentrating on making wooden organ pipes for his own "home" organ.

I played several Italian organs on holiday in Italy including Trent Cathedral and others in the north and ended up giving a recital on the little organ in Bardolino (Lake Garda) as well as playing for two Sunday services. Whilst staying with Molly Thorpe (wife of George Thorpe the actor- St. Trinian's etc.) I visited Henley and the newly installed Compton in the Regal - managed by Gordon Mintern. As a result of having a go at the newly installed instrument Gordon asked me to play for one of the official opening nights. My visits to Henley resulted in me becoming the regular Wednesday and Saturday organist during school holidays. I was also allowed to play the Wurlitzer in the Granada, Slough and was offered the seven rank Christie from the Adelphi for £75. Needless to say, my parents would not countenance such an action which was a great pity. I think that the organ ended up in Aylesbury. I had not yet reached 16 years old !

The middle prep school; St. Mary's Hall had by then acquired a new head of music; David Rogers who I got to know very well and because he lived out in Clitheroe and didn't really want to go back to school for Benediction services, I used to go down to St. Mary's Hall every week to cover those services. It was only years later that I became aware that David (now in his 90's) was a fairly prolific author and used to write articles for the major organ magazines as well as the occasional book. He grew up in Martock, Somerset and eventually retired to Yeovil. Thus, we were able to rekindle our past friendship when I eventually moved to Somerset myself. We went on a number of organ crawls together and he even helped me move house on one occasion.

Meanwhile, back to Ernest Davey.

One of the very first contacts that I ever had in the organ building industry was found under the local Organ Builders listings in the Yellow Pages. The gentleman who spoke to me on the phone was very friendly, very encouraging and immediately suggested that we should meet up. Thus began my long friendship with the Davey family. Ernest worked for Hill, Norman and Beard as their area representative and lived in Twyford not far from Reading in Berkshire. As such he was responsible for much of the tuning of the organs in the area which ranged from the small parish churches to the wonderful organs at Reading Town Hall and Eton College. He lived in a quirky thatched cottage with his wife Peggy, three daughters and a son by her first marriage. Taking pride of place in the sitting room was a grand piano. As I got to know the family, I used to spend many weekends with them staying over in a spare bedroom so it almost became like a second home. Most weekends would see the arrival of various musicians for dinner and music making where everyone had to perform something. Visitors included the conductor and champion of English composers; Richard Hickox who was organist at High Wycombe before moving to All Saints, Westminster. Alistair Ross who took over at High Wycombe and is a well known accompanist plus a host of other lesser known local musicians. For some years later on when I was living in the Reading area myself, the spare bedroom gained a semi permanent guest in the shape of Fred George who had worked for Compton's and was an exceptionally skilled craftsman (as was Ernest). In addition to the musical soirees, Ernest used to take me out on tuning and minor repair visits to the churches in his care so I learned much under his tutelage.

My Stonyhurst school days ended at the age of 16 and I spent a year at the Further Education College in Windsor. During this time I also got to know Dick Cox who ran the local Pianola repair workshops and I could often be found working on pneumatics and other parts when I should have been attending college. I must also mention that in Eton High St. there was an organ and record shop called the Windsor Organ Centre and this was run by David Woodford. Whilst the main market was at the time concerned with the rapidly growing home entertainment organ market, David also involved himself with classical organs which included Conn and Rodgers. When the shop in Windsor closed, David became the importer for Eminent Church Organs from Holland. In the course of the year, I was asked to play for a service in the private church situated at the end of the Long Walk in Windsor. Audrey Dellow the normal organist was also organist at the Mormon church in Slough and wanted to watch a Songs of Praise programme in which she featured so she asked me if I would take her place. Amongst the congregation was the Queen Mother.

Towards the end of my year at Windsor College my mother took me on a trip to visit my step-grandmother near Ramsey in the Isle of Man. Word reached me that a new organ was in the process of being installed in one of the non-conformist chapels in Ramsey so of course I went along to see what was what. There was one person working on the organ and this turned out to be Dennis Thurlow who had recently taken over the old established Yorkshire firm of Laycock and Bannister having been the chief voicer at Walker's and responsible for Blackburn Cathedral amongst many others. He had left Walker's and for a short while, traded under his own name and worked with Bob Pennels of Solid State Logic developing pipe organ circuitry and thence to L&B at Cross Hills. After a long chat, Dennis said that if I was really interested in becoming an organ builder then I should spend a couple of days with him working on the new organ being installed. As a result of this and after discussions with my mother, it was agreed that I should become his personal assistant once I had left college.

We did visit the works near Keighley to see the lie of the land and "secret" discussions between Dennis and my mother took place. At the time Dennis was trying to buy Nicholson's of Worcester and the discussions centred around trying to persuade my mother to invest in the growing company.

As soon as I had finished my year at Windsor College, I made all haste to get up to Yorkshire and start my new career in organ building.

My mother drove me up from Buckinghamshire on a Friday and I arrived with no digs and just a suitcase and bicycle. Dennis' wife Marjorie really didn't know what to do and rang Dennis in the Isle of Man (again) to ask what she should do with me. He instructed her to tell me to get myself to Douglas by whatever means where he would meet me at the ferry port. Fortunately my mother had given me a little money and I was able to stay in a bed and breakfast near Skipton for a night before undertaking the trip to the I.O.M. I had to catch a train from Skipton to Liverpool and then the Liverpool to Douglas ferry. I arrived late afternoon on the Saturday to be met by Dennis and his I.O.M rep. Paul Daly.

We drove to Peel on the other side of the island where the work was part way through rebuilding the organ in Peel Cathedral. Dennis suggested that I ought to find myself some digs for a couple of weeks (which would have required knocking on doors in those days). Fortunately I think that Dennis eventually realised that I was just a young lad of 17 who had had a very long journey and allowed me to take his room at a lodgings whilst he went off and stayed elsewhere in an hotel. Thinking back, the whole thing was really quite a situation to be dropped into at the age of 17 and would be considered by many to be a somewhat hard start - but then I had spent 8 years in a strict and "hard" Jesuit school.

Paul Daly and myself plus occasionally Dennis worked on completing the instrument in the cathedral and the organ was dedicated on my last Sunday there. I was asked to play a Sortie for the service and amongst the congregation was the author and organ expert; Cecil Clutton who I met afterwards. The next several months were spent in general organ building. I had found myself a bedsit at £9.00 per week where a bath or shower cost an extra 50p. My wage was just £10.00 per week as an apprentice so Dennis had to subsidise me with an extra £5 per week to live on. Yes, it was just about possible to do it in those days but it certainly wasn't easy.

Whilst time was spent in the Keighley works undertaking general organ building duties which ranged from threading trackers to wiring up and fitting windchests and drilling rack boards, I also spent a lot of time cleaning and restoring old pipes. I occasionally went on tuning rounds with the company tuner - a rather dour Yorkshireman. However, I was mainly sent away on various jobs around the country. One of the first was the rebuild of Diss Parish church where I was engaged in a lot of painting. Dennis had employed a tonal finisher in the shape of Keith Bance who had been one of his apprentices at Walker's and he taught me the fundamentals of regulation. Visits to St Edmundsbury cathedral to tune as well as to Bridlington Priory, Huddersfield Town Hall and a number of other churches ensued and I also worked on one of the very first Laycock organs ever made in a small village outside Blackburn.

Eventually a rebuild installation in Belfast came up which caused a lot of problems at the works in Cross Hills. At that time the I.R.A. was very active and Belfast was not the safest place to be. As a result no one in the workforce was prepared to go because many of them had young families. Raymond Todd who was the business partner of Dennis Thurlow threatened that if no one was prepared to go then the business might as well fold. Being young and fireproof, I said that I was prepared to go and whilst it was argued that I was too young and inexperienced initially, in the end, I went because no one else would. Paul Daly was to re-appear as the foreman of the job which was being installed under the name of Kenneth Jones, Dennis and Ray Todd being the "associates" of what was then a fairly young company. Kenneth Jones had yet to make his name as a major organ builder at that time.

We loaded a large van up with the whole organ and made the trip across to Ireland by ferry where we stayed out of the city in a house in some small village. We had to take the old organ out and burn a fair amount of it in the churchyard before installing the newly rebuilt instrument that we had brought with us in the vacated organ chamber. The next door neighbour to the church was the Rev. Ian Paisley and his wife got somewhat aerated about us lighting bonfires which dirtied her washing. In our work we were assisted by another apprentice who worked directly for Kenneth Jones.

Eventually, I was finding that running a bedsit in Keighley with no money to spare was not easy and I had befriended a couple of girls who ran an antique shop and happened to have a grand piano in the shop. Their father was a keen musical instrument restorer and harpsichord builder but had died early and left his two young daughters to carry on with the business. By chance, they saw an advert in the local paper looking for a resident pianist for a famous local restaurant. I applied and was auditioned on the grand piano in the girl's shop by the owners of the restaurant. The restaurant I was destined to play in was Kildwick Hall - a large Elizabethan mansion where Emily Bronte had been a regular visitor and on which "Wuthering Heights" the house from the book of the same name (and the Kate Bush song) was based. The restaurant had an even more famous sister over the moors at Ilkley called the Box Tree where Marco Pierre White and many others started their careers. Dennis once pointed the building out to me with the comment "you'll never be able afford to go there". Strange that within a short time of his comment, I was invited to dinner by the owners and ended up eating there every day "free of charge" !

I doubled my salary immediately and had free board and lodging on top which was a considerable improvement on the Keighley bedsit. Eventually as a result I ended up working more and more in the works with occasional local tunings before playing a four to six hour session in the restaurant including twice on Sundays. Obviously, this 70 hour week could not continue and sadly I had to give up one job or the other. Since I was not prepared to go back to my old salary and bedsit, reluctantly, I had to resign my position at the organ builders. Dennis was to say the least, disappointed as he had hoped that one day I might take over the whole company which by now included Nicholson's down in Worcester. How fate dictates..........

The restaurant job was not a happy time where I was looked upon by the rest of the staff as having a "non" job because all I did was sit down for several hours a day and tinkle the ivories. I was glad when the turbulent and highly strung joint owner of the restaurant threw a wobbly and told me that I was sacked. It was a spur of the moment tantrum and would probably have been rescinded but I was all too glad to move on and of course, I was stubborn.

Since there was no work to be found in the area at the time, I returned home with my tail between my legs to a very unwelcome atmosphere from my father who thought that he had got rid of me for good.

I was able to get a job almost immediately on the Slough Trading Estate whilst I decided what I was going to do for the future. After much consideration, I applied to Thames Valley Police and was accepted for training.

After initial training in Dorset, I was posted to Wokingham and later to Woodley near Reading. I continued to play the organ and once again was able to visit the Davey family on a regular basis. I became organist at the local catholic church which had a single manual H.K. ten.Bruggencate organ. The police force proved not to be the career that I wanted and once I had served my two year probation, I sought pastures new.

A chance glance at the adverts in the Melody Maker newspaper was advertising for organists who could sell and I duly applied. The company was called City Electronics (later City Music) and was based at North Harrow on the outskirts of London. After my interview, I was offered a position with the company as a potential manager for their Watford shop. I had one other competitor and it was decided who ever was the best sales performer would take over as manager of the Watford shop and the other would become a relief manager covering the other stores in the area of which there were four. I happened to win and thus became the manager of the shop. I did pretty well and I even won a competition to sell the most Viscount Organs in the company; the prize being a week's trip to Yugoslavia (as it then was). City Electronics had just taken on the UK agency for Viscount and in those days they hadn't even thought about making classical models.

After several months, it was decided that I should move across to Viscount organs itself to work in sales and so began my life in wholesale. One of my first demonstrations was as a guest appearance in a concert in Hemel Hempstead presented by Gerry Allen. I got a standing ovation and I don't think that Gerry ever forgave me for it. From then on I was travelling up and down the country doing sales presentations  / concerts of Viscount organs as well as demonstrations on CAT synthesizers and another company called Multivox. There were a number of us employed by various companies at the time and we often played sets at exhibitions so I got to know the likes of Harry Stoneham, Graham Wright, Nigel Ogden and so on. I already knew Brian Rodwell and George Blackmore from earlier days at King Georges Hall in Blackburn from when I was still at school.

Viscount then launched a small range of "classical "organs and I made great inroads into the various dealers presenting those then rather awful instruments. In due course Viscount saw the potential market in classical organs and started developing bigger ones. Their first was a disaster where the dimensions were all wrong with the pedals far to far forward. Despite going over to Italy on several occasions and supplying them with the correct dimensions, it was some considerable time before Viscount made anything that was comfortable to play. At the time there was very little on the market apart from Rodgers (who had a rather unstable distribution set-up in the UK) and the likes of Allen, the old Norwich organs and a couple of other home organs with a half-hearted classical leaning. At one point, Rodgers were being distributed by Nicholson's and I remember visiting Dennis Thurlow in the Worcester works where he was enthusing about them. Andrew Fletcher who was a superb organist was doing demonstrations for them. I also got to know Ernest Hart of Copeman Hart who was building fine instruments in a small factory in Islington.

As part of my duties with Viscount I visited the Frankfurt Messe each year (a huge world fair of musical instruments) and spent time visiting some of the other makers of "church" organs - both pipe and electronic.

Johannus was up for grabs at the time without a UK distributor and I tried to persuade David Cuttill (MD of Viscount UK) to take on the product which was somewhat better than that offered by Viscount but slightly more expensive and better designed. Unfortunately, the business arrangement with Viscount in Italy would not allow for two similar manufacturers so we couldn't take on Johannus. At this time the Dutch distribution of Viscount was being handled by a fellow called Gert Van der Werd and David Cuttill managed to set things up for Gert so that he ended up taking over Johannus - not just as a distributor, but as the owner. Johannus set up a UK distribution under a former Birds Eye fish finger salesman ! He was a disaster.

Apart from the pipe organs and two other German manufacturers; Woop and Kienle, there was little else available. Eminent had found their distributor in David Woodford (from the Windsor Organ Centre above) and there was one manufacturer that stood out amongst anyone else: Hendrik Heyligers.

The Heyligers was outrageously expensive at something like £1000 per stop but it was by far the best (we are talking analogue at the time). I got friendly with Hendrik and eventually, I became the UK importer for Heyligers (under the vestiges of Viscount who I was still working for). David Cuttill financed the initial investments required to set up the company.

During all of this time, I was continuing to play pipe organs and after an occasional visit to St George's Catholic Cathedral in Southwark, the bishop asked me whether I would take on the post of organist in the cathedral until they could find a permanent organist and choir director. As a result I spent several months going down to the cathedral every Sunday and playing for their services until they found a permanent musical director and organist.

The whole of the market in home organs was changing and it had reached saturation point. Believe it or not there were something like FORTY different manufacturers (mostly in Italy) making "organs" for what was a significant but ultimately finite market. The big boys like Yamaha and Panasonic (Technics) started ruling the roost and most of the others eventually fell by the wayside. Fortunately, the market for classical type organs that I had built up for Viscount meant that they could switch over fairly easily to that type of product and stopped making home entertainment organs altogether.

Sadly, I had done too good a job for David Cuttill and the classical side of the business was basically running itself. The cost of having a full time sales manager on the road was not an economical one and as a result, I was made redundant.

Having spent several months kicking my heels, I applied for a job with what was called "The London Piano Centre". Owned by Kimball, they sold the dreadful Kimball pianos, the wonderful Bosendorfer Grand Pianos (Kimball owned them too), the remnant end of range models of the dreadful and totally overpriced Kimball home organs and the well respected Conn Organs (who they also owned). Although I was on a very good salary plus excellent commission the chances of making a success out of what amounted to one decent product (Conn) with little if any advertising was difficult and eventually I was given notice and the department closed down. My greatest successes were selling "church organs" to Nigeria.

I did meet an awful lot of very well known people during my sojourn there and amongst them was the great Michelangeli (who commented favourably on my piano playing) and many other well known pianists, singers, conductors and instrumentalists. You never knew who was going to come through the front door and the Wigmore Hall was next door so many famous pianists, instrumentalists, singers and conductors were a regular sight. 

There followed a short stint at Harrods working for Yamaha under the guise of Chappell's before finally I applied for the position of UK sales manager with Kawai Pianos. I had always loved Kawai pianos and I was very pleased to get the job. I was the only Englishman in the company; my secretary being Japanese and the rest of the European staff being German, French or Dutch. I built up the business for Kawai increasing their profits and the amount of units sold and as a result of my friendship with Bob Glazebrook of Steinway's, the Boston model was born - marketed as a Steinway marque product but actually manufactured by Kawai.

After a few years working for the Japanese, I decided that it was time for me to become my own boss and I resigned my post having purchased shop premises in Derbyshire with the intention of opening my own music shop. In reality, Kawai had been pretty unethical towards me having advertised my job each year (I was on a one year rolling contract). Their premise was that if someone who they thought could do the job better came along then they would not renew my contract and would employ the "better" person instead. For three years I went through this annually just before Christmas which was obviously very stressful and whilst I remained the "best" person for the job and thus had my contract renewed for another year, each year, I decided that enough was enough. The only gratification that I got in the end was that the person who took over from me embezzled them for about six million quid and virtually ruined their UK operation.

Thus I moved to Buxton.

People tell me that giving up a well paid job with a major company in order to start my own business from absolutely nothing was a very brave move. In retrospect, I suppose it was but at that age, I felt that I was old enough to take on the challenge as well as young enough to be able to do it, so I did. I can't say it was easy and my initial business plans had to be modified pretty quickly. In the end I became a major supplier to Education Authorities throughout the UK and did reasonably well though nothing that would make me a millionaire. In addition to my retail operations, I also set up a recording studio and became involved to some extent with film and television - not so much in the composition field but more in the producing of sounds. During this time, clients included the BBC, Granada TV, Harlech TV, various promotional films and other film projects. I suppose my highlight in those days was working with the likes of Sir Anthony Hopkins (Hannibal Lector) with whom I got on like "a house on fire". I was also involved in producing pipe organ samples for EMU (now Creative Labs) and Ahlborn in Germany. CDi had just been introduced (an early version of the now ubiquitous software disks) and I was commissioned by one of the early developers to produce a collection of original background music for a couple of their interactive game disks.

I continued to run the shop for about thirteen years before I realised that the whole market was changing very rapidly and I needed to change along with it to survive. Sadly or perhaps more fortunately, I did not have the necessary capital to move into the new world of music retailing that was developing and decided to gradually wind the company down. I then joined what was at the time a relatively new business called PC World where I remained for nearly ten years. In the meantime, the majority of traditional music shops closed down or went bankrupt.

As in any business these days, things change rapidly and PC World was no exception. Having expanded enormously during my early years there, it gradually started to pull its horns in. Anyone in management found that three quarters of the management jobs suddenly became non existent and things like commission and bonuses went out of the window. I struggled on for a few years managing to hold on with a gradually diminishing salary versus constantly rising prices and finally managed to sell my shop premises and flats. I was glad to get out of it all and fortunately, it was just before the crash of 2008.

David Cuttill finally decided to retire and I entered negotiations to take over Viscount Organs in the UK. Unfortunately, I was unable to secure sufficient financing for this and it was eventually taken over by David Mason who has seemingly made a good job of establishing Viscount as a major pipeless organ manufacturer. At least they now build decent consoles to the correct dimensions !

I had been taking an interest in the technology of pipeless organs via computer based methods since the early 2000's and had started developing pipe organ sample sets for Gigastudio (just like Brett Milan at MDA and several others) until I was made aware of Hauptwerk. From then on I rather dropped Gigastudio (which eventually dropped all of its customers - another Japanese owned company) and concentrated on Hauptwerk which offered a far superior solution. Martin Dyde came up to spend an afternoon and evening with me (combining a weekend of caving with his visit).

Since sampling and library production work can take place pretty much anywhere and having sold my premises, I decided to invest in a large motor home and move out of the UK - if you like, a mobile studio and "house" that I could go anywhere in. I left the UK and eventually ended up  in Spain for a couple of years. I really loved it and was able to carry on with developing libraries for Hauptwerk whilst enjoying an entirely new way of life.

I might have stayed but for the fact that in 2008, the great crash came and Spain in particular was thrown into dire straits. I even managed to give a recital and interview which was featured on the nine o'clock news - all in Spanish which by this time I was speaking fairly fluently.

Sadly, I was left with no alternative but to return to the UK.

I stayed for a while with friends in Derbyshire until I sold my motorhome and moved down to Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire all the time continuing with creating Hauptwerk libraries. My parents were getting increasingly old and having other problems and eventually "push came to shove" and my father died with my mother having to go into a nursing home. It was down to me to go and sort everything out in Somerset. In the meantime I had met my partner in Tewkesbury and together, we moved down to the West Country.

Unfortunately, I had to sell the house due to exceptionally stupid arrangements that my father had made. We managed to do so having spent a year getting the place saleable and I eventually sold to Mariella Frostrup the TV presenter following an introduction from our next door neighbour; the well known photographer Sir Don McCullin.

My mother lived another five years in the nursing home  - very much happier and in comfort. We remained in the area in various rented properties so that we could be close and on hand for my mother. After a very long and gradual decline, she eventually passed away very peacefully aged 93. 

After all my mother's affairs had been sorted out, we were able to move out of Somerset finally and take a more long term decision, buying a house and grounds in Devon.

So that is basically it when it comes to that part of my life. I continue to run Silver Octopus and I continue to produce sample libraries for Hauptwerk. It is now nearly twenty years since I first became involved with the software and it looks like I will continue to be involved with producing sets for the forseeable future.

We live in an idyllic property in a beautiful county where people are friendly and generally very well mannered. In many ways Devon is like the rest of the UK was like many decades ago. It is like stepping back in time and life moves at a very much slower pace here. No doubt we will remain here.

Many of the organ builders and organists of my youth are no longer living though I still remain close friends with my "brother" Andrew Sixsmith who is pretty much the same age as myself. His late father; George acted as another surrogate father from when we first met over 40 years ago. I retain full access to the works in Mossley near Manchester so have workshop facilities when required. Renatus is just up the road from our house in Devon where Colin Peacock runs the leading production house for consoles etc. John Bertalot is still alive having returned to the UK and just recently, a HW sample set of Blackburn Cathedral (unfortunately, not by me) has been released which almost brings me full circle to where I began.