About Me
Robin Richmond. The 'old organ grinder' a whole CD of his early 78s, this time being released on the Castle Communications label The title what else other than THE HAMMOND ORGANIST ENTERTAINS [PLSCD 303]. Yours truly is very proud of that title, but the sad thing is that dear Robin knew nothing of my efforts with Castle Communications to get them to release these recordings, because he passed away a couple of months before the intended surprise announcement. In my youth, I began to collect a whole series of Robin's early 78s released on the Polygon label a subsidiary of Pye. Many feature the single octave monophonic Clavioline, a forunnner of the synthesiser, and all, but all, show Robin's mastery of the Hammond organ which he was responsible for introducing to the British public. An eye catching sleeve photo showing Robin, resplendent in a snow white dinner suit, seated at equally white Hammond, adorns the cover. The 21 tracks kick off with, what else but ROBIN'S NEST, and from then on weave their magical way through various medleys, with accompanying musicians, and solo tracks such as the brilliant SOME LIKE IT HOT, ORGANISING THE BLUES, THAT EVER LOVING RAG, ECSTASY, WINDMILL WALTZ and PARK PLAZA. Just listen to the Busby Berkely inspired version of YOUNG & HEALTHY achieved, as with some other tracks, with a little discrete but clever early attempts at double tracking. When the Hammond Organ Company celebrated it's 50th Anniversary in 1984, over 1,000,000 models had been soldnot bad for a 'pipeless' organ that by Robin's own admission, sounded 'bloody awful' in the early days. Don't pass up the chance to add this wonderful compilation to your collection and I say that not just because of my association with it, but because he was a one of a kind character that had been there, done it and got the T Shirt to prove it. His unique style of playing can never be equalled. Anyway, by the time you read this you can bet that Ian & Gerry at MSS will be holding of stocks of all these compilations. Alan Ashton (Organized Keyboards- newsletter 1999)
Layout Created at Mspremade.com
