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- Thread starter Dave Payn
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Dave Payn
Active Member
andyp said:either I'm sad or showing my age. Probably both.......
Me too! I tried, a few years ago, to hunt around for people amongst friends, band colleagues etc. to see if anyone had one. I wanted to form the London Stylophone Orchestra on the grounds it was the nearest I'd ever get to playing in the LSO..... :roll:
Sam Atherton
Member
eBay is your friend! There are loads of them for sale.
Can't wait for your first concert...
Can't wait for your first concert...
Dave Payn
Active Member
Sam Atherton said:eBay is your friend! There are loads of them for sale.
Can't wait for your first concert...
There were two sizes too! Come on, after the Floral Dance, Lincolnshire Poacher etc. etc. surely brass bands are the medium for someone to concoct a feature for amplified Stylophones and band!
Saw this description on a website (for the benefit of those who have never encoutered the aural 'delights' of the Stylophone.....
'David Bowie may have used this instrument for one note on Space Oddity and Chicory Tip sounded like they had the mains powered deluxe model on Son of my Father, but this forerunner to home keyboards didn't last too long, despite (n.b. surely 'because of'????) celebrity endorsement from Rolf Harris.
On the introductory flexidisk record that came with the Stylophone, (n.b. My sister still has the flexidisk!) Rolf introduced us to its many sounds (Normal AND Vibrato - n.b. See what I mean about being ideal for brass bands? ;-)) and to a Stylophone orchestra he had formed that produced a catchy, up- tempo version of A Whiter Shade of Pale.
The B-side of the disc also featured advertising blurb for the Super Stylophone. The Super Stylophone could do lot's of different sounds and also had a larger scale.
The idea was to introduce kids to music. The reality, in most cases, was that after a while you got bored with reading the "How to Learn Scales" and began experimenting with switching the power off and on between notes or placing the pen half way down your tongue and touching the keyboard with the tip of your tongue to make noises which resembled a duck breaking wind.
Then there was the 350S - with fake wood grain and everything. It had two styli (styluses?) and ran off two of those huge old EverReady "doorstop" batteries that you just don't seem to see any more. . .
Stylophones were extremely expensive at the time and parents bemoaned having to spend the equivalent of two months wages on these electronic audio torture devices.'
Sam Atherton
Member
Ooooh... concerto for stylophone and brass band. Such a shame I'm not a composer! :lol:
Sam Atherton
Member
Dave Payn said:What a great idea. Where's James McFadyen when you need him?
He's writing letters to 4BR, I think.
PeterBale said:
Maybe this could be a first commision for the winner of the composers competition. I'm not sure about the hammond organ though!! :wink:
Dave Payn
Active Member
If those of you who have never heard a Stylophone in 'action' (or those who simply have a craving for that sort of thing!) would like to hear it, appearently you can see a video clip of Rolf playing one here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1970/toys1.shtml
if you have realone player (I don't, so perhaps someone can tell me! ;-))
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/years/1970/toys1.shtml
if you have realone player (I don't, so perhaps someone can tell me! ;-))
ScrapingtheBottom
Active Member
Sam Atherton said:Dave Payn said:What a great idea. Where's James McFadyen when you need him?
He's writing letters to 4BR, I think.
Just read his letter - what a joker! Somehow thinks that being a composers is much harder now than it used to be - tell that to Mozart!
Back on topic: Stylophones has a vital place in the bandroom - yes - in the bin.
Janet Watkins
Member
There was a "Pop Quiz" programme on TV a few years back where the guest panellist had to attempt to play a tune on a Stylophone for the others to guess the title!
Best edition was when Rick Wakeman was the guest..............
They rigged up banks of then for him to play. Class!
Janet
Best edition was when Rick Wakeman was the guest..............
They rigged up banks of then for him to play. Class!
Janet
In the mid-seventies, I owned one of those supa-dupa-mega stylophones, you know, the one that worked off mains or battery with several different sounds and more than one octave. I bought it because I couldn't afford a synthesiser, (a "Moog" or a "Korg", which you had to programme, and my musical aquaintance Rick Wakeman was playing - not forgetting the mighty "Mellatron"). I digress. Back to my Stylophone, (which has a capital 'S' because I still have a little soft spot for it). My claim to fame is that I played it on an album with a local group playing an instrumental I wrote for them, and I also played the theme from Dr Who on it with a 'teachers band' touring primary schools.
OMG, fame is a difficult thing to handle, especially when it is associated with Rolf Harris.
OMG, fame is a difficult thing to handle, especially when it is associated with Rolf Harris.
