Live Synthesizer Music
It's an evening of pure synthesizer nostalgia and is a real labour of love for me. Each song is played completely live on stage using a variety of vintage and modern electronic keyboards.
Be prepared for a musical extravaganza of songs inspired by all the big synth pioneers of the past including Vangelis, Jean Michel Jarre, Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, Jan Hammer, Harold Faltermyer and many more.
Watch out for a few fun surprises along the way too, like “Apache” played on the Keytar, “A whiter shade of pale” played on the Hammond organ, and “Telstar” played on the Stylophone!
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My life-long love of synthesizers began when I visited Disneyland, California as a 9 year old boy in the summer of 1972 (Yes, I know, I've just given my age away)!
While everyone else in Disney's Magic Kingdom that evening were being mesmerised by the sparkling lights of the floats in Disney's brand new "Main Street Electrical Parade" attraction, I was totally transfixed on the soundtrack that was blaring out of the speakers - the incredibly powerful sound of a Moog synthesiser playing the Main Street Electrical Parade theme tune, "Baroque Hoedown".
Even before the parade had begun, the musical introduction to Baroque Hoedown with its synth brass fanfare, portomento/glide up, and distinctive vocoder "welcome" message was just magic to my ears.
Up until then, I had been constructing all my musical sounds on the drawbars of the Hammond organ using its (primitive) system of "additive synthesis". But now I was standing in the middle of Disney's Magic Kingdom listening to the future...a mighty Moog modular synthesizer being played using a different system of sound shaping called "subtractive synthesis". It was amazing, and it really whetted my appetite for much wider types of keyboard sounds than the electric organs I was playing at that time could give me.
Unfortunately synthesisers were prohibitively expensive in the early to mid seventies (well, at least for a young boy of my age) so it took another few years before I was able to afford one. Even though I had been playing organ professionally in my local working men's social club since the tender age of 11 years old, I was still learning and earning very little. However by the late seventies I had become quite proficient at playing organ and entertaining and was now earning pretty decent money doing it. Meanwhile technology had been advancing and prices of synthesisers had dropped considerably. Between my gig money and my pocket money I finally had a few quid saved up to splash out on a synthesizer.
My first synth was a Jen SX-2000 Synthetone. The Jen was designed to sit neatly on top of an electric organ but it had little in the way of sound shaping. The VCF (voltage controlled filter) was a bit nasal sounding so it sounded a bit thin, but, hey, for the price it was ok.
After further saving up more money for what seemed like a lifetime, my father drove me from our home in Glasgow one Saturday morning to buy my first Moog synthesiser....a brand new Moog Prodigy from Mike Gill Music in Kilmarnock, Scotland. I think it cost me £295. There were no preset sounds on the Moog Prodigy and no patch memories, so you had to create the sounds yourself completely from scratch. As a live player, it meant I had to learn to quickly set up sounds on the Moog (i.e. alter the oscillators, filter and envelope generators etc) entirely by hand in a matter of seconds in between songs while live on stage at the gig!
That may sound like a logistic nightmare by todays standards but I can assure you it's the best sound design education you can get, and it has stood me in good stead to this very day. Man, I knew every inch of that Moog Prodigy synth like the hairs on the back of my hand!
Since then, I have owned literally dozens of different synthesizers, both analogue and digital - so many in fact that I've forgotten more than I remember owning. In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in electronic music and the keyboards that create these types of sounds. Many of the main musical instrument manufacturers have been producing new versions of their old synths plus the second-hand market for original vintage instruments on internet sites like eBay and Gumtree has been vibrant so I now have an impressive collection of synthesizers and vocoders, old and new, which can create every sound imaginable.
My old vintage synths still sound amazing for their age even though I have to treat them with kid gloves.
My new modern synths are also amazing as they can faithfully recreate all the old vintage sounds I need and are light enough to carry around to gigs when I'm out on the road (and are reliable enough to stand up to the rigours and punishment of live gigging).
Unlike me though, Alex never parted with his Moog Prodigy and had kept it for 40 years. But now it was time for him to move it on to pastures anew. When he brought it round to my house, it took me all of 2 seconds to buy it from him...plus a further 2 hours as we both reminisced about the synths we've owned and the music we love - ah, the good old days!
Thank you so much Alex, please be assured your Moog Prodigy is in a good home and will be played, appreciated, and most of all respected, as I take over as the custodian of this little piece of synth history!
