THE DIARY OF THE RESTORATION OF THE ORGAN

INCLUDING CLICK-ON THUMBNAILS OF THE RESTORATION WORK

GORDON BLACKLEDGE OF DAVID WELLS ORGAN BUILDERS WHOSE DEDICATION HAS ENABLED THIS ORGAN TO BE RE-INSTALLED

MICHAEL MAINE - CONSULTANT ON THE RESTORATION PROJECT

The organ was removed when the rebuilding of the auditorium began and was taken to the organ building firm of David Wells (Organ Builders) of Liverpool, who look after the giant 5 manual Willis in the Anglican Cathedral of that city, as well as other prestigious instruments.
It was felt that as well as the cleaning and restoration of the instrument, tonal improvements would be beneficial. There will be, so I am told, no re-voicing - it will still sound basically as it was, but with the following additions:                                                                                               

To improve the "theatre organ" side of the instrument, two new ranks (Open Diapason 8-4 and a HN&B "Christie" Flute 16' to 1 3/5') will be added to the Accompaniment chamber. These two ranks are from the 9 rank Christie organ (of 1929) that was in the Queen's Cinema, Cricklewood. More tremulants have been installed, which will improve the "theatre organ" ensemble, but the Great will still be un-tremmed. A new 32' Double Open Diapason (digital) is part of the programme (designed by David Houlgate), replacing an original rather "primitive" electronic example (1936), which although lasting well into the late 1940s eventually became unreliable. The organ chambers are not large, and a real full-length rank would not fit in at all. The console will have more piston control, including "generals" which will be adjustable by setter piston and a programmable "memory" so that different players may set the registration to their own liking.

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER, 2002                                                                                                         During the last two weeks of August 2002, the Swell and Solo chests and bellows and electrics were put in place, and in the first week in September, electrical works carried out, specifically wiring up the Solo and Swell action to the nerve centre containing numerous Central Processing Units. This is housed in the same chamber that houses the blower - this chamber is situated sandwiched between the Solo and Swell chambers.
As the Dome is now running shows, concerts, etc, access to the building is going to be difficult, so not much work will be done here for a little while. A recent comment in the local "Argus" newspaper from the Dome Management promises that they are hoping to stage an opening concert in four months time (March/April 2003), but there is no way this can be the case - there is a lot more work to be done. They obviously confused the builder's statement "4 months of work" with "4 months time"!

The David Wells team arrived towards the end of August 2002 and began to unload some of the main components of the organ - the chests, windlines and smaller bellows, etc. as will be seen in the following thumbnails: 

David Wells vans arriving	Soundboards and wind trunking on stage	Small bellows for Solo division
Some of the action	Swell soundboards in the process of being installed	The installation team of Mark, Andy, Gordon (team leader) and Jim
Working in the Solo chamber - looking over towards the Great/Accompaniment chambers on other side of stage.	Hoisting main Solo chest (for reeds) up to the Solo chamber utilising the stage scenery hoist mechanism	Solo Chest in place with Mark, Andrew and Jim
The Great chamber's chests awaiting their pipes.	Andy adjusting the tension springs under the pallets of the Swell Rohr Gedeckt chest	Jim and Terry working on the assembly of the Accompaniment chamber's chests.
Gordon Blackledge with one of the many circuit boards of the Central Processing Unit controlling the action of the organ.	Another view of the central processing unit	Coupler board - part of the central processing unit

The new computer system (seen in the last three pictures above) controlling the organ has been built by the firm of AJ & L Taylor Ltd and is the largest organ computer system the firm has ever had to design.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003                                                                                                           Work on the re-installation of the organ re-commenced again in early January 2003 and they only have a couple of weeks to do as much as they can before the building is in use again (they are returning for a short time in early February) and at present the Great and Accompaniment chambers are being fitted with their frames, chests, etc.   By 7th February, the chests and wind lines for the Great were in situ, but there was still still some more work to be done in the Accompaniment chamber.   One of the drawbacks for David Wells's team is that the new chambers have been made smaller and a different shape than the original ones and it means that they have had to re-think the layout of some of the components, rather like getting a quart into a pint pot, so to speak.   I mentioned to Gordon Blackledge, when he told me about this lack of room, that John Compton used to perform miracles in these situations (the BBC Concert Hall organ for example, which is as cramped as any organ can be, by all accounts), but he jokingly said that it will need more than a miracle in this instance.       The crew have been given quite a number of available dates for them to carry on with the work, so things should progress a bit faster from now on (But read on ..... things began to get worse!).

MARCH 2003
The chests for Great and Accompaniment and wind lines are now in situ, and the wiring is being checked through and the wind lines tested for leaks etc. with a portable blower. All seems to be going well.

APRIL 2003
The organ will now have four blowers (two for each side of the stage), instead of the old single (rather noisy) one, which would have generated an irritating hum in the new very sensitive acoustics. This is necessary also because the original blower was situated in the roof, but due to the re-vamp of the building the space which housed it no longer exists.

JUNE 2003
NO WORK DONE IN MAY AS THE BRIGHTON FESTIVAL WAS IN PROGRESS AND ACCESS TO THE BUILDING NOT PRACTICAL. The work continued with the checking of the winding and wiring, and progressed to the next stage - the connection of the wires to the computer system, a very complicated exercise involving thousands of colour-coded wires. The swell shutter frames were being fitted when I visited in the week commencing 20th June, and if things go to plan, the swell shutters will be in place during the next week or so.

OTHER NEWS IS THAT THE MARIMBA HARP and CHRYSOGLOT, BOTH FORMERLY IN THE ACCOMPANIMENT CHAMBER, HAVE HAD TO BE PLACED IN THE NEW SOLO PERCUSSION CHAMBER WHICH IS SITUATED BELOW THE SOLO AND ABOVE THE SWELL CHAMBERS ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE STAGE.

JULY 2003
The swell shutters to the Swell and Accompaniment chambers are now in place. The new Laukhoff blowers arrived on 30th July. There are two large ones which will produce the general wind supply to the Solo/Swell and Great/Accompaniment chambers respectively, and two smaller blowers will be linked up to add the higher pressure wind to those ranks which require it.
 

New Laukhoff blowers for the Solo/Swell chambers	A busy stage area - lighting staff - Open Diapason 16 pipes and console.	The Solo reeds - Tuba horn, Orchestral Trumpet, Saxophone and Tuba
Solo chamber (from right) Clarinet and Orchestral Oboe - Tuba Mirabilis basses behind.	A view inside the Swell chamber	Great/Accompaniment main blower
Some of the percussions installed in the Percussion chamber	PERCUSSION CHAMBER Glockenspiel and Chrysoglot	THE PERCUSSION CHAMBER (2) Looking up towards, on the left, the huge bass speaker for the new digital 32' and 16' Open Wood and the Tuned Sleigh Bells and Xylophone. The speaker for the bottom octave of the 32' Ophicleide is situated with the Great chamber pipes.

AUGUST 2003
Work carried on constructing the wind lines from the blowers to the chests.
The console arrived the second week in August, and now we are awaiting the pipes and percussions.

SEPTEMBER 2003
A lot of tidying up mainly in the chambers. The windlines are now fully constructed and the blowers were installed and up and running and it has been an arduous task locating and plugging wind leaks - the exceptional dry weather causing wood shrinkage. All the swell shutters have been fitted.   The console was connected to the central processing units (which replace cumbersome relays), and during the last week of the month, the system was being checked out with Gordon Blackledge at the console putting on stops, pressing keys etc, so that Jeff, the expert on the electrical side of organ building, who was up in the chambers, could check that all connections were working 100%.
 

The storage room for the console has been organized, and the console will be lowered on the front stage lift and rolled off into its room underneath the stage. There will be two "plug-in" points on the stage for the connection wire to the console. As mentioned earlier time was definitely against the David Wells team, with only a week left to get the pipes in, regulate, tune, etc - the result could have been horrendous - so it is good we have to wait a lot longer (till March 2004 - but even that was wishful thinking - read on!) before the organ is played publicly. It will have had enough time to settle with the fine tuning etc which will be required.                   

The newly restored and re-veneered console	"Full frontal" view showing at left new piston memory controls	Mark - the restorer of the console casework proudly showing off his handiwork.	The superbly renovated console. Below the left end of the bottom manual can be seen the new computer piston setting controls.

OCTOBER 2003
The task of placing the pipes in the Solo and Swell chambers began this month. When I visited the Dome, David Wells himself was on stage supervising the cleaning of the Orchestral Trumpet pipes' resonators and shallots - The Tuba Mirabilis was in line to be cleaned next. In a crate nearby could be seen the Saxophones. Meanwhile upstairs Gordon, Mark and Andrew were placing the boots of the Tuba Horn into the pipe racks and testing the pallets to ensure that they sounded (albeit rather "comb and paper" noises without their resonators!). The Harmonic Claribel was already in place and in the corridor behind the organ chamber could be seen the Tibia Clausa pipes and the resonators of the Tuba Horn waiting to go in.

NOVEMBER 2003
Unfortunately the team only had four and a half days to work during November (17th onwards), but they did manage to install all of the Solo reeds and the Harmonic Claribel. The Tibia may be done by the end of that time. The pipework having been cleaned and restored looks like new and very impressive. Also a lot of the Swell pipework was in-situ - Oboe, Violin Diapason, Gamba, Voix Celeste and 15th. The pipes of the Swell Chorus Reeds and the basses of the Gamba were still being cleaned. The Rohr Gedeckt pipes were in a crate nearby together with the Great Stopped Diapason.

DECEMBER 2003
Only four and a half days were available for work during week commencing 9th December. On my visit, the treble of the Rohr Gedackt and the Gamba basses had been installed in the Swell chamber and also some of the Great upperwork. There was a lot of pipework on stage being cleaned and ready for installation and it was hoped that the Double Trumpet of the Swell and the Horn would be in situ by the end of the week. The action had to be checked throughout due to dryness causing a few problems. These have now been sorted out.
The next visit will be week commencing 5th January - there is light at the end of the tunnel now. It is hoped that the percussions, at present being overhauled in Liverpool, will also be brought down to Brighton during that week.

JANUARY 2004
The team were here from Monday 5th till the Thursday 15th - but horror of horrors, there is a setback as rain leaked in through the roof and into the Solo chamber (builders were doing repairs when I visited). This means quite a setback to the David Wells people, as any damage to the chamber/chests, etc. must take a priority and will mean at least a week's work - time which they can ill-afford. This delay has also meant that the percussions which are now restored to full working order could not be brought down from Liverpool, as it may mean removal of some of the Solo chests. There was a little good news in that I was able to view the complete Swell pipework in situ - photography of the whole lot being almost an impossibility - as the Rohr-Gedackt/Echo Bourdon chest stands like a wall between the door into the chamber and the main chest. The Gamba bases stand against the wall behind the door and one of the pipes is on a swivel hinge arrangement so you open the door enough to get in, then move the pipe on its hinge, then you can get round the corner to tune the rank - its all very unique (like the instrument itself). I was also able to see the treble chest with the pipes of the Great Open Diapasons 1 & 2, and the Stopped Diapason rank - and alongside the soundboard one can see the tops of the Bourdon and the Open Wood's 8' octave. Tons more work to do and they are not back again until the end of February!

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2004
Most of the Great pipework is in (see picture on home page) and only the Pedal Posaune pipes were awaiting their new home. The percussions are now all in situ - the marimba harps awaiting its resonators. The hammers have all been re-felted (if that is a legitimate word?) which will give us the sound as originally conceived by HN&B when installed in 1936. In recent years, the lack of felt on the hammers had really turned it into another Xylophone. I have a picture of it as it stands, but hopefully will be able to take one when complete. The Percussion chamber also houses the loudspeaker for the digital 32' Open Wood.

APRIL 2004
Sorry - Nothing to report. The team only managed to get in for four days over the month - they are due back at the end of the month though. All they were doing were working on windlines and the electrics and preparing the mechanics in the Accompaniment chamber. The team will not be back until  June.

JUNE 2004                                                                                                                                                Things are now really looking up.   Two lots of good news:-   The humidifiers that were installed at the beginning of the year have been most successful and there are now no problems on that score.  At the end of June work in the ACCOMPANIMENT CHAMBER began and the String Organ's pipes are being put into place - see thumbnails BELOW.   Owing to lack of height, many of the longer pipes are either slightly bent at the top or mitred - as these pictures show.     The other good news is that the team should be back in August to do the final tonal finishing - the venue is not being used hardly at all during that month.   The light at the end of the tunnel is beginning to glimmer - shine even!    Hooray.   We don't have an "all systems go" date yet, but Autumn 2004 should see some publicity, we hope.   As the old song goes, "It's been a long, long time".

JULY 2004                                                                                                                                                Early July and the String section is now in, together with the Viola, Vox Humana and Dulciana of the Accompaniment division.    The next visit will be in August, when as mentioned in the notes for June above, the team will commence and hopefully be able to finish the tonal finishing and initial tuning of the instrument - Hip hip hooray!

AUGUST 2004 - I am writing this about half-way through the month.  The tuner and voicer from David Wells Organ Builders has been in for the last fortnight and when I visited them in the first week I was able to hear the "secondary" Great Diapason Chorus (Open Diapason No. 3, Principal, Twelfth, 15th and the Mixture) and all very good it sounded too - I thought the sound was a bit more "spikier" than I remembered it, which is a very good sign - as it will confirm my "theory" of way back that in the new acoustics, the organ would sound brighter (notwithstanding the fact that the pipes have been cleaned and restored).   There are some new pictures to be found below those following, which I took on that recent visit.   All is looking good.  Latest news is that they are coming back again in the last week in August and that the tonal finishing and tuning will be completed, hopefully, by the end of that week.   -  Enjoy the pictures

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN PAST THE FOLLOWING PICTURES TO FIND MORE NEWS

THE STRING ORGAN The pipes of the String Organ being inserted in the Accompaniment chamber. In the foreground can be seen one of the chests for the Acccompaniment division which will include Open Diapason, Flute, Vox Humana, Violone and Dulciana units.	THE STRING ORGAN (2) Some of the pipes have had to be mitred owing to the lack of height in the chamber.	THE STRING ORGAN (3) Overall view showing the typically narrow-scale pipes of the orchestral type of string ranks, such as the Viol d'Orchestre etc. The non-orchestral strings, such as the Gamba, etc are much wider in scale.
THE STRING ORGAN (4) The ranks shown are (from the front) Cornet de Violes (a mixture of 4 ranks up to mid C and then two ranks for the upper octaves), Leiblich Gedeckt 4, Violette 4, Viol D'Orchestre II 8, Quintaton 8, Voix Celeste II and Musette (a reed). The 16' Contra Viola on the separate chest at the back is linked to the Accompaniment organ - and available on Great and Pedal also	THE STRING ORGAN (5) with all the pipes now in place. Note the many mitred pipes - those at the back are of the Contra Viola 16, and those at the very right are the Viola 8-4. The previous chambers had a well at the back to accommodate the height of these pipes.	VOX HUMANA and DULCIANA These two ranks are part of the Accompaniment section and can be played on other manuls. The Viola 8-4 is sited at the back of the String Organ chest on a separate soundboard. The other two ranks of the section, the new Open Diapason and Flute, will complete the division when installed.
CATHEDRAL CHIMES - in Solo chamber - the rest of the percussions are in the Percussion chamber the swell shutters of which are linked to the Solo's	SOLO REEDS - Tuba Horn, Orchestral Trumpet, Saxophone and Tuba Mirabilis	THE SWELL CHAMBER - Gordon Blackledge making some fine adjustments on a wayward Contra Oboe pipe
SWELL CHAMBER - showing mitred bass pipe of the Rohr Gedackt to combat the height restriction	SWELL CHAMBER - The main chest	SWELL CHAMBER - Double Trumpet pipes

SEPTEMBER 2004 - The  tonal regulation and basic tuning is still being carried out - a longish job.  Just as we thought things were going like clockwork, another snag has come up.  The chest for the two new Accompaniment ranks, Open Diapason and Flute, has had to be re-positioned on the floor of the chamber as a ceiling beam above it would obstruct the longest pipes, but this is in hand as I write this in the second week of September.   I had the opportunity of having a short play on the instrument and was able to play all stops except those in the Accompaniment chamber, as that hadn't been tuned at that point, but Swell, Great, and Solo stops were sounding really good.   The most impressive thing was that the full "straight" organ certainly sounded better than it did before removal and restoration, the hall's improved acoustics helping no end, just as I predicted.   The sound was "alive", whereas before it sounded rather ordinary (even though in those days on the stage it was certainly better than when seated in the auditorium).   Only the Tibia and Clarinet tremulants were working on that day, so I hope to be able to try them out towards the end of the month.    David Wells, the Director of the firm, said that the Dome organ must be  the most complicated instrument in the country (the reason being that some ranks are straight, others unified, others borrowed, etc.).   At least, it is one of the most complicated that he has ever experienced.

The two new ranks, the Open Diapason 8-4 and Flute 16-1 3/5 are now installed and on wind.   I had the opportunity to have about 45 minutes play on the instrument, in both straight and theatre styles.   The tremulants are all working now and have been adjusted to what I am going to call "COS/ATOS standards".  The theatre organ side now sounds more like a good theatre organ should sound, and is a real eye- (or should I say ear-)opener.  It certainly is more convincing as a theatre organ now - reminiscent of a good Robert Morton organ, as far as my aural memory can tell.  Whilst I was playing, Gordon Blackledge went into the main body of the auditorium and came back to the console and said, "Here, you ought to go out into the auditorium and listen.   Let me just play for a little while on the  the same combination you are using (Strings, 4' Tibia, Vox, new Flute and the Clarinet).  Out there it sounds absolutely fabulous".  So I went out to hear it from where he had been standing, and the organ fills the auditorium with sound now (and this was without the acoustic enhancement panels being set in 'concert' position).  You still get the "stereo effect" to some degree, but you also got what I call the "big American super picture palace all-enveloping effect"  and it mixes so effectively in the centre of the sound-stage.   Gordon also played it straight and the full 'cathedral' organ (even without the big Orchestral Trumpet and Tuba Mirabilis) is truly wonderful.  When we eventually get to hear the Saint-Saens' Symphony, the audience are going to have goose-bumps on goose-bumps.   It is so exciting!   The only things missing were the 32' digitally generated octaves to the Open Wood and the fabulous Ophicleide, but David Houlgate was expected later on the same day to work on these.  

DECEMBER 2004 - There is still a lot of work to be done, and a few snags have come up which has once again delayed the completion of the work.  The team are coming back in January 2005 to begin exorcising some of those niggling gremlins  that haunt organ builders.   At the moment all I can say is "Watch this space" and keep coming back to see what's new towards the end of January.

FEBRUARY 2005 - The all-important task of tonal finishing commences this month.

THE FOLLOWING COULD PROBABLY BE THE LAST PICTURES WHICH I WILL BE TAKING AND I WOULD LIKE TO THANK DAVID WELLS FOR ALLOWING ME THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING ALLOWED TO BE LET LOOSE (UNDER SUPERVISION, OF COURSE) AND FOR GORDON FOR ALLOWING ME TO TRY THE ORGAN OUT - HOPEFULLY THERE WILL BE MORE OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COMING MONTHS.   

APRIL MAY AND JUNE 2005

I am sorry that you have not heard anything since February, but I can tell you that at the moment fine mechanical adjustments are being carried out to the swell shutter mechanism, the tremulation etc.   More than that I am not able to give you any more information, but I assure you that as soon as something official comes my way, you will read all about it here.  

 SEPTEMBER 2005

Michael Maine reports :

The instrument is up and running as a classical organ but there is still a little more work to do on the theatrical side, and also some tonal work which will commence soon, but........we are very nearly 100% at last!

JANUARY 2006

Work in the chambers is nearing completion - a few teething problems, common to all newly installed organs.   A top voicer has been called in to regulate and perfect the blend etc of the pipework.

FEBRUARY-MARCH 2006

Local organ expert David Houlgate, working for the David Wells company has been at work since Autumn 2005 and has made some changes which has improved access for the organ tuner, by moving the 8' octaves of the strings  in the Accompaniment to the other side of the chamber, so they are now sited with the Dulciana.   The 16' octaves are now generated digitally, but you cannot hear the join!    A couple of the Solo tremulents have been re-sited so that from the auditorium they are inaudible.   A wind-pressure problem on the Great Tromba unit has been rectified, so all in all, things are looking good for the instrument's first official public airing on the 2nd April, and subsequently the "Organ Spectacular" on the 9th July.

Here are three new pictures - the re-sited 8' octaves of the strings and David Houlgate working in the Accompaniment chambers holding one of the new 8' Flute pipes.

David Houlgate working in Accompaniment chamber - the new Flute and Diapason ranks	The String organ as it now stands - the 8' octaves are now resited on the other side of the chamber	The 8' octaves of the strings - Vox Human in front

 

ACCOMPANIMENT CHAMBER The new additions to the organ - Open Diapason 8-4 and Open Flute 16 ft to 1 3/5th. These two ranks are from the 9 rank Christie organ of 1929 that was in the Queen's Cinema, Cricklewood.	ACCOMPANIMENT CHAMBER Another view of the Open Diapason and Flute ranks with the Accompaniment shutters in the background.	GORDON BLACKLEDGE David Wells wants all viewers of this site to applaud Gordon as being the driving force behind the installation of the Dome Organ. Without his perseverence throughout with all the trials and tribulations encountered, which you will have read about throughout this diary, the project would never have been completed! Lesser men would have given up! We have decided to honour him with the highest organ builder's accolade O.B.E (Organ Builder Exceptionnel)

JULY 2006 - 9th to be EXACT - THE OPENING CONCERT

MORE DOUGLAS REEVE TUNES - CLICK ON LINKS BELOW

PRIMERO

SOUSA MARCH MEDLEY

 

The Dome was practically full, with only a few empty seats.

The audience assembling for the start of the concert

After almost four years of hard slog, this magnificent music machine was given its first "solo" concert on Sunday 9th July.  After a short introduction and "thank you" messages to all those who had contributed money and work to achieve our goal, Michael Maine, Michael Wooldridge and Nigel Ogden put the instrument through its paces.   After opening up with a rousing performance of Bach's Toccata & Fugue in d minor, and the "King Kong March", Michael Maine followed with a "tour round the organ" demonstrating its thrilling classical organ ensembles, the scintillating strings, and the various solo stops and theatre organ 'toy counter' effects.   All through the concert we were treated to a non-stop slide show and action shots by close-circuit TV of the hands and feet of the three players.

 

Michael Maine chatting to the audience - note one of the video cameras which was used to bring the skills of the players onto the screen

There were a few lighter items ending up with another classical, this time by the eminent 19th century organist Alexandre Guillmant and based on Home Sweet Home and the British Grenadiers - a virtuoso work, during which Michael's feet danced across the pedals at alarming speed.  

Michael Maine in action during the Toccata & Fugue - with essential page-turner

Michael Wooldridge was next to entertain us with his excellent big band arrangements and a number of other pieces and a wonderful selection from the musical "Carousel" during which we were treated to those gorgeous strings during the ballad "If I loved you".    He also included an item by his teacher, Bobby Pagan, whose picture was projected onto the screen .........

Michael Maine was invited back and paid a wonderful tribute to Douglas Reeve by singing one of Douglas's favourites, "The Lost Chord" to his own thrilling organ accompaniment.

After the interval Michael returned to end his contribution to the proceedings by giving us  a rip-roaring performance of "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue" before handing the console over to the ever popular presenter of BBC Radio 2's 'The Organist Entertains',

Nigel Ogden, who regaled us with one of his typical programmes, full of popular 'easy listening' tunes and medleys, one of which was called 'Top of the Pops 1936', the year of the organ's original installation.  He also included one of his own compositions, an exciting march called 'New Era'

           Michael Wooldridge                               Michael Maine               Nigel Ogden

The concert was a great success and we are all looking forward to the next one.  The Dome authorities were amazed at the turnout and hopefully it will not be long before another similar concert is scheduled.

On a somewhat critical note as an organist and organ lover myself, I felt that although the straight organ voices were superb, and equal to any other concert hall organ in the country, there is some regulation that needs to be done with the theatre organ ranks and the tremulants seemed to be having problems too - and both these problems are in hand, I am reliably informed.

In the meantime, read all about the Dome organ in my articles for the Autumn 2002 and Autumn 2003 editions (and now the Autumn 2006) of the Cinema Organ Society's quarterly Journal, the Organ Club Journal and Organ1st - VIA THE LINKS TO OTHER RELATED SITES - ABOVE LEFT.   
There is also an excellent article by Michael Maine in the most recent edition of CHOIR AND ORGAN