Mellotron

The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It evolved from a similar instrument, the Chamberlin, but could be mass-produced more effectively. The instrument works by pulling a section of magnetic tape across a head. Different portions of the tape can be played to access different sounds.

The original models were designed to be used in the home, and contained a variety of sounds, including automatic accompaniments. The bandleader Eric Robinson and television personality David Nixon were heavily involved in the instrument's original publicity. A number of other celebrities such as Princess Margaret were early adopters.

The Mellotron became more popular after the Beatles used it on several tracks. It was subsequently adopted by the Moody Blues, Genesis and King Crimson, and became a notable instrument in progressive rock. Later models such as the M400, the best selling model, dispensed with the accompaniments and some sound selection controls in order to be used by touring musicians. The instrument became less popular in the 1980s due to the introduction of polyphonic synthesizers and samplers, despite a number of high profile uses from Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and XTC.

Nick Awde

Nick Awde Hill (born 29 December 1961 in London, England) is a British writer, artist, singer-songwriter and critic. He is based in London and Brussels.

Personal life

The son of an international lawyer (who formulated laws that enable containers to go round the world), he was raised in Nigeria, the Sudan and Kenya before being sent to the Jesuit Catholic boarding school Stonyhurst College in the UK. Although his father moved to Northern Ireland and his mother to Germany after divorcing, most of Awde's teenage home life was spent in Soho and the West End of London. He studied Arabic and Hausa at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, later becoming a journalist after working for several years on building sites and teaching English in Spain.

Plays and fiction

With Chris Bartlett he co-wrote the comedy drama Pete and Dud: Come Again, a hit at the Assembly Rooms at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2005 before transferring to London's West End at The Venue, in March 2006, then doing a 90-date tour of the UK the following year. The play examines the comic relationship that existed between comedians Peter Cook and Dudley Moore of Beyond the Fringe; set in a chat show during the early eighties, the play tells their tale from the perspective of Dudley Moore, by then an international film star.