I became an organist almost by accident. I was playing bass in a band but after Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale" everyone wanted to hire organ bands. The rest of the band decided I should learn the organ on the very nebulous grounds that I had once repaired a Vox Continental organ. The second guitarist became the bass player and off we went to Southern organs to buy a new "split" Hammond 102 organ on hire purchase. No doubt the dealer was economical with the truth on the finance form because I was a student at the time with no secure income. However the HP got paid over the following three years. I played this organ through a stack of 4 x 12 speaker cabinets and it could go very loud with a real "growling" tone.

The M102 was subsequently replaced by one of the first Hammond H112 organs in the UK and it too was split; possibly the only such version in the country.

Eventually the H112 went and I settled on an A100 (again split) which I drove into two model 145 Leslie speaker cabinets to produce the classic Hammond sound.

Over the years organs just accumulated around the house and by 2008 I had no less than 41 Hammonds and roughly the same number of Leslie cabinets. Then sanity and necessity prevailed and I slimmed down the collection to a couple of pieces. Over the next few pages I've shown some of these organ; mostly in their unrestored condition.

Organs 1 My Hammond Model A

Organs 2 My Hammond Model BCs

Organs 3 My Hammond Model C3

Organs 4 My Hammond Model TTR-100

Organs 5 My Hammond DR tone cabinet

A lot more follows as soon as I get time to upload it all !