Hi everyone!

Just thought you'd like to see this and maybe get
involved! I'm thinking of going, if just to hang out
with everyone. May bring 805, not sure---we shall see.

Sounds like a good opportunity to meet our 'tron friends from
across the pond: John Bradley and Martin Smith will be
flying over to Toronto to meet up with fellow 'troniacs,
run some clinics, make some repairs/adjustments on your machine
if you bring it, and so on!

Please respond to Rick Blechta directly if you think you'd
be interested.

Later, 'tronigators!

...kl...

>Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 21:45:26 -0500
>From: Rick Blechta <MViva@...>
>Subject: A Mellotron Announcement
>Sender: Rick Blechta <MViva@...>
>To: Ken Merbler <Kenmerb@...>, Jerry Korb <jkorb@...>,
> Ken Leonard <kleonard@...>
>Cc: Peter Csanky <pete@...>
>X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by smv03.iname.net id
VAA12021
>
>I received your names from Martin Smith of Streetly Electronics. He may
>have already spoken to you about these plans, but I'll proceed as if it's
>all news to you:
>
>Martin and John Bradley have agreed to come to Toronto next May in the
>hopes of meeting and helping any mellotron owners (or enthusiasts)
>interested in knowing more about these "interesting" instruments. In other
>words, we're thinking of having something I guess you might call (for want
>of a better description) a Mellotron Symposium*. The idea is that anyone
>willing to drive their machine to Toronto could have it looked at and
>adjusted, and also learn something about the arcane art of Mellotron
>Maintenence from the masters, Martin and John.
>
>At this point I am just contacting anyone who might have an interest in
>this in order to find out if we can rustle up enough people to make it
>worthwhile. I have no proposed cost at this point, no venue to tell you
>about. Just let me know if you would be interested in showing up! If we can
>get it up and running, I'll arrange the venue and I'm sure we can work out
>some kind of deal for accomodations. The idea is to keep this simple, cheap
>and mainly aim for a good time. One idea that's come up is to have a
>"Massive Mellotron Play-In" with an eye towards setting a world's record
>(not hard since it currently stands at 3--and one of them didn't work very
>well...). Any idea what song we might attempt?
>
>The projected dates are: May 20 & 21, 2000.
>
>Oh yeah, Martin and John are willing to offer 400 tapes at half-price for
>anyone attending. That's $125 (US funds) and they would bring them from
>Britain with them--door-to-door delivery from Streetly! Part of the
>weekend's doings would be a hands-on clinic on how to install tapes "the
>right way." Anyone who's done this knows how time consuming (and not much
>fun) it is. If you need any parts (tape frames, pinch rollers, motor
>control units, etc) I'm sure that this could also be arranged.
>
>In all seriousness, I think this is a great opportunity to meet, learn a
>hell of a lot and talk about something which interests us all. Toronto is a
>terrific city (with terrific pubs--this is how I talked Martin and John
>into this) and I'm sure everyone attending would have a great time.
>
>What I need you to do now is let me know if you are PROVISIONALLY
>interested in taking part. E-mail back to me (MViva@...) or call
>me at (416) 782-3116.
>
>Please pass this on to anyone else you know who might be interested in
>attending. By the way, you don't have to be an owner (or be willing to
>bring your 'tron) to be welcome. We're looking for all those
>"mellotronically inclined."
>
>Hope to hear from you.
>
>Rick Blechta
>
>
>*I want to squelch rumors right now (probably started by Martin, although
>he denies it) that I came up with the name "The Mellotron and Its Place in
>Western Society at The Start of The New Millenium" as a cheap and specious
>means to try to secure government funding for our get-together. I am also
>NOT behind the move to have the name of this fine city temporarily changed
>to "Tronto" for the weekend of the symposium.
>
>