98 Key Southsea Atkinson Gavioli at Llandudno Victorian Extravaganza

In this video you'll see and hear Graham Atkinson's 'Southsea' Gavioli, a 98 Key Gavioli fair organ with additional capability to play 110 scale music added by Johnny Verbeeck, playing on the promenade at Llandudno in May 2010. Also a couple of photos taken on the day of the visit.

During the third tune played (Florentiner Swing) you will also see the David Burville & Peter Hood Rollcutter non-intrusive MIDI keyframe player box demonstrated - it sits on top of the keyframe where the book of music would normally enter, and uses solenoids to operate small levers which press down onto the keyframe keys. It is removable in about 30 seconds and requires no permanent changes or alterations to the organ.

Tunes played:
1) 0.00 - Theme tune from "'Allo 'allo"
2) 1.41 - Theme tune from "Dad's Army"
3) 3.43 - Florentiner Swing

All arranged (I think) by Jan Kees de Ruijter.

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More information:

1) The organ was built as a 94/96 Key Gavioli - they didn't build 98 Key organs.

2) Gavioli's 87 Key Scale was enlarged to 89 by Marenghi to the 89VB scale using an extra key each end of the keyframe. The 98 Key Scale is the 89VB scale but using extra registers.

3) Chiappa's DID rebuild this organ from its 94/96 scale to 98 Key - because it was easier and cheaper to obtain newly arranged music in that size. Oddly though, 98 Key actually means a less chromatic scale, i.e 8 bass instead of 10 bass. A collector in the USA still has a 94/96 Key Gavioli for comparison.

4) When Andrew Whitehead restored this organ it was in a very poor condition, so already by the time he had finished with it it could almost be described as a Whitehead Gavioli.

5) Mr Atkinson then eventually acquired this Whitehead-Gavioli which needed more restoration work. Johnny Verbeeck carried this out, and also added many EXTRA new pipes to create the OPTION of playing 110 Key books. He LEFT the original 'Gavioli' pipes in situ where they can still be seen and heard playing, particularly when the organ is playing 98 Key books. So to call this a brand-new Verbeeck is plain wrong. Even before Verbeeck had the organ it no longer had its original wind chest.

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• southsea
• gavioli
• atkinson
• graham
• scarborough
• llandudno
• victorian
• organ
• fairground
• orgel
• kermis
• florentiner
• midi
• keyframe
• rollcutter
• burville
• hood