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GREAT NEWS!!! DINGLES VTPO PLAYING!
After many months of restoring and rebuilding the ex-State Dartford/ex-Gunton Hall Lowestoft Theatre organ console and installing the Opus Two digital control system, we are most pleased to announce that, as of 1st August 2008, we have at last got the Virtual Theatre Pipe Organ (VTPO) playing at Dingles Fairground Heritage Centre. Using a sample set featuring Wurlitzer and Christie pipes and percussions (alas no Compton organ samples available as yet) we are able to have the authentic and mighty sound of a theatre organ played via a computer and through speakers. There is still some work to be done by way of adjustments and ironing out faults, but already we have given public concerts and demonstrations to Dingles Visitors on the VTPO
This is a piece of history as it is the first time a digitally sampled VTPO has been played using a genuine theatre organ console in a public venue.
(Of course this is only a halfway house for us, and a way of enjoying some theatre organ music at Dingles well ahead of the time when the new hall and pipe chambers are built at Dingles and we can switch over to the “real thing”!)
We will be announcing a programme of concerts and other events on the Dingles VTPO in due course. Meanwhile, we will be meeting Thursday lunchtimes and Saturday mornings to play and present the organ. Please check with Dingles or Robin to verify if you are coming over specially to hear the organ.
T.O.C Chairman Robin Roper writes........
Late 2006 saw the beginning of a project to bring the 3 manual 7 rank Compton Theatre Organ originally installed in the State Theatre in Dartford (1935), from its home since 1978 in the concert hall of the Gunton Hall resort in Lowestoft, to clean, restore and improve it, and install it in a multi-purpose entertainment- cultural-educational venue in the Tamar Valley.
We are delighted that the organ is to be installed at Dingles Steam Village - home of the Fairground Heritage Centre at Lifton, Devon. Current plans are for the construction of a lecture hall with pipe chambers and the organ console on a lift in the centrs front of a stag/screen area.
The theatre organ is a fantastic instrument – it can handle a wide range of music from classical to pop and from folk to jazz – and is full of tones and sounds which run from the mellow and mellifluous to the mighty and majestic to the sassy and silly. This organ even has sound effects that were meant for use in accompanying silent movies! (We could do that again). It has a real xylophone, glockenspiel, vibraphone and chimes, as well as various drums cymbals and other non-tonal percussions. At Gunton Hall, the organ was fitted with a real piano, but that is long gone. (We plan to put one back though - we have been donated a lovely upright player piano))
Unfortunately this particular organ has had bad luck – flooded 3 times when in the cinema. That's why we've affectionately dubbed it "The Dartford Warbler". Now, even after extensive restoration in the past, the organ suffered neglect and disrepair and was no longer wanted at Gunton Hall. It needs some TLC, so let’s give it a new lease of life where it can be put to full use here in the Tamar Valley!
Apart from getting the Dartford Warbler playing again, we also hope to have social and educational events including concerts, visits to other organs and venues and such. Education will feature strongly in our future plans so we can bring on a new generation of theatre organists and technicians.
If you are interested in getting involved in all the fun and games, please do join us in the Tamar Organ Club and get in touch with us via the contacts page of this website.
