wurlitzer blackpool tower ascending

This shows the Wurlitzer at the Blackpool tower rising from beneath the stage april 2007

[@glenny56]

About time we had some videos of the tower wurlitzer. All the american organists, Jim Riggs, Jelani Eddington are posting organ videos on youtube.

[@feeder123456]

i love blackpool tower and the ballroom is beautiful i hope they never get rid of either

[@contrabombardon]

Thanks for posting this. Great to see Britains best loved WurliTzer doing it's stuff!

[@CraigSmithNNRG]

Yes its a wonderfull instrument to play. She is by far the best WurliTzer I have played. The sound is compleatly differant to any outher WurliTzer. It so magical.

[@punchy18]

I agree, glenny56, but have you heard Chris Hopkins in full flight on the Tower's Wersi? Now that is something else !

[@aknabea]

What a very nice sounding instrument.

[@matthewbason]

It is a bit nippy . . . did you ever get to Ashorne Hall? The lift for the Compton there was a scissor-jack. Talk about sea sickness! When I came up on it, I never played anything "Blackpoolish" straight away for fear of being thrown off.

[@alijanlondon]

That's easy to say when you're not paying the bills. When theh organ is for commercial use you need reliability and cheap maintenance. If solid state was around in the 30s they'd have used it. Installing solid state does nothing to alter the sound. But in any case, theatre organs have been modified (added to etc) throughout their history.

[@alijanlondon]

I wonder how the purists would feel if there was no Wurlitzer to listen too because the old control system was too expensive to maintain. I gather the current control system was quite revolutionary for its time, being done in the very early 80s

[@jazzboyfin]

Wurlitzer control gear (the relay stack) is all in with the pipe chambers, not in the console back. I doubt therefore that a new control system would have made much difference to the weight of the console.

[@matthewbason]

David Lobban

[@jazzboyfin]

So have they done away with the pneumatic piston action then? If so then yes that would make a difference to the weight. I thought you meant just the main pipe relays. Cheers Peter

[@PrincessBambiflower]

Oops, did it get stuck for a minute?

[@jazzboyfin]

A good clip none the less however. I'm amazed though at how fast the lift comes up. If you compare it to the Hammersmith Apollo organ you'll see what I mean. Search KZbin for "reborn theatre organ". Peter

[@78chuck]

Can anyone tell me the name of the second piece played? Thanks!

[@CraigSmithNNRG]

also the Grand Piano is no more. It was replaced in 2000 by a digital one.