Mechanical Organ Owners Society
Meet your Committee
We pride ourself as 'The UK's Friendliest Organ Society'
Get to know all about your elected officers here!
Get to know all about your elected officers here!
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ROGER BURVILLE
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AUSTIN BURGESS
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IRENE THOMAS
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ALAN SMITH
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JONNY LING
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MARK JEFFORD
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GUS ORCHARD
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PETER CRAIG
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Matt Gamble
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JAMES DUNDON
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Become a member of the MOOS
from as little as £12 a year, you can become a member of the Mechanical Organ Owners Society. Email moosmembership@outlook.com
About the MOOS
An article written by Ron Leach about the formation of the society.
I can picture the bar of the County Hotel at Canterbury one early evening. Three men sat there deep in conversation. Anyone listening to them would have wondered what they were talking about. Many odd terms were mentioned and some irritated remarks were occasionally made. It turned out to be our then unborn society, or at least three members, all founder members, chewing over how to get started. The three members were Brian Oram, Roger Burville and Ron Leach. All were organ owners and well and truly versed in the problems of owning and travelling these wonderful old machines.
As matters stood at that time, such people as us were catered for by two Societies. One, the Music Box Society of Great Britian was a learned set up who published a very fine magazine. It contained articles on such things as player pianos, street pianos, Polyphons, automata, music boxes and other interesting machines that produced music. It was the intention of the Society to deal with mechanical music and not just mechanical organs and they did this very ablely.
The other society, The Fair Organ Preservation Society, had a publication which limited itself to peoples travel to the continent, generally, when a detailed description of the local organs formed the basis of the article. Let it be understood that this lack of technical infomation was no fault of the editor. It is up to the members to provide him with material for publication. Thus we were faced with a choice which in fact was no choice.
Enter the scene - MOOS. Brian took over the problem of producing a news letter and held that position for a considerable time. His early efforts are a mine of information and as the Society grew his later efforts improved even on that standard. Each copy, and I have nearly a complete set, deserve to be Edited and published as a standard work for the organ owners of this world. The range of subjects is very impressive. For example taking one early copy at random there are articles on Imperial versus metric measure, percussion motors, Hanover Organ Festival, a report on the Grotian Steinweg piano factory, British Organ lorry restrictions, wood borers, and a number of other items. All this in one edition of our news letter.
That particular news letter was picked out of the pile that I have at random! Each article contained information of a practical nature for the organ owner and after the first two or three issues, it became obvious that this new Society was to be of much use to the organ owners. So it proved to be and I am sure that the vast majority of owners were pleased with what they found they had joined. Just to elaborate, one aspect that owners were at that time finding tiresome was the matter of vehicle licensing and testing. This matter had many of us confused and irritated by the interpretation being put upon the regulations by officials. Low and behold we found we had a guardian angel in the form of one member who had the right connections and he sorted our problem in no time. It appeared that whatever our problem be it vehicle tax, copyright protection or whatever we could call upon one of our members to help us out of trouble. Much of this was of course due to the style of the news letter which demonstrated to any outsider that we were not a 'bunch of blokes out for a bit of fun'. Reading through some old copies I am surprised at the amount of talent in many fields our members present. Long may it last.
I can picture the bar of the County Hotel at Canterbury one early evening. Three men sat there deep in conversation. Anyone listening to them would have wondered what they were talking about. Many odd terms were mentioned and some irritated remarks were occasionally made. It turned out to be our then unborn society, or at least three members, all founder members, chewing over how to get started. The three members were Brian Oram, Roger Burville and Ron Leach. All were organ owners and well and truly versed in the problems of owning and travelling these wonderful old machines.
As matters stood at that time, such people as us were catered for by two Societies. One, the Music Box Society of Great Britian was a learned set up who published a very fine magazine. It contained articles on such things as player pianos, street pianos, Polyphons, automata, music boxes and other interesting machines that produced music. It was the intention of the Society to deal with mechanical music and not just mechanical organs and they did this very ablely.
The other society, The Fair Organ Preservation Society, had a publication which limited itself to peoples travel to the continent, generally, when a detailed description of the local organs formed the basis of the article. Let it be understood that this lack of technical infomation was no fault of the editor. It is up to the members to provide him with material for publication. Thus we were faced with a choice which in fact was no choice.
Enter the scene - MOOS. Brian took over the problem of producing a news letter and held that position for a considerable time. His early efforts are a mine of information and as the Society grew his later efforts improved even on that standard. Each copy, and I have nearly a complete set, deserve to be Edited and published as a standard work for the organ owners of this world. The range of subjects is very impressive. For example taking one early copy at random there are articles on Imperial versus metric measure, percussion motors, Hanover Organ Festival, a report on the Grotian Steinweg piano factory, British Organ lorry restrictions, wood borers, and a number of other items. All this in one edition of our news letter.
That particular news letter was picked out of the pile that I have at random! Each article contained information of a practical nature for the organ owner and after the first two or three issues, it became obvious that this new Society was to be of much use to the organ owners. So it proved to be and I am sure that the vast majority of owners were pleased with what they found they had joined. Just to elaborate, one aspect that owners were at that time finding tiresome was the matter of vehicle licensing and testing. This matter had many of us confused and irritated by the interpretation being put upon the regulations by officials. Low and behold we found we had a guardian angel in the form of one member who had the right connections and he sorted our problem in no time. It appeared that whatever our problem be it vehicle tax, copyright protection or whatever we could call upon one of our members to help us out of trouble. Much of this was of course due to the style of the news letter which demonstrated to any outsider that we were not a 'bunch of blokes out for a bit of fun'. Reading through some old copies I am surprised at the amount of talent in many fields our members present. Long may it last.