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  Mechanical Organ Owners Society

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!
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ROGER BURVILLE
Joint President

Roger's interest started in the late 1950s with Forrest's Gavioli. He became good friends with the family, who introduced him to David Barlow who was about to acquire 'De Kluisberg', a 101 Key Mortier. Roger, together with Dave and Edith Hopper and myself formed the organ crew.

Today, Roger is still part of the rally scene, with help of his son David who is a full time organ builder and restorer of mechanical music instruments. (D.R Burville Organ Builders, Kent)

Roger seen here clearing up at the Kunkelsstichting in Haarlem, after another MOOS Tour party left it in a little bit of a state!

AUSTIN BURGESS
Joint President

In the late 1950's Austin's mother took him and his sister to Norwich Fair, on a cold and wet winters day. He saw a mechanical organ for the first time, and the magic of the sound stuck with him!

The kindness of people like George Cushing and Arthur Mason, who were happy to play these organs and to share them with the public made a lasting impression on him.

For the last few years, he has been Vice Chairman on the MOOS Committee, in 2016, it was decided because of the level of support and work he's done for the MOOS over the years, Austin would be made a Joint President with Roger Burville.

IRENE THOMAS
Vice President

Irene's interest started in the early days of preservation at Birmingham Newhall Street. She was soon attending other steam rallies, and became both a columnist for 'World's Fair' and Secretary of the Fair Organ Preservation Society, organising coach trips.

Together with Irene's late husband Les, they founded  the MOOS, and for many years we were a familiar sight at events with the 'Irene's Records' stand, together with MOOS merchandise.

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ALAN SMITH
Chairman

​Alan is our chairman, a keen enthusiast, but you might know his face from other places...

For many years he was a regular 'auctioneer' on BBC1's Bargain Hunt working alongside David Dickenson,
 and had his own series of antiques programs such as "That's Your Lot" on BBC Anglia Television.

These days in retirement, he lectures on antiques and travels with his 65-key Dutch Street Organ "De Vondeling" and 72-key Dutch Street Organ "De Jonker".

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JONNY LING
Vice Chairman

Jonny's support of the MOOS goes back years, hosting events at his Mechanical Music collection, and helping us organise other events in the Norfolk area.

Jonny is an accomplished organ builder and restorer. He is also proprietor of 'The Grange Collection' of Mechanical Musical Instruments and Trustee of The Cotton Mechanical Music Museum.

MARK JEFFORD
Membership Secretary


Mark's involvement with the MOOS began in March 1996 when he noticed an advert in World’s Fair for a coach trip to Holland and Belgium visiting Mechanical Music Collections. This was Mark's introduction to the MOOS, and on enjoying the trip, he joined the society.

In 2000 he offered to help distribute the magazine ‘Vox Humana’ and because of his willingness, he was quickly voted onto the committee as Membership Secretary at the AGM! Since then, he's very quickly been able to put faces to names during the various MOOS events and trips the society does. Mark also produces the MOOS Newsletter, with up to 6 editions of events and information posted to our membership through the year.

GUS ORCHARD
Treasurer

Gus is an accountant by trade, and was 'forced' to join the MOOS by his cousin Kevin Byrne several years ago, when Kevin was on the committee as Editor of the society magazine. Gus's accountancy skills therefore have benefitted the society ever since.  

Why does Gus like Mechanical Organs? Well it may not be an obvious link, but he plays a church organ every Sunday, and admits he loves the sound and mechanism of all types of organs.

We don't have a photo of him as he's quite shy, but we feel the organ figure on the late Margaret Cook's Ruth, is quite a good representation of him...!

PETER CRAIG
Tours & Industry Liason


From the age of five, it was Peter's dream to own a mechanical organ.

Some years later after becoming an organ owner and joining the MOOS, he was press-ganged into serving a period as Chairman!

He currently organises the itinerary for the MOOS tours every November, a role which he's enthused with as combines his interests of travel and mechanical organs.

Within the world of mechanical music, his specialist interest is Belgian dance organs, their design, history and music. As time permits, he assembles a library of repaired and re-cut music for the organs in my own collection. 

Matt Gamble
Magazine Editor

Matt came to mechanical music quite late in life.  It was a trip to the Cushing Collection with his 18 month old son that got him hooked.  

You can find Matt at the keyframes of organs owned by Jacques Azulay, Ted Bowman, Peter Craig and in the City of Geraardsbergen.

His step-father assisted in the restoration of a Hooghuys dance organ around fifty years ago.  Partly because of this connection, and partly because of what he perceives to be the innate qualities of the instruments, he has a particular affection for Hooghuys organs.

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JAMES DUNDON
Webmaster

James used to attend steam rallies with his parents, and from pushchair age, all he wanted to do was sit in front of a Fair Organ!

He rebuilt a 31 Keyless Fairground Organ, and toured with it over 10 years. Now he's the proud owner of 52 Key Dutch Street Organ 'Het Blauwtje' which he imported from Holland in 2012, and touring it keeps him busy. He once did 46 events in a year with the organ! (Never again, he says!)

The organ is what he describes as 'an out of control hobby'! The day job is as a radio presenter. You can hear him 6 afternoons a week on 'Heart' in Cornwall.

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.

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