To be continued . . . .
I’m a retired French polisher, had my own business for over 40years, and live in Netley Grove retirement village, Adelaide, South Australia.
my neighbour, Ross McLennan, whom did all the graphics for our shows, he ran video and movie clips while I played the organ, at all the shows we did.
In my younger, single years, I spent over three years in England on a working
holiday, which was a popular pastime for young Aussie’s. Much later, in 2007, my wife and myself went to the big HOH in Chicago (ADMIN EDIT – this is the Home Organ Holiday also known as Allens Music Extravaganza here in the UK), that was a great and memorable event. We met the UK artists, Trevor Flunder, Tom Horton and a Lucy Curtin, along with most of the US Lowrey artists, great shows, workshops, food and the best concert finale I have ever seen. Three of the US artists, I think Dennis Awe, Bil Curry and Jim Weida, performed a great melody, all together in unison, each on a Stardust. It had to be seen and heard to believe. Unforgettable. Around 900 attended that HOH.
I learnt some piano, as a child, but after three years,( silly me now, ) I gave up, much to my mothers annoyance. But it was a bit of background, as in the mid 1970,s, decided to buy an organ, we saw demonstrated at a large general show.
It was a Lowrey Genie 98.
It was a hobby I got into, well away from running the polishing business. In those days, 1970s through to following decade, Lowrey organs dominated the market here in Australia, and there were several franchised dealers across the country. Here in South Australia. there were four dealers. I progressed through several more models through the years, including models, Holiday, Cottilion, that model was the introduction of improved strings, also I had the Heritage.
At about this point, I abandoned playing due to work pressures. After missing music, I got a Stardust from then, the only dealer in Australia, Southern Music, which happened as luck would be, was local to me. The current owners are the second owners since the original owner retired over ten years ago. It is located at Christie’s Beach, a Southern suburb of Adelaide, in which my suburb, Netley, is located.
The original owner, and Lowrey agent, a great gentleman, Norman Maiden, was whom I dealt with all those Lowrey model years, the current owners don’t handle any organs at all, and I don’t think they even have keyboards of note. Guitars and amps for the younger people. Norman was the only survivor of the four Lowrey dealers Adelaide had back in the 1970s./ 1980s. I was his best customer over all those years, from the Genie 98 in mid 70s to the Prestige around ten years ago. From that model, I traded to the Prestige, had that for about three years, then sold it. I went then, to Yamaha Tyros keyboards for a few years, they were a great keyboard, but not the Lowrey sound, so last year went about getting back to a Lowrey.
Of course by now, (2017,) Lowrey had had no franchised dealers in Australia for a few years. I contacted Lowrey in US, and they arranged with a piano dealer in Sydney, to act as agent for them. They arranged all the details with Lowrey for shipping, customs , payment etc., all in all, around six months from ordering to lounge room, shipping over by sea, and thankfully, the Marquee arrived in perfect condition, AND in the original packaging. No undoing and fumigating from customs. Australian customs do this procedure at random, for anything timber. The Lowrey dealer here years ago, had a few organs fumigated, always a worry I thought.
My playing is limited to auto bass, I can’t play pedals, I do play full left hand chords always, only occasional full right hand chords, often rely on AOC for fuller chords, and I read music, treble clef only, with chord symbols above, having forgotten my early years of bass clef. I play for my own enjoyment now, and like all older music from 1920s to 1960s , my wife loves country music, so I play lots of country.
A highlight for me, winning one of just 5 equal first places, in Lowrey’s LIFE Lowrey’s Got Talent competition, September, 2009, for all Prestige owners around the world.
I was the only contestant from Australia, as I was the only Prestige owner here, just like I’m the only Marquee owner now. Each winner received a certificate, 50 Easy Play music books, and their winning music piece placed on a CD with other Lowrey artists. I will attempt to scan and email to you, some literature re this comp.a bit later today, from my computer.
Finally, I think it is a great to play music, keep the mind active, and it is sad to see how the popularity of organs has faded over the years, keyboards are now popular, particularly with the younger people. There are very few high end Lowrey’s here, to the best of my knowledge there are my Stardust and Prestige, there may be one or two others that may have been shipped privately, and there is at least one Imperial model. There are lots of earlier models from the 70s and 80s. In those decades, Australia had two fantastic top professional men performing at times, for Lowrey promos, Tony Fenelon, and Chris McPhee, whom I knew personally.
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