PART 1

My name is Lee Jones, and in September 2017, and quite out of the blue, I found myself looking at purchasing an electronic organ for the first time.


in fact, there was only one choice of manufacturer I would ever consider
( more about this later)  and it had to be a Lowrey Organ. It was quite a surprise to me just how far they had come from my earlier days of playing back in the sixties,

at that time the Lowrey Berkshire and Holiday as shown above were top of the range and in the right hands were just fantastic instruments of their time.

Having done quite a bit of online research i soon realised that for what was basically going to be an impulse buy, I would not be going for a brand new one, although at the time the Marquee above was a very tempting preposition , but as the cost would be far too expensive for me to consider (up to £42,000 for a top of the range model), let alone having to convince my wife that spending this amount of money on a new one would be a good investment, was going to be an impossible task.

Expensive Hobbies
I have come to the conclusion that I must be drawn to like expensive hobbies and interests, as my other passion apart from cooking Indian food ( CurryShed ) is building and flying R/C Model Aircraft, this then turned into a business I run from home for nearly 30 years now (Pyramid Models) you can forget about the good old days of KeilKraft, the models we fly nowadays are big, and are very expensive, especially the likes of Jets as can be seen below, this is just one of many Model Aircraft I own – I suppose the best thing about an organ though, is they don’t crash unlike model aircraft that frequently do, here is a link to a video I made back in 2009 of a Hawker Hunter Jet Crashing at our flying field, viewed over 2.8 million times – this model cost in excess of £20,000

Anyways back to the topic of Organs, and talking of investments in expensive items, I had read many times that the depreciation of Electronic Organs is overwhelmingly negative, as you may also have found out that buying any type of Electronic Organ and especially a Lowrey has a greater depreciation than any other retail product you can think of.  Thankfully there are still many people willing and can afford to buy a brand new one, which will  inevitably continue to feed the Lowrey pre-owned organ market and so the cycle should continue for many years to come.

And that was also a major decision that  persuaded me to buy a pre-owned one instead. Having looked online for only about two days and discussing it with my wife, the model choice and availability was still very limited. I eventually decided to go for a Lowrey Stardust, which was advertised on Gumtree.
Gumtree is an internet selling platform in the UK, but mainly just pre-owned items from personal sellers, a bit like Ebay but without all the buyer/seller fees etc. So the choice of buying a Lowrey against any other make was a simple one to make.

The decision to buy this Lowrey Stardust really was  not one I pondered over for too long, let alone many month or years, in fact the decision to buy an organ was one that came to me quite out of the blue, a complete impulse buy and the decision was really signed and sealed within just two days.

Another reason for this impulse buy, was a few weeks earlier a good friend of mine of whom I was very close to and shared over 26 years, suddenly passed away, he was not only younger than myself, but also in my eye’s far more healthy in his appearance, not overweight or any major disabilities at all . . . . . . my slight overweight problem is something else I am now trying to deal with slowly as a consequence of his untimely death.
So this was a great shock , and made me realise that as long as I can afford to buy one without it effecting me financially, I would go ahead, and why not, none of us know how long we have left, and at my current age of 59  (which as i am finding is apparently a young age for Organ Ownership) I would hopefully have a good few years left to learn how to use and play it properly.
So why a Lowrey ?
Well back in the sixties, my Father who had an avid interest in all types of music, but especially Jazz, decided to buy an Electronic Organ. At that time a NEW Lowrey was financially out of the question, so he purchased for just under £1000 a NEW YAMAHA Electone BK5C. Not a top of the range or feature packed organ by today’s standards, but did have a nice sound to it, a good selection of voices and with built in rotating speakers, much like the Hammond Leslie speakers.
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John Jones – My Father Playing the YAMAHA BK5C Organ – 1970’s

So the first ever organ I played was back in the seventies and was this YAMAHA Electone BK5C .

Although this organ was my fathers, after arriving home from school, I had about two hours to actually sit down and get some practice in and teach myself how to play by ear while he was still at work,  he normally  arrived home about 5:30 in the evening and not even knowing I had been playing,
well i don’t think so ?

From the picture here, you can see myself at the keyboard  of the YAMAHA aged 14-15 approx. I only ever learnt to play one tune on this and at the time I think played it quite well, but never really spent the time to learn how to read music.

Nice hair style back then ?  . . . . . . . 

It was not a secret or forbidden for me to play this Organ, I didn’t need permission and could play at anytime I wished, I just preferred to do it that way and like most teenagers, conversation with your parents was limited to the odd grunt and groan and not always top of the list of things to do, so mostly my Organ Playing continued unbeknown to my parents I cannot really explain why i did it this way, as my father was always encouraging me to play and very complementary of what i had achieved.

I really enjoyed playing this organ, The Yamaha BK5C was fairly basic to today’s standards and especially put up against the Stardust I now have, but Unfortunately I soon became more interested in Girls, Motorcycles, Cars and other  distractions, so my Organ playing day’s were put on the back burner for a few years.

The Lowrey Organ was something my father aspired to, traveling to many parts of the country to listen to various organists play, and I also went along with him, and that is how my interest  in Electronic Organs was basically formed.

There was  One person in particular that he admired tremendously and his records can still be obtained on Ebay and any good record shops, and that person was Jerry Allen.

Jerry was a phenomenal player of all types of music, but his natural ability to drift off into a jazz  musical meander was second to none. Unfortunately he passed away at the young age of 59 on the 17 July 1985, but his legacy and music still remain just as good and original today as it was then. 
LINK TO Jerry Allen PLAYING – JERRY ALLEN

So, as i said earlier, with the onset of being able to go anywhere ( or so i thought at the time) and my newly acquired interest in motorcycles,  cars girls, beer and disco, etc – not necessarily in that order. . . . . my organ playing days were now non existent.

In  1983 on my 25th Birthday, my Father passed away at only 55 years old, which was a great shock to all of us. I was now married to my first wife and having purchased and moved into my second house I took over possession of the YAMAHA and had some great times and evenings with friends singing along while i played this one tune I had learnt in my teens “FLY ME TO THE MOON” – good times !  . . . But as we all know all good times eventually do come to an end, and a year later my Marriage broke down, and the forced sale of the house meant my Mother once again would take possession of the organ , which I helped her to sell and got £450 for it, which was not too bad at the time.

So back to today and 34 years on, here we are getting to grips with the Lowrey Stardust which is totally a different kettle of fish to what i was used to back then.

So today onward and upwards !!! . . . . , You will be able to follow my journey of experiences and progress as I learn to play this fantastic musical instrument !

NOW  I WONDER WHICH MODEL I WILL UPGRADE TO NEXT ?

TO BE CONTINUED – Part 2