Oranjemund Online

ORANJEMUND DISCUSSIONS! => Things I Remember About Oranjemund! => Topic started by: SandyB on December 24, 2008, 09:14:08 PM

Title: The lousy Lowries and Pam Touhey
Post by: SandyB on December 24, 2008, 09:14:08 PM
While  settling down for the evening  , last glass of bubby .. on FMR as selection  of music .. unmistakably played on the  lousy Lowry  organ..
A bit of history .. the  first   available  " electronic"   organs  available to  home use  were  Hammond .. they  used a form of tonewheel  mechanically driven to generate  the basic  keys , then tabs  bring on  basic  known   sound  timbres  then  thereafter  one could  pull overtones and undertones and harmonics , add brightness etc  via  drawbars to the point that they all almost stumbled  over each other ...  to this  day  hammonds  are still a  favourite in the jazz  circle  cos  of the fun they can have with  them ...  The  lousy Lowry  was  next ...  a  poor  electronicaly driven   version ..  just did not have the airiness  or capability .. and their dull  sound is unmistakable ... just does not do it .. they  even had  them fittted with the rotating  speakerbox to add verve ... I'm sure it apears  in  one or two pics  in the rec club.hall .   anyhow  if  there was one person i remember as a child that somehow had the  talent  to add some life to a lousy Lowry  was a  woman by the name of Pam  Touhey .. hope i got the  spelling right ...  she  without  saying too much , like so may talented  people throughout the history of  humankind  had her own host of  problems  and did not always fit in or conform to society " norms "  but  so what  and  what the heck ...  she  was a natural talent ...  musically  basic  training but  a total rebel   due to the fact that she could just play by ear ...  anything they wanted her to play  they  just ahd to  play out to her ..  after a few  tries she would have memorised it and could play it by  memory .. and yes bring the lousy Lowry to life  by pure unfettered self  learnt   technique ..  she  played a lot  at dances in the old rec club hall in the 60's .. but most memorable  was her  night after night performances at the  little theatre .. the play  "  The  Boyfriend "   a musical  ( Mike  ask about than one ) ... I recall the two  Heeris ( spelling again )  sisters   big girls  being in the  play .. well I sat  for a couple of nights  front row  so could watch in fascination as this talented   soul did magic in providing the music  sans  any  sheet music .. she just took the cue   and did it  each song ... hands  flowing over the keyboards and feet  at work on the  pedalbkeys  .. totally absorbed  and enjoying every moment of her musical escape  from  the  world tha was just too harsh for her ..  oops me gone on for too long  but yes a tribute to a talent ...      cheers    margarita