Part One

Part One In the beginning...

In The Beginning....

My first instrument was a toy piano. Apparently I used to wear them out, not break them, having gone through a few of them until I was 7 or eight. My parents bought a gutted pianola and sent me off to learn how to play it. My first teacher was of the strict AMEB ruler in hand type. I remember being so disappointed when I was sent home with John Thompson's Easiest Piano course part one and told to learn exercise one, 4 middle C's in the right hand followed by 4 middle C's in the left hand. I had already worked out some songs myself and was expecting to be learning new songs not exercises.

If I had organ lessons I'd be learning Saints Go Marching In and have 3 chords up my sleeve but apparently when learning the piano this is all that can be achieved in the first lesson. So I skipped to the middle of the book and learned this Indian song I can't remember the name of. Proudly going to my second lesson with this song well rehearsed all I received was the ruler and for the next hour had to practice the first exercise over and over. I was sent home to learn exercise two introducing note D and B and told under no circumstances to play anything else for the week but this two exercises. The fun completely stripped from my playing meant piano lessons didn't last very long.

I listened to a lot of music as my parent had an odd collection of 78's. There were Strauss waltzes like The Blue Danube, selection from musicals like Oklahoma, Jealousie, Jezebel (Frankie lane),Begin the Beguine (Joe Loss), Sparrow in the tree top, Christopher Columbus (Guy Mitchell), How high the moon, The world is waiting for the sunrise (Les Paul and Mary Ford), instrumentals like Guitar Boogie, Jealous, Lover, Nola, Whispering (Les Paul), Twelfth street rag (Pee Wee Hunt) and lots of others..... I remember my saddest day when I dropped the Blue Danube smashing it into many pieces.

Chord Organs...

I still continued to play around with the piano and my parents for some reason bought me a Magnus chord organ and some music. I took to this quite quickly learning all the songs in the book. The Magnus chord organ didn't have all the chords required, no dim, aug chords and no bass, so eventually it was traded for a Lincoln Chordmaster Chord Organ pictured left. Now I had bass, alternating bass and was able to do waltz, swing, tango patterns.

We lived in Yagoona in Sydney and a lot of weekends we headed down to Bankstown Square now Bankstown Central where on the lower level was Stanford Music. I literally haunted the place and they must have tolerated me because I never touched any of the instruments but hung around to listen to the demos. Mum always knew where to find me. There were also a lot different organists playing on stage at the square. It was cool to own a organ and the fad was in high gear. Television advertisements were in full swing and I remember Chris Marshall antics right through into the 80's. Also there was Pat Stoddard selling Lowrey organs but I was not welcome and could only look through the window. Also on North Terrace there was the Yamaha Music Centre and I was tolerated there as well.

My father had a friend that my mum and he spent time with. The friend had a second hand shop and he had collected a large range of LP records at his home. I would spend all my time there looking for and playing organ records. One of my favourite record in his collection was Klaus Wunderlich 24 Film - Melodien Die Man Nie Vergirt 1 (Golden Film Hits 1970). Listen on YouTube.

In about 1972 my father decided to sell his business and home at Yagoona and moved to Burrill Lake on the south coast of NSW. He had used the property as a weekender as was the thing to do in those days and when moving all our gear from Sydney there in the corner was a Yamaha B-4BR purchased from Pat Quinn a Jazz pianist / organist at Yamaha Organ Centre Bankstown. Well that was it, I'd finally found my instrument...
the Organ.

Yamaha B4BR 1972

Wurlitzer 4373

I started going to lessons with Valerie Smith a local teacher at Ulladulla and soon developed many many songs.

Below are recordings made on the Yamaha when I first began in 1972. They are not good quality and are painful to listen to but we all have to start somewhere and this is mine.

Ben by Michael Jackson	Banks of the Ohio	Ava Maria

I soon outgrew the little Yamaha and then out of the blue it had been replaced with a Wurlitzer 4373 (pictured above) 3 manual complete with a synthesizer which was the coolest thing you could imagine. It had been purchased at Stanford Music in Bankstown Square and don't know how they came to decision to purchase this instrument but it was the perfect fit for me and would trigger a lot of the future events.

Wurlitzer Orbit III Synthesizer

I loved this organ and took to it quickly however it was very unreliable. This particular instrument gave so much trouble that it triggered attention from Wurlitzer Australia at Taren Point in Sydney. My father was coming to Sydney so in the ute it went and up to Wurlitzer Australia's service department. There we met general manager Ian Shipway who toured us around the facility while the service guys Keith Humbley or Geoffrey Hyde worked on the organ.

Below are recordings made on the Wurlitzer 4373 not long after purchase. These were reordered from cassette recorder installed in the organ. They didn't recorded any of the physical revolving speakers so no tremolo is heard. They show progress but are still painful to listen to...

Caravan

Somewhere My Love

Rangers Waltz

While waiting I would play in their showroom and eventually I was then introduced to Kurt Zimmer, Wurlitzer Australia's touring concert artist. It didn't happen on the first visit but subsequent visits to repair the instrument must have triggered Kurt to talk to my father about bringing me to Sydney for lessons.

So every Saturday morning mum and dad used to jump in the car and drive me 3 1/2 hours to Sydney for lessons, often bringing the organ up to be repaired which of course meant a technician had to specially come in on a weekend to fix the organ at the warehouse. Eventually Wurlitzer got sick of repairing it and Ian Shipway organised a deal with my father and Chris Marshall and it was exchanged for a 605 model for a little extra cash payment.

The Wurlitzer 605 was almost the same specification with updated electronics in some areas and the spectratone (Wurlitzers own patented rotating speaker) was replaced by a real built in Leslie.


Kurt Zimmer 1977

Below are recordings made on the Wurlitzer 605. You can start to hear Kurt's influence and the change to arranged music

Three Coins in a Fountain

El Condor Pasa

Danny Boy

This is from a working idea tape I found where I would records ideas to listen back to see if it worked. It is not a complete song but shows I was working out harmonies by playing all three keyboards at the same time by bridging the Synthesizer to the upper manual. Billie Don't Be A Hero

While visiting Wurlitzer Ian shipway gave me record that would shape my style of organ playing. It was El Incomparable Glenn Derringer En Su Organo playing a Wurlitzer 4037. This recording blew my mind, I didn't realize what was possible until this. Glenn and Kurt showed how to use the synthesizer how to make solo sounds like violin and importantly how to shape it into an orchestral arrangement. Also you don't have to use the trems all the time to get a good organ sound in fact most of the tracks on this album are trem free. See my page on Glenn for further information.



Brazil	On A Clear Day

Breach of copyright is not intended but if you are the copyright owner you may request I remove these examples.

Yamaha Festival News Leader Fri 25 April 1975 Click to enlarge then back arrow on your browser to return to this page

Yamaha Festival State Finals trophy presented at the Sydney Opera House 1975

Meanwhile I was involved with the Organ Societies which had sprung into life, rotating to someone's home each month to play their organ. I joined a chapter in Nowra and it was good practice to get used to playing different organs. These meeting were very friendly and were also kid friendly for us youngsters that were on board.

Almost every kid made the annual pilgrimage to the Yamaha Organ Festival in Nowra, Kiama and Wollongong and in 1975 I made it through to state championships at the Opera House in Sydney. This was a nerve racking experience and of course I had not been playing long enough to go close to winning. But any way I can always say "I've played at the Sydney Opera House", with the only disappointment being that the Opera House hall is copyrighted so no photos of the event were allowed to be taken.

Eventually I left school and enrolled at Wollongong TAFE to study plumbing. I completed the first twelve months but was unable to continue the course because I could not find an apprenticeship, things were tough and no one was hiring and the rule was you can't continue without an apprenticeship.

I had to find a job, so off to Sydney I went with my mum to see if any music shops would hire me. Kwik Play Music House in Chapel Road Bankstown was the first shop I walked into. I introduced myself to the owner Mr Nicholas Kuiper. As it happened he was about to lose his only organ salesman so I returned later for an extensive interview which ended with me been hired.

Nicholas' business consisted of new pianos and as he was a well respected piano tuner and technician, also had lots of second hand pianos, several pianolas and quite a large collection of pianola rolls for sale. The organ range consisted of Kawai, Eminent / Solina and Gem/Galanti. The shop itself was large consisting of two shops side by side with a walk through between them.

My job consisted of keeping the shops clean, demonstrating the instruments and taking organs out into various malls in Bankstown and playing them and obviously sales of instruments. He also taught me a lot about piano actions and how to repair them. I got plenty of practice helping him and learnt so much about pianos and pianolas. Little did I know how valuable this was going to be in the future.

I boarded close by and was able to walk to work, with my evenings being spent practising in the shop after hours every night. I remember still being at Kwik-Play at the time of the Granville train disaster in January 1977.

Bansktown Torch news paper 1976
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Opening Day At Albury

Audras for organs Henty Fields Day 1977

Soon after I received a call from my old teacher Kurt Zimmer to join him in Wagga Wagga at store called Audra's Gifts and Music owned by Dave Roberts. I drove out to Wagga for an interview with Dave and was hired. Now the hard part, go back to Nicholas and give notice to the person who gave me my first break in the music industry.

Audra's Gifts and Music was situated beside the Commonwealth Bank at 121 Baylis St and was part of the bank building. It also had some large rooms upstairs used for conducting music lessons, 5 shops in the Neslo Arcade next door, two of which were used as show rooms and the rest for storage.

Audra's had been around during the 50s and 60s and in the storage shops were a large amount of out of vogue guitars, banjos, mandolins, accordions (both button and key), zithers, Italian branded portable keyboards, pump organs and quite a variety of musical instruments. A virtual treasure trove in today's terms.

Audra's also had a branch in Tumut in the shop beside the original theatre, where sales and teaching were conducted.

Organ that were on display at both locations were Wurlitzer and Thomas and business was thriving. Our area of coverage was large, Albury, Tumbarumba, Gundagai, Temora, Narrandera as an example. Once every month we would pick a town for a Saturday night concert and then Sunday morning sales and delivery. The week before I would, with the help of an offsider, Terry, letter drop every house in town and put up posters in shop windows. We hired a large truck and driver and loaded every organ we had including all our trade-ins, up to 25 instruments at times.

I also spent some time in the Tumut shop as well until it was decided in 1977 that they would open another shop in Albury. We added a rage of National (Later known as Technics by Panasonic) organs because Thomas organs had an outlet in Wangaratta. I was based in Albury for a time however when Kurt left, I returned to the Wagga headquarters to fill Kurt's position of head of sales and concert artist for our monthly jollies.

Dave was having less to do with the business finding other interests so with the lack of staff, he decided to close both Tumut and Albury, left myself and Terry to run the day to day business, only coming into doing the banking or work on the weekends for concerts. We had a great year, good enough to win a trip to Wurlitzer corporate headquarters in DeKalb Illinois USA. Of course Dave and his wife went to the USA.

I had alway had a interest in electronics and I made good friends with our organ technician, who taught me about reading schematic diagrams and some basic electronic knowledge.

Kurt had established a shop in Lismore on the NSW north coast and asked me to join him however I thought it was time to head back home to Burrill Lake.

Returning back to the coast...

I had sold my mum and dads beloved Wurlitzer 605 before I left Wagga, so I ordered a new Wurlitzer, a 630TA cherry wood model. One of the first things I did when I returned home was to go to Wurlitzer Australia to pick it up. When I arrived Ian Shipway called me into his office and I told him I was a free agent at the time. Ian then told me he had a 630TA in white and gold as an insurance write off that had been involved in an accident and I could have it for a ridiculously cheap price.

Apparently the truck driver, loaded with a container of Wurlitzer organs freshly off the boat from the US, had taken a short cut, hit a bridge and this one organ among others, had coped the brunt of the impact. The electronics were mostly in one piece with some cracked boards but the cabinet was no longer straight. The cabinet finish was not affected having been saved by the cardboard box. It was mostly crush damage.

I therefore arrived home in Burrill Lake with two Wurlitzer 630TA organs and put the cherry version to work straight away, by starting teaching organ from my parents house. My father and I went to work repairing the cabinet of the white and gold model and I soldered and reinforced all the cracked boards.

I am saddened to here that my teacher and mentor Kurt Zimmer has passed in 2017.

Kurt as a teacher was the one who changed my outlook on how to use playing techniques to become a professional organist. His arrangements also challenged me to be a better player and how to structure music.

Later when he asked me to join him in Wagga Wagga as a junior sales man selling his favourite organ (Wurlitzer) he took me under his wing and installed the highest ethics in my approach to sales and after sales service that have stood me in good stead for the whole of my professional and business career.
Thank you Kurt.

RIP
Norm 2022

Kurt at the The "Mightiest" Wurlitzer at Wurlitzer Hall
De Kalb, Illinois

This is the Only recording I have of Kurt Playing. This was the first show that was was recorded at Win TV (Nine network) Wagga Wagga for a series of shows to help people with their organ playing. Unfortunately it is a very bad recording with dropouts and two much tape hiss. Restored as good as can be expected. Approximately 1977



Wurlitzer 630TA Antique White Theatre Styling 1978	Wurlitzer 630TA Sable Cherry Theatre Styling 1978	Norm Bailey at the Wurlitzer 625TA 1977

I decided I would highly modify this instrument with an extra rhythm chip from the 950 model, rhythm voice cancel for all sounds , add sustain percussion to the lower keyboard and the Sytha Solo board from the 445 to add a lot of new synth sounds, along with second touch to the synthesizer keyboard and couple the synthesizer to the pedal board. The reverb was channelled to the Leslie speaker which is great for organ tone but was not great for the synthesizer. So I added a second reverb unit for the synth channelled to the straight channel. Also straight channel tabs switched to Leslie tab and separate volume.

When this organ was completed it became my workhorse, playing in clubs, for wedding receptions, and I also joined an old time dance band playing barn dances, gypsy taps, pride of Erin's etc.

This photos shows 12 extra tabs across synthesizer rail at the top, 16 buttons above synthesizer to control 5 new rhythms and drum voice cancelling, lower keyboard right cheek block for lower sustain and pedal voicing and volume levels for Sustain/second reverb and straight channel to leslie switch. This is the only surviving picture.

Hear are some examples of some of the new Sounds: Sustain percussion on lower keyboard, Solo Clarinet, Banjo, guitar and harmonica. Recording date 11/1979

The Carioca	Skippy The Bush Kangaroo	Princess Leia's Theme
Hear are some more examples this time played on a model 445. It shows all most of the new sounds added with Syntha solo board taken from a 445. Harmonica, Clarinet, Trombone, Violin, Accordion, Guitar, Banjo. Recorded in 1978

I had been listening to Klaus Wunderlich albums. I knew he used Hammond organs but my students started bringing me newly released tapes of him

and his sound had changed. What was he playing, info on the tape gave no clue as to what he was using. It was at the annual music conference when I came to the Cleftronics stand with some organs I never herd of. They were selling a demo LP Wersi Time 2 and on the cover was Klaus Wunderlich. Armed with brochures and LP I discovered it was Wersi organs Klaus was using. Never heard of them.... Wersi was a Germen kit organ manufacturer. You bought a kit with all the parts and boards, soldered all the parts onto the boards and wired it up. Eventually you had a working organ that had lots of features for a lot less dollars than buying a complete organ..

I kept an eye out in the Trading Post then one day I owned a Wersi Zenith. It had a AGO 32 note pedal board unlike the one pictured. As it turned out I didn't get time to record myself and only have one track. I was to start a new job and was about to get busy over the next few years.

Carnival

Out of the blue in 1978/9 I received a call from Ian Shipway asking me to meet him in Nowra for a coffee. We meet and he explained that he had left Wurlitzer and had bought a property in Kangaroo Valley where he was going to raise Brahman bulls and open a Hammond dealership called Shoalhaven Music Centre in Worrigee St Nowra. He asked if I would join him and I said yes. The shop location was secured, new carpet laid, the stock arrived and away we went, back to the usual processes of concerts, this time in Nowra, Ulladulla, Batemans Bay, playing in malls and teaching organ. Ian had, while unpacking come across his collection of earlier Glenn Derringer earlier I didn't know existed. I was ecstatic to hear new arrangements from Glenn.

Then one day a young 13 year old girl Jillian McNeilly came for her first lesson. I remember this particular occasion because Ian and I had discussed that Jill's father Ken had bought a Kawai organ from an opposition store in town who didn't provide lessons, and then booked lessons for Jill with us, which we thought was a bit odd. Anyway, in walked Jill armed with the Kawai Way method book instead of our Hammond one...
More on this subject later.

My father built and painted the trailer on the right for me to carry organs and pianos. It was pretty cool as the keyboard section on top wound up out of the way so that you could walk inside without hitting you're head

Because I was our main concert organist, Ian thought I could benefit from further study so he made contact with an old friend Eric Smith and made arrangements for me to meet him. Eric was a prominent Sydney classical and theatre organist and was the resident organist at the Wesley Chapel Conference Centre in Pitt St. He had his own practice teaching room in the chapel with a Yamaha E75 organ. So every Saturday afternoon I would knock off work at 12 and arrive in Pitt St Sydney for my 2:30 lesson with Eric. Eric's favourite nickname for all his student's, possibly because he couldn't remember their names, was "bat features".

Eric expanded my love of organ music to include theatre organ playing and I started listening to theatre organ recordings.

Meanwhile a few years passed and Jill had studied hard, put many hours into her practice, so Ian thought it time that she started performing at our concerts. The first prerequisite was had she had to go out and buy a dress. Eventually she completed her year 10 schooling and was hired.

We went on to adding the Baldwin range of organs and pianos and eventually Kawai as well when the local agent retired his business.

Jill and I handled most of the day to day business as Ian concentrated on his bull breeding program in the valley. Jill also joined me in going up to Eric for lessons as well. More years past and Jill and I became close and eventually when we made it official to Ian that we were seeing each other, Jill was promptly fired.

Jill went and joined Coles New World as a checkout chick and put on the ugly blue uniform of the time. She was very good at this job being efficiently quick back in the days before scanning when the prices of all items had to be typed in without errors.

Meanwhile I soldiered on by myself for a while until Ian decided that he would sell the business. I offered to buy it however Ian wanted a ridiculously high goodwill component.

Jill's father Ken was a bank manager for the Commonwealth Bank and had worked in lots of various towns throughout Vic and NSW. The banks routinely moved their managers around so that they didn't form friendships with local businesses and do any favours for them.

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