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South Manchester Museum Of Keyboard Technology (S.M.M.O.K.T)

funded by UMIST until 1989.now operating on a private grant from the Chase Music Foundation. administrator Dr DK Singh.

The previous premises of the University Of Manchesters Institute of Telharmonia and Computer Sciences (UMITCS) burnt down in 1934.After which the institute was moved to the Chorlton Hollow site. Looters from Ancoats took much of the origenal machine parts some being later recovered at the Mazel Radio Stores on London Rd and passed back to UMIST.

Funded by Hydes Brewery magnet Henry Hyde and overseen by computer pioneer Dr Babbit. ,work had started on an automated computercontroled theatre organ intended for the Free Trade Hall ,The" Orchramonium "required as many as four operators on multiple Keyboard units, The valves were to be housed in underground tanks cooled by canal water under the Freetrade Hall and are still viewable in the Basement of what now is the Radison Hotel on Peters Street. .Some origenal brass read out rolls of music are believed to be in the Rylands Library on Deansgate but sorces say that during ww2 The Brass Music parts were deliberatly seperated in case of invasion at least one was moved to Liverpool resides in the museum @Port Sunlight. During the 1960s a team at Salford University had assembled all but 4 of the missing pieces of score. Professor World was one of the undergraduate team working on the project at Maxwell Hall,and has continued a program of probable music configurations in the hope of reasembling the Mysterious French Composers missing score as commisioned by Henry Hyde in the 30s ,The Composser was known to have entered a German prisoner of war camp outside Paris in 1940 ,but the destruction of the camp records in the final days of the war in europe meant that the composer is still a mystery ,How ever some unsigned scores from an address in Marseille arived on the desk of the Dean of the Royal Northern College of Music in august 1969 simply marked Free Trade Hall.

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In fact, Sister Naomi Doric Pencrest, one of the four Sisters, goes much further with her own description – she says that while some people say their music is "a cross between horror film soundtracks and disco, we would say it’s a contemporary take on 1930s occult parlour music.">

So where did the idea for the Sisters come from? It turns out that that is a tale which wanders between truth, history and myth, and involves panic in America, army issue organs, a Derbyshire pub and a Profesor from UMIST!>

"There’s a tradition of organ quartets dating back to the 30s, when the Hammond organ became ‘THE’ instrument amongst the industrialists and debutants of New York. "A concert by the Lillian Meyers Quartet at the World Fair in 1939 ended in panic, as the pavilion collapsed due to a wave formed by the four organists. This lead to a ban on organ quartets throughout the US, which remained until Steve Reich premiered his 'Four Organs' to a virtual riot at Carnegie Hall in 1968.

"Another organ quartet, a set of Manchester-based musicians known as the Burton Wood Quartet, managed to keep some of the earlier pieces from The Lillian Meyers Quartet alive during World War Two, as the Burton Wood Airforce Base became the distribution point for a special military model of Hammond organ - The Model D - supplied to US bases and chapels.>

"The first Burton Wood Quartet were quite well known during the war years, as alongside their classical repertoire, they played at dances, though they never travelled from the base due to the untransportable weight of the Hammonds.>

"Prof Vernon World,, who plays drums for us, first found out about the Burton Wood Quartet whilst playing at a rave in the old US base. After contacting BWQ member Steve Garnier, who lives in Columbus in America, through the Combo Organ Forum, he discovered the band’s repertoire was kept alive during the 50s by an all-ladies quartet at a Warrington music shop on Sunday afternoons.

"A second quartet started up at the Stockport branch, from which sprang the La La La’s, an organ quartet using the new transistor organs in the early 60s. Again, due to a reluctance to travel, they rarely played anywhere but The Cat and Fiddle, a well known bikers’ haunt in the Derbyshire hills.

"And that’s where we now come in. With the advent of the Internet forums and auction websites, it has now been possible to present this historical music along with its controversial effects.">

According to Sister Naomi, the 'Combonauts' came into being as a result of "a rigorous selection process over the Internet and then at auditions in Manchester.

"Anyone can visit but would have to travel there blindfolded in our wagon then tossed out in Chorlton Water Park naked."

Sister Naomi Doric Pencrest on SMMOKT

"The application process required hereditary conditions, positions in music education facilities and a good working knowledge of the 1960s transistor combo organs, including maintenance and repair. "Two of us had met at Salford University, three of us had been to the Augablina Summer School in Iceland, and all of us connected through the Combo Organ Forum before making the move to Manchester in 2003 to await the selection process.

"Profesor was Patron of the South Manchester Museum of Keyboard Technology and did a lot of the research on organ quartets. It was a condition of us rehearsing at the Museum that he could play drums."

The South Manchester Museum of Keyboard Technology? Apparently, that’s another piece of the Sisters’ mystery, a little-known menagerie of all things organ that is both inviting and heavily guarded.

<"S.M.M.O.K.T is staffed by disgraced UMIST lab technicians Dave Seaton , Chris Olerenshaw and Art Arthurson who maintain a huge collection of vintage keyboards, organs, electric pianos and synthesisers. "Some of the museum’s prize exhibits include a 30s Clavioline, a Russian combo organ from the 60s, a Pike Custom Modular Synthesiser from Brighton University and some rare Wurlitzer training pianos from Salford University.">