Who's A Lucky Birthday Boy?
The John Otway Theremin Fund

For the benefit of any Otway fans not subscribed to the Onelist Otway mailing list, on 29 July 1999, Karen Wintle came up with an idea that, at first glance, seemed barking mad. On mature consideration it seemed beyond all common sense, so we decided we just had to run with it.

Karen and her husband had been to see a folk band called " The Old Rope String Band" and had been amused and impressed by the Theremin they used in their act. This is a very visual instrument which Karen could imagine John having loads of fun with on stage, so she suggested having a whip round in order for us to buy him one. Serendipitously, it's John's birthday on 2 October, so we thought that would make a spectacularly cool birthday present.

The presentation actually took place after a gig in Coventry which happened to be taking place on John's birthday. There is a selection of photos here. John performed a version of "Crazy Horses" using the Theremin, which I hope to put here in MP3 format in the near future. Since that initial gig (and contrary to his usual approach to music) John has been practising hard on the Theremin in order to introduce it into more songs as an integral part of his gig. Well worth checking out.

For those who would like to know a little more about Theremins, Xav provided some interesting information which he posted to the mailing list:-

Theremins are named after their inventor, Leon Theremin, who made the first ones in the USSR in the 1920s. They work by using the same effect that causes old or cheap radios to lose their tuning slightly when you get close to the aerial, but they're arranged in such a way that the detuning actually produces an audible (and hopefully tuneful) note. (In case you hadn't gathered from this, Theremins are played without touching them, by waving your hands close to a pair of aerials which protrude from the device)

Theremin himself defected to the West, and made quite a living out of his instruments (which are generally considered to be the world's first electronic instruments), going on to produce full sized version which were played by dancing in front of them. He was kidnapped by the KGB, and was widely believed to be dead, until he reappeared in the 1980s, well into his seventies (he actually passed away in 1993).

Theremins were used extensively in black and white horror and B-movies - they make a spooky hybrid of violin and human "ooh-aah" vocal sounds. their best known use in a commercial record is in The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations", though they've become more resurgent of late.

There are several companies still making Theremins of various sorts - you can get kits of simple ones starting from about £30. As someone else pointed out, Bob Moog (the creator of the Moog synth in the 60s) is now making them, under the auspices of his company, "Big Briar".

Perhaps the best Theremin I've seen recently was when I went to see American Band "The Violent Femmes" - the bassist played a Theremin which was built into a hat, by waving his hand over his head.

Further information on Theremins can be found on the internet - you'll find loads of them just by going to a search engine and looking for "Theremin". Suggested sites include:-

http://www.physics.gla.ac.uk/~kskeldon/PubSci/exhibits/E9/

http://www.actwin.com/Coolidge/tour/theremin.html

http://capella.dur.ac.uk/jon/ThereminUK.html

http://www.fullerton.demon.co.uk/pricelist.htm

http://www.bigbriar.com