Sounds Fantastic STEVE BERRY finds that an antiques showroom has become a Mecca for lovers of organ music.

The huge Forster & Andrews organ dominates the school.

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In an imposing former Methodist schoolroom in the heart of Brierfield, hemmed in by Burnley and Nelson, a dedicated group of organ enthusiasts meet for an evening of musical plea-sure.

The scene is quite remarkable, for among the small band of music lovers gathered in what is now an antiques showroom, will probably be some of the North of England's top cathedral organists.

Most people would expect to travel to a large town's civic hall at the very least to hear the music that emanates from this building. But on the balcony of the schoolroom, dwarfing the rows of antiques below, is the reason for

the music lovers' devotion to the Brier-field schoolroom.

The mighty Forster and Andrews pipe organ, 1885, looming up to the ceiling, draws people from many miles away and holds them in its spell. It, and it alone, reigns supreme in that building.

And while some of the pianos in the showrooms below are for sale, the collection of instruments in a room adjacent most definitely are not. These include organs of all kinds, together with pianos and other musical curios kept for their special features.

Their custodian, Neville Blakey, has acquired them over many years and

wouldn't part with them for the world. It's probably the largest collection of its kind in the country, and together with the impressive collection of music scores kept next door, forms a reso-nant tribute to the music that came with last century's religious revival in the Pennines.

Mr Blakey has taken it on himself to keep that music alive. It wasn't any conscious decision on his' part, but rather a hoarder's instinct — a dispo-sition which has also led to his building up a museum of locks and keys —that's something that Pennine will have to look at another time.

His collection arose, naturally enough, through his own interests. He's played the organ since he was a boy, when the instrument fired his imagina-tion while he attended services at the Congregational chapel nearby.

"We enjoyed going to the services," he said. "It was three times a day on Sundays—morning, evening and after-noon school. I decided even before I was a teenager that the organ was the instrument I was going to play, and that was that really.

"The best organists, I think, have some inward urge to play. It's the way you're made. I don't think you can create a successful organist just by sending someone to the best possible teacher. You must really want to do it, because there's such a lot of determi-nation required to become even a modest player."

There does seem to be something about the organ, and especially the pipe organ, that sets it apart from other instruments. "It's such a complex instrument," said Mr Blakey, "it's capable of so many different varying effects and strengths of power. There's an enormous amount of power at your fingertips. It's very thrilling when you can master it properly."

He went on: "The collection started in a small way, as collections do. I didn't start with the intention of making a museum. I was always interested in the internal workings of the organ too. Some players don't go inside, they're not interested. But the mechanical side has always fascinated me."

He completely refurbished the For-ster and Andrews organ, acquired from a chapel in Burnley, adding stops and so on and further enhancing his repu-tation. Nowadays the firm of J.H. Blakey and Sons, while not accepting commissions, does refurbish reed organs and harmoniums, and gets requests for help and information from all over the world.

"People have been very good indeed — some of them unknown," he said,

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Pennine Heritage Ltd

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Organ enthusiast Neville Blakey

Contact: Jennifer Holt Pennine Heritage Ltd Birchcliffe Centre, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire.

Tel: Hebden Bridge:844450

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"for giving me the opportunity to acquire the instruments, and some people have just given me items they know will be of interest. It's been my life's-work. I'd travel anywhere to get anything new and I'm always looking for additional music too. Many fine church libraries have just been thrown away. There's little call for it now, with there being fewer choirs."

One of Mr Blakey's proudest acqui-sitions is Colne organist Francis Duck-worth's instrument—the one on which he composed the famous hymn tune "Rimington". (See our last issue of Pennine).

Mr Duckworth travelled to London specially to buy it, and a member of the family recently turned up at the showrooms with a photograph of Mr Duckworth at the manual — much to Mr Blakey's delight.

The collection itself includes almost everything imaginable in the organ world. There are barrel organs, har-moniums, a combined piano organ, musical boxes, a table zither, a Dulci-tone — which operates by playing tuning forks — and a piano which plays gongs. There's a square piano of the same period and model of that used by Beethoven, and even a fully-opera-

tional miniature grand piano less than two feet long. And much, much more.

To people whose knowledge of organs is scant, a visit to the museum should be a wonderful eye-opener. To those in the know, it will be a breath-taking experience. In addition to the instruments themselves are scores of pictures, drawings and photographs, including 800 glass negatives of church organs — some long since demolished.

Eventually the whole collection is to be formally opened to the public —perhaps this coming year — and put in trust for the people of the Pennines, so that it will never be dispersed. But people planning to view should be warned that they're in another world once they enter the antiques show-rooms.

"People are in too big a hurry these days," said Mr Blakey. "I tell them to go away and come back when they've more time!"

• Recitals at the showrooms, which are in Colne Road on the Burnley side of the Brierfield traffic lights, take place between March and October on the last Wednesday of each month. There is also a Christmas music gath- ering on December 1st. ■

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