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around the amps; Beatles in Knole Park, Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane promo

SFF1SFF2SFF3SFF5Between January and February in 1967, The Beatles had been grabbing the guitars and 730/430 amps, Ringo’s drums and some other gear, and setting off on their own little magical mystery tour.  Their destination was Knole House,  in Sevenoaks, Kent, to film promo videos for Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane.  The ‘House’ itself was built for the Archbishop of Canterbury as a retreat for hunting, replacing the old one with the ‘new’ one in 1456.  The ‘House’  looks more like Batman’s stately Wayne Manor, but it is surrounded by a large park with wild deer, descended from the herds that Henry VIII hunted. (Thanks to Ian Drummond for finding these  pics).

 

Filming started at the end of January, with footage used mostly in the Strawberry fields promo; on February 5th they returned again, with footage ending up in the ‘Penny Lane’ video.  The producer was Tony Bramwell, a childhood friend of John, Paul and George, who became Brian Epstein’s right-hand man, and later joint head of Apple Records.

He told us, “Yes, I produced Strawberry and Penny, as I did all the little Beatles films.  The piano was bought in a junk shop for £5.00 and smashed up…. just basic (equipment) …film, foldback speaker …the timpani just hired for the day, as were the horses!”.

 

The director for the filming was Peter Goldmann.  He had been recommended by Klaus Voormann;  It was shot on 35mm colour film, around the park grounds, ruins and follies.

Goldmann was a fascinating character in his own right; he later told Swedish magazine Vecko-Revyn, “Everything went so fast. It wasn’t until I sat on the plane for London I realized what I was up to. I felt the nervousness and the excitement crawling under my skin. How in the world could I make something funny, bizarre, clever, crazy, sophisticated enough to satisfy the Beatles. It was there in the plane that I came up with the idea of the horses…

In John’s special built Rolls Royce they had a real big laugh. Through a microphone and a loudspeaker they tried to shore me up with comments and advice that echoed out over the neighbourhood….

 

The wind blew on the strings and they kept falling all the time and made a mess”.

http://beatlevid.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/strawberry-fields-forever-penny-lane.html

 

Details as always are sketchy;  it seems the Beatles stayed at a Hotel in Sevenoaks.  A relative saw them filming; she said they heard they had a party one night in some house in the park.  I think this might have been in what some people call the Bird or Owl house,  near the arch/ruins where the Beatles were filming  (photo from site www.fabulousfollies.net )

birdhouse

 

Dave Roberts, a pupil at the time at Sevenoaks School, recalls in his book, “….word spread around the school like german measles.  The bell for lunch had signalled a mass exodus to the park, and soon the Beatles had been joined by hundreds of boys in straw hats. Ringo and John in particular were quite friendly, coming over and chatting to us between takes. When asked to sing something,  John burst into ‘Hey hey we’re the Monkees’.  It was one of my best times at Sevenoaks”. (extract from Dave Roberts, ‘The Bromley Boys’, Portico books 2008)

In the finished footage, the 730/430 amps can be seen in the Penny Lane video (thanks to Steed Taranto for pics);

Penny Lane VOX (2)Penny Lane VOX (3)Penny Lane VOX (4)

Penny Lane VOX (5)

Penny Lane VOX (6)Benefit-for-Mr-Kite-Poster 2In a break during the filming,  John wandered around an antique shop in the nearby town of Westerham.  Here he came across an old poster, announcing Pablo Fanque’s Circus Royal;  “‘.. ‘Mr. Kite’ was a straight lift. I had all the words staring me in the face one day when I was looking for a song. It was from this old poster I’d bought at an antique shop. We’d been down to Surrey or somewhere filming a piece.

There was a break, and I went into this shop and bought an old poster advertising a variety show which starred Mr. Kite. It said the Henderson’s would also be there, late of Pablo Fanques Fair. There would be hoops and horses and someone going through a hogs head of real fire. Then there was Henry the Horse. The band would start at ten to six. All at Bishopsgate. Look, there’s the bill– with Mr. Kite topping it. I hardly made up a word, just connecting the lists together. Word for word, really.”  John Lennon.

HD clip from Strawberry Fields on youtube here –

Ian Drummond’s transcription of the playbill;

PABLO FANQUE’S CIRCUS ROYAL
TOWN – MEADOWS, ROCHDALE

Grandest Night of the Season!
BEING FOR THE
BENEFIT OF MR. KITE
(LATE OF WELL’S CIRCUS) AND
MR. J HENDERSON,
THE CELEBRATED SOMERSET THROWER!
WIRE DANCER, VAULTER, RIDER, &c.
On TUESDAY Evening, February 14, 1848
______________________________________________________________
Messrs. KITE & HENDERSON, in announcing the following Entertainments,
assure the Public that this Night’s Production will be one of the most Splendid ever produced in this Town, having been some days in preparation.
MR. KITE will, for this night only, introduce the
CELEBRATED
HORSE, ZANTHUS!
Well known to be one of the best Broke Horses
IN THE WORLD!!!
Mr. HENDERSON will undertake the arduous TASK of
THROWING TWENTY ONE SOMERSETS,
ON THE SOLID GROUND.
Mr. KITE will appear, for the first time this season,
On the Tight Rope, When Two Gentlemen Amateurs of this Town will
Perform with him.
Mr. HENDERSON will, for the first time in Rochdale
Introduce his extraordinary
TRAMPOLINE LEAPS
AND
SOMERSETS!
Over Men & Horses, through Hoops, over Garters, and lastly, through a Hogshead of REAL FIRE! In this branch of the profession
Mr. H challenges THE WORLD
For particulars see Bills of the day

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vox 430 – Beatles, Fool on the Hill sessions & others

 

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Intriguing photo here from September 1967.  Some journalists and a photographer from Japan had been invited to Abbey Road;  some rough audio was taped, and some photos were taken. Tucked away in the background is an amp, with a casino leaning against it;

 

 

It doesn’t seem to have been noticed before, but we can now confirm from this & other photos that is a Vox 430, with a 6-string casino.unknown2

george-martin-1967

4/730, to left of Paul, pre-recording/rehearsal for All You Need is Love

In another photo, there’s a conqueror/cab off to the left.  This conqueror/cab/trolley and 4/730 head sitting on trolley-less cabinet combination was seen earlier, in rehearsals for the All You Need is Love broadcast; was that a 430 that was being used in rehearsals/recordings before the broadcast?.  The 4/730 head was taken off the cab in rehearsals as foliage & backdrop items were added and people began to come in. A conqueror head was then visible placed on the cab; in the increasing confusion it’s impossible to tell where the 4/730 head was moved to.  The 430 and conquerors, all on trolleys, were clearly seen in the Hello Goodbye video,  and the 430 was probably in the Strawberry Fields promo.  The 430 head was also seen sitting propped on a chair during the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds recording sessions;

430.lucy

Here in the Fool sessions though, the casino leans against it, and a bright reflection slightly lower down to the right of the controls might be flare off a metal end of a guitar lead going into the ‘normal’ channel.  It’s not definitive of course, but it would seem to suggest Paul or George/John weren’t averse to running the 6-string guitars through the 430.

More pics/info on an excellent Spanish site/page here, about 3/4 of the way down;

http://www.elforo.de/liverpool/viewtopic.php?t=2130

It says, “…The Beatles spent the evening of September 25th inside EMI’s Studio Two, in London. This was a 7pm to 3am session which resulted in the first proper recordings of The Fool On The Hill (Paul had recorded a demo back on September 6th). Three takes of the basic rhythm track were taped. Harmonicas were played by John and George, and overdubs of a recorder were played by Paul…Early on during the session, the Beatles were visited by two members of the Japanese media, Koh Hasebe and Rumiko Hoshika. While the Beatles began rehearsing The Fool On The Hill , Koh took photographs and Rumiko recorded brief interviews with each member of the group. The complete tape runs approximately 12 minutes in length (when played at close to the correct speed), but unfortunately only survives in inferior sound quality.”

The page has links to the audio too, here’ s one extract of it –

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strawberry fields forever, alternate mix

Another intriguing Beatles edited mix…


Recording started towards the end of November 1966; probably with the new smaller vox amps, the 430 and 730, replacing the 7120s which had been used on Revolver.  We don’t know the exact date the 30-watt amps arrived; we do know that Lennon took a 7120 head back to his home studio.

Good history here of the S.F.F. evolution/recording process –

http://www.beatlesebooks.com/strawberry-fields-forever

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taxman, isolated guitars

More Revolver guitar tones here, this time from Taxman…

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Triumph Electronics, builders of the 4 and 7 series for Vox – Part 1

Triumph Electronics – 118 and 122 Brighton Road, Purley – was, from the early 1960s, the company that did much of the designing and a certain amount of the production of various models of amps for Vox. Geoff Johnson was its founder and manager.

triumph_02triumph_03

On the left, 122 and 118 Brighton Road as they are today. The sliproad at left leads to a storage area. On the right, “Fitness First” – what used to be the entrance to the Orchid Ballroom, famous for jazz dance evenings, and later owned by Larry Page, manager of the Troggs. Now and again, amps were tried out in the ballroom.

Quite how Dick Denney found Triumph and Geoff Johnson is unrecorded, but it may be that names were known through mutual acquaintances and trade fairs. Johnson must have a fairly high profile in the late 50s. Trained in the Admiralty Signal and Radar Division during the war, he joined the Department of Electro-physiology (neurosurgery) at Hurstwood Hospital in 1948, remaining there until 1954, whereupon he joined Faraday Electronic Instruments in London. At some point around 1959, however, he left and set up Triumph in Purley, at first manufacturing and importing electronic instruments (medical and domestic). Johnson’s credentials were therefore impeccable.

triumph_01

Above, an Oscillograph, developed and used at Hurstwood Hospital.

TRIUMPH, it should be said, also built AC50s, AC100s and reverb units for Vox.  By the time the 7-series came into being, though, production of AC50s had passed to Erith; and only a very few AC100s were asked for by Vox from Triumph in 66. But Triumph still produced Vox PA amps, and amps also for other makers. Work in other fields – devices for hospitals – continued too; and  Les Avery, Triumph’s chief electronic designer, built himself a colour television from scratch (see below).

A small team worked in conjunction with Denney and others at Vox on the 7-series: Simon and Graham are remembered by Carl Nielsen.

Dave Roffey, who worked at Triumph in the late 1960s, designing among other things the Vamp range of amps, recounts:

“As far as I remember, units he had started from the end of the building structure next to the ramp down to an underground car park. I used to take amps down there to blast out. Also in the Orchid when it was convenient. Two shops side by side from the end when I was there. The first, or end shop, ground floor was Geoff Johnson’s office, a room I used for designing amps and a third room with a drawing board etc in for layouts, pcb and chassis drawings, reference books etc. Stairs down to the basement led into the production and test area. Benches for about 8, bending press and guillotine. This might have been spread into next doors basement, but it wasn’t a very large area.”

“Out the back was a common path way behind the buildings. Triumph rented space underneath the Orchid for stock etc access via this walkway. The shop area next door (no. 118) was mainly a stock room for components. A Mrs Andrews, a French lady, was fiercely in charge I remember. Les Avery, the designer of the transistor gear had an office in there, and there also was ECG machine equipment somehow involved with it all. Les designed a colour television, had strong links with RCA and semiconductors, finally going over to them, which is where I came in. I put the first distortion “bite” controls in valve pre amps, which was a hell of struggle considering it was a big no no for the “clean are us” brigade. And a proper middle control! There were some chassis made at Triumph, but quantities came from South Croydon, as did circuit boards when they started to be used. I did a design for the AC30 pcb at one stage I remember.”

(more…)

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Triumph Electronics, builders of the 4 and 7 series for Vox – Part 2

Building the 7 series

As far as is known, the better part of the design work behind the 7-series was done at the VOX AND BURNDEPT WORKS ON WEST STREET IN ERITH (click on the link for pics in a new window). This was the prototyping stage – formulating the circuit and making the various elements operate and sound as desired. Little is known of this side of things, but it may be that an American Super Beatle amp, which Denney had seen in Sepulveda in late 1965, was looked to for some of the preamp circuitry – at least as a general inspiration.

The design process is likely to have been similar to that adopted by Les Avery for slightly later lines of Vox amps. He recalls working on the “breadboards” (perforated layout boards) with Dick Denney, subbing in components by means of flying leads, and testing at each stage, until the desired effect or sound had been achieved.

Breadboard

Once the general design had been outlined, Triumph’s task was twofold: to set up the supply line for production (no small matter to make sure all the necessary components were delivered in sufficient quantities); then to produce the amps. It is worth saying that the resistors and capacitors etc. sourced by Triumph are distinctive (e.g. green bodied resistors, blue Philips caps): they are not found in Vox amps built in the works at Erith, ie. Burndept Electronics, a contractor, and in the Vox Factory at West Road. And these Triumph-only parts, it should be said, are also to be found in the AC50s and AC100s, as well as in the Vox PA amps, that Triumph built, but not in those built in Kent.

Basic production outline

WOODEN BOXES. Henry Glass and Co. (later constituted as “GlaRev”) made the wooden boxes, finished them – providing the tolex covering, corner protectors and vents – and sent them to Purley where they were stored (briefly) until needed. There were two basic sizes – one for the 430, 715 and 730; and another for the 460, 760, 4120 and 7120. Early boxes had removable back panels – three are known to survive – two 7120 boxes, and one 730.

CHASSIS AND PANELS.  Metal was cut to order and treated by a company behind Potter’s Music Shop in Croydon.  Chassis were formed up at Triumph, which had a metal press for the express purpose. When finished they were sent off to Brooklands Plating Co. in Croydon for the panels (made by Brooklands) to be fitted. Panels were attached to the chassis, and openings for potentiometers and so on drilled through both. A surviving unused panel owned by Carl Nielsen has solid metal where the holes for the front controls should be. Illustrated in J. Elyea, Vox Amplifiers, p. 461. *FOR MORE ON PANELS SEE THIS POST.
panel
Chassis were stacked and used in no particular order, ie. an “early” one can easily occur in “late” amp. The same is true of panels. Early ones appear in amps built in late 1966.

TRANSFORMERS. Some of these seem to have been sourced from the Douglas Transformer Co., which is now in Louth, Lincolnshire – click here for its site. The transformers were evidently a particularly important “design centre”. It can hardly be an accident that 4120 and 7120-sized units (and the accompanying choke) fit on a 730 chassis – in other words in the amps that the Beatles received.

4120_nick_06

Above, top view of a 4120 chassis

ELECTRONIC ASSEMBLY. All 4-series and 7-series amps (including the ones issued to the Beatles) were assembled in the basement rooms (more…)

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