Aroundtown Magazine May June 2023 edition

OUT & ABOUT
During Refurbishment
There are only ten left
“
worldwide out of 85 initially
built, and only four or five of
them are still playing
”
The trust is led by organist, Kevin Grunill, who
has played the organ for almost 40 years since
he was a young lad and was once part of the
team at Blackpool’s Tower Ballroom.
There are around 20 volunteers who attend
regularly from across the Yorkshire region
and beyond to restore the organs and help
with events. Most are retired, ranging from
electrical or mechanical engineers to teachers
and highway inspectors, but collectively they
bring different qualities with the aim of keeping
traditional skills alive so that nostalgic music can
be enjoyed by future generations.
One of their most recent tasks has been to
restore a Melotone from the former Gaumont
cinema in Camden Town. This unique standalone
feature, which looks a bit like a filing
cabinet, can be added to the Compton organ
to extend its range. It was an early form of
technology for electronic sound that uses
spinning discs with the sound fed through a
huge speaker horn in the organ loft.
“There are only ten left worldwide out of 85
initially built, and only four or five of them are
still playing. They had inherent faults that meant
the sound deteriorated. We sourced this one in
a real wreck but the volunteers have spent two
years restoring it, stripping each component
and replacing each wire. It’s now playing again
and will be featured at most upcoming events,”
Kevin says.
We first visited the Astoria Centre when it
opened in 2016. But in the years since, the
centre has continued to evolve, fuelled by
Melotone
lockdown at the height of the pandemic when
they sadly had to close their doors to visitors
temporarily.
The team cracked on with renovations and
there is now a new stage, new dance floor, and
new colour-changing lights. They also received a
Heritage Lottery Fund grant which paid for a new
air conditioning and heating system to keep the
organs at a stable temperature.
One of the biggest changes has been the
addition of a bright and clean kitchen area in the
‘box office’ entrance. The Astoria Centre now
serves food at their weekly and monthly events
which is another revenue stream for the centre
that receives no funding towards its £50,000 a
year running costs.
The volunteers make everything fresh on-site,
from the individual cakes, macarons and trifles
to poaching the salmon and cooking the ham
for the afternoon tea sandwiches. These can
be booked to enjoyed before, during or after
an event.
There’s now a great social aspect to
the Astoria Centre. Not everyone who visits
is an organ enthusiast; they come for the
music, the camaraderie and to be part of
something special.
“The organ is the catalyst to a much bigger
picture. People have made life-long connections
by coming here and it’s given them a purpose.
We have one widow who comes that felt guilty
at first for leaving the house after she lost her
husband, so she’d just stay for 40 minutes or so.
Then she made some new friends and they now
meet up outside of here,” Kevin says.
“It was humbling to hear her say the Astoria
Centre has changed her life as she had no life
without it. It took us six years of hard work to
build but I’d do it all again 24/7 if it makes a
difference to one person’s life like that.”
What’s on
at the Astoria
Centre:
Weekly events Pay on the door
Afternoon Tea Dance
Wednesday 1-4pm £6.50
Ballroom and sequence dancing to the sound of
the Compton
Music and Memories
Thursday 1-2.30pm £5.50
Listen to a variety of music through the decades
Don’t miss the Summer Ball
Saturday 17th June from 7.30pm £10
Ballroom and sequence dancing with Kevin
Grunhill and Declan Poole, Young British Organist
of the Year
Monthly concerts
All from 2.30pm and priced at £12 per person
Saturday 10th June – Simon Gleadhill
One of the world’s most highly regarded organists
Saturday 8th July – Stephen Austin
Saturday 12th August – John Mann and Tony
Stace
A Compton and Yamaha Digital Orchestra duet
Saturday 9th September – Phil Kelsall MBE
Blackpool Tower Ballroom’s principal organist
makes his annual visit
Saturday 23rd September – Chris McPhee
Australia’s finest organist gives a rare UK
performance
For tickets, call 07944 566972
or buy online www.astoriacentre.co.uk
Playing the Compton
Phil Kelsall
The Astoria Centre, Unit 16a Metro Trading
Centre, Barugh Green, Barnsley S75 1JT
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