Hammondista

I'm Ben Walker. I play Hammond in Little Fish, and this is a blog. ;)

[hammondista]

I just fixed a few keys on this beauty and it sounds amazing.

I've always wanted to play David Bowie's Memory of a Free Festival on a harmonium and now I have.

Apart from a few missing reeds at the top end it's in remarkable shape. If the backplate isn't fake, this instrument was made by Karl August Andersson in Stockholm some time between 1885 and 1922. I'm slightly dubious, partly because his other organs are ridiculously ornate and partly because I can't imagine how it got from Stockholm to a bric-a-brac stall at the Binsey Village countryside fair.

[hammondista]

As good as it sounds. ICONS!

[hammondista]

Listening back to Hammond takes in the studio with Little Fish

[hammondista]

The full Hammond, piano, MicroKorg setup. We're rehearsing with [Jont](http://jontnet.com) for his album launch gig. And I'm getting used to playing the double hander again...

[hammondista]

On stage at Brixton Academy, with Evaline's kit behind the Hammond and Placebo's gear behind that.

[hammondista]

Ready to soundcheck at Brixton Academy. This place holds 5,000. We're supporting Placebo tonight. Last time we played here supporting Hole the Korg bass shook the room. I've got a good feeling about tonight.

[hammondista]

On stage at the Wedgewood rooms with Little Fish. We had a load of balloons on stage from Nez's birthday and everyone was pretty hyper. Nez sets up his drums at the front, stage left, so I was up on the riser at the back. Should have worn the wizard outfit. There's nothing like massive sleeves and starry coats on stage.

[dogsrunningfree]

The closest we got to Focus

[hammondista]

There's something beautifully prog about the chord progression to this bridge. Nick and Spence wrote the music while I was sleeping off a cold/hangover, so I imagine the major/minor twists and turns are mostly Nick's:

Am | Em | G# | C# | Am | Em | G# | C# | C#m | B | Bm | F#m | C#m | B | Bm | F#m |

[hammondista]

I spent last weekend jamming with [Spence](http://twitter.com/asilentfilm) and [Nick](http://twitter.com/nickfuckinggill) for a musical project called [Dogs Running Free](http://dogsrunningfree.tumblr.com). This link will show you all the photos and videos tagged "Hammond" (which is the interesting stuff, right?).

[hammondista]

Little Fish playing Old Fashioned Morphine at the Drawingroom last night. It’s a new song (hence the music stand with lyrics!), but I think we nailed the vibe. It has a classic Velvet Underground-style feel to it, and it’s fun to play. It’s rare (and useful for me) to hear the Hammond mixed this loud. I could hardly hear it on stage…

[hammondista]

Richard's open air gigs at [the Drawingroom in Chesham](http://www.the-drawingroom.co.uk) are great. There's plenty of wine and Richard serves everyone a mean chilli. This time we're doing a full band acoustic set. There are loads of dogs in the audience who whimper occasionally (as if they're really enjoying a particular emotional moment of the song). I love gigs like this.

[hammondista]

This is me playing Hammond with Little Fish at Reading festival. We [headlined the BBC Introducing stage](http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/readingandleeds/2010/artists/littlefish/), and the videos are awesome! *Innuendo* is probably the most obviously Hammond-featuring song we play.

[camilaausente]

Cherry Wainer & Don Storer - Peter Gunn

[hammondista]

I'm in love with Cherry Wainer. I don't think I've ever seen such a freaky performance. She rocks the Hammond, and delivers these weird grins every once in a while. Amazing.

I'd never heard of Cherry Wainer before, so I did a bit of research. There's not much to go on (no Wikipedia page!), but there are a couple of other YouTube videos (from the same show by the look of it). One of them has Cherry playing a super-swung version of [A Taste Of Honey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Taste_of_Honey_%28song%29). I know the Beatles version of the song from Please Please Me, because my brother and I used to think it was hilarious when we were kids and played it all the time. If you don't know the Beatles version, listen to it first: Then check out Cherry's magic version. It may well blow your mind. And if you can't hear the bass, get some headphones on. She's playing that with her feet. I need to find out more about this Cherry character. And I need to figure out how she gets that Hammond sound. Beautiful. ;)

[hammondista]

Introducing the Hammond to Leeds festival. [Little Fish headlined the BBC Introducing stage](http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/festivals/readingandleeds/2010/artists/littlefish/) and we had a great gig, mostly because of the super-friendly crowd. ;)

[hammondista]

BBC Hammond Organ 70th Birthday special (via analoghell) A 10-minute documentary the BBC showed to celebrate 70 years of the Hammond. If you're really into your organs, this is probably a bit lightweight for you, but I can't get enough of Jon Lord talking about his Hammond sound.

[hammondista]

What organ? ;)

[hammondista]

Backstage at the Little Fish in-store gig at Rapture in Witney. Remember CDs?!