Organ restoration: ‘I am the mechanical music man’

Meet James Reid who restores and hires out mechanical organs as well as making bespoke musical books from his Doncaster home.

Transcript

00:00 I'm not an organist, it's a mechanical organ, it plays by itself.

00:02 And how does that work?

00:04 Plays folding cardboard books with punched holes in them and you play it and you put

00:09 it into a device that reads it and you play any tune you want on it, it plays by itself,

00:14 not by me.

00:15 And how did you get into that?

00:17 From my dad from when I was very small and then I just grew up with it and I've made

00:21 it my business now.

00:22 We hire him out and we make the books and repairs and everything.

00:26 How do you make one of the organs?

00:28 I don't make organs, I only restore them.

00:32 It's all made out of wood and leather and you have to know about which glues to use

00:35 and everything.

00:36 You get a small amount of metal work in it but yeah, mostly wood and leather.

00:40 I only repair them, I don't actually build them.

00:42 James Reid has followed in his father's footsteps, restoring, painting and transforming old organs

00:51 so they're in their state of glory, mechanical organs which is powered by musical books,

00:59 all printed especially by James at home.

01:04 He now supplies other organists with such books to play all sorts of songs with their

01:12 organ.

01:13 James was celebrating Yorkshire Day the other day at Pontefract Castle where as ever he

01:21 wheeled up his mechanical organ and entertained all the crowds.

01:28 I'm a mother fucker.

01:30 [Music]

01:41 [Music]