Concert musicspans severaldecades

The Sussex Theatre Organ Trust presents a concert featuring Nicholas Martin at the Worthing Wurlitzer on Sunday, January 26, starting at 2.30pm at The Assembly Hall, Stoke Abbott Road, Worthing.

Trust spokesman Simon Field said: “The music featured in the concert will span several decades and will be quite diverse from the rousing strains of Strauss’s Radetsky March to the modern ballad You Raise Me Up.

“Nicholas started his musical career, like most, by studying the piano from an early age. He fell in love with the theatre organ at the age of eleven. In 1975 whilst on a family visit to Blackpool he heard the organ being played at the Tower Ballroom, and from that moment it became his ambition, not only to play the theatre organ, but to play at that famous venue.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“His ambition was realised in 1981 when he was only 17 years old and, for the next two summers, he was a resident organist, playing the Wurlitzer made famous by his idol, the late Reginald Dixon.

“During his second season at Blackpool, a new entertainment complex was envisaged at Northampton and this included the installation of a superb three manual, 19-rank Wurlitzer organ. At the invitation of the owner, Nigel Turner, Nick became the resident organist and, in April 1983, Turner’s Musical Merry-Go-Round was officially opened.

“After Turner’s closed in July 2004, Nick became musical director at Wicksteed Park, Kettering, Northants, a family theme park set in 127 acres. His work there consisted of performing all the music for the afternoon variety shows and accompanying the various acts - by using his Technics G-100. His term of office came to an end there in December 2008.

“Nowadays, Nick’s career finds him performing for the many organ societies and clubs around the UK as well as church recitals.”

Tickets: 01903 206206

Related topics: