Ayr's Lewis concert organ restored

Oct 24 2008 by Edwin Lawrence

IT’S a sound with a feel-good factor, and one that can move people to tears of emotion.

Ayr has one of the best in the land. So why isn’t it being used more often?

That’s what people are asking after hearing a fantastic organ recital in Ayr Town Hall.

The hall’s wonderful Lewis concert organ – dating from 1904 – has been restored at an estimated £75,000.

And a concert during the Septembayr festival proved it’s a real crowd-pleaser.

The concert was supposed to be more of a classical affair, but the organist originally booked took ill.

Into the breach stepped Ayr’s Andy Shearer, at very short notice.

And the 72-year-old cinema organ enthusiast performed the popular material he knows and loves.

Andy opened with We Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside.

Straight away there were smiles on faces, and toes began tapping.

Andy continued with great old music hall songs, Sousa marches, and film themes.

Septembayr committee man Michael Hitchon was in the audience.

He said: “It was wonderful. People left the hall with a spring in their step. And a lot of us think there would be a demand for a weekly tea dance or concert.”

Andy was nervous about getting to grips with a concert organ.

As chairman of the Scottish Cinema Organ Trust, he is more familiar with the Mighty Wurlitzer theatre and cinema organs.

But he did a great job, and the Lewis organ proved its versatility, sounding in turn like a fairground, a theatre and a church organ. Andy said: “I’d love to play it regularly, and I know there would be others who would like the chance too.”

Andy recalls hearing organ concerts in Ayr Town Hall in the late 1940s. And he promoted some himself in the early 1980s, before the organ went kaput.

But now it’s restored and sounding better than ever in a beautifully re-decorated hall.

Michael Hitchon said: “An instrument of this quality should be regularly used. And with The Homecoming year coming up, I’m certain there’s a demand for a weekly event.”

Over to you, South Ayrshire Council.