The final concert on the 3/6 Compton at Bangor Academy on Saturday evening was a great success. The hall was packed to capacity, and the audience enthusiastically enjoyed solo numbers and piano/organ duets from Richard Hills and Simon Gledhill, along with a hilarious Buster Keaton comedy silent, in which the two organists effected a smooth changeover at the console in the middle of the film. The usual excellent lighting, along with smoke and bubbles, was provided by John Pollack and colleagues, and Ian Sinclair was there to record the event for the BBC in Northern Ireland.

The organ was originally in the Tonic Cinema in Bangor, where is was played by Louise Macdonald, and was bought by Rodney Bambrick in the early 1970s when the theatre disposed of it. At the time Rodney was on the staff of Gransha High School, as it was then called, and negotiated the installation of the instrument in the school hall, where it has given sterling service

The school is due to move to new premises next year, and the current buildings will be demolished. The new school building will have no room for the organ, but, strangely, the current site will be taken over by another school, Bangor Grammar School, with a new purpose-built establishment in due course. The Headmaster there is keen to have the organ for his new school, so, if the money for chambers and re-installation can be found, the instrument may one day be playing again on the same site, but in a new building under new management.

Rodney Bambrick, who is also the COS's Northern Ireland District Secretary, is Chairman of the Tonic Cinema Organ Trust, and will mastermind the removal and, hopefully, reinstallation of the organ. Although retired from teaching now for over 20 years now, the school and the wider theatre organ audience owe Rodney a huge debt of gratitude for his role in keeping the theatre organ very much in the public eye in Northern Ireland during the past quarter-century.

John Leeming