Apples and (Clockwork) Oranges. . . and Prom 38

Steve Jobs at home in 1982 with  records and  a Michell Gyrodec.

photo:Diana Walker

Know who that is? Well, he and this blog's author share some things. Here's a hint. This blog is written on an Apple Mac, and I've had Apple Macs from the day I put my typewriter in the bottom of the wardrobe and forgot about it. Not that I totally forgot: it was a pale lime green portable Olympia.

Apparently you can still buy one like this in the USA. (For almost the same price as a MacBook Air!)  I should have kept it to sell on eBay shouldn't I?

My first Apple that wasn't the kind you were supposed to give teacher was a Mac SE. . .that was the cuddly little beige one with a monochrome screen about the size of an iPad's, and the small iPad at that. It wasn't that much bigger than my typewriter, and all the software was on floppy discs. How on earth we produced magazines on those, I can't imagine now, but we did.

And behind him? Way back under the window on the floor to his right? That's an original Michell Gyrodec. That wasn't my first turntable, but I fell in love with it just as I did with Apple Macs before I could afford either.

I first saw a Gyro in the small Georgian window of a small hi-fi shop in Shrewsbury late one summer night. It had gold weights under the platter . . . and it had been left to spin quietly at 33rpm reflecting gold from a small spotlight everywhere. I wasn't just entranced; I was hypnotised.

As was everyone who came to my flat when I finally managed to get hold of one. Most still are. So much so some don't get around to actually listening instead of watching until the first side's nearly done.

I knew (probably anyone who knows much about either film or hi-fi does) that Stanley Kubrick had a Michell turntable (though not a Gyrodec) and put one in A Clockwork Orange. And that John Michell created the model of the spaceship for 2001 A Space Odyssey mostly out of Gyrodec parts in his workshop near enough to the studios you might have been able to hear HAL over the traffic. Sadly, it disappeared from Boreham Wood Studios long ago.

But Steve Jobs owning a Gyrodec? The man who was practically the inventor of the antitheses of (analogue!) vinyl? And who people could, with some justification, blame for it spinning in its grave? That really was news to me. But it feels nice to know we have more than an apple in common, even if our bank accounts were, even then, as far apart as . . .well, as apples and oranges.

What's this got to do with the Proms? Not a lot, but something. Between concerts if I want to hear what someone else makes of Messaien's Turangalila apart from Juanjo Mena and the BBC  Phil in Prom 38 I'll be listening to one on a Gyrodec. And I'll be recording some to listen to later, or maybe even again on one of my Apple Macs.

Perhaps that Gyrodec was at least partly responsible that Apple seemed to really care about their recorded sound right from the beginning. And later, perhaps for the BBC using Apple Macs to edit their recordings of live concerts on.

The Turangalila I may be listening to between now and mid-August  one that I doubt many are familiar with at all, but which I like: Seiji Ozawa conducting the Toronto Symphony on RCA Victor.way, way back in 1967. There's something about that performance that makes it cleaner and (despite the size of the orchestra) almost minimalist in textures that you don't get elsewhere and which Petrenko and the NYO Messaien's Turangalilo at the Proms 2012 didn't really achieve at the Proms three years ago.

It was reissued on CD a couple of years back, and got a 'Record of the Month' from MusicWeb International. Deservedly I thought. Though if you want to hear it, or even a snip from it, you'll haver to look for it second hand, I'm afraid. It's not even on YouTube . . .

Not all music ever recorded or played is, some of those who'll be dropping into Prom 37 for Mista Jam and Stormzy but probably won't be listening to Messaien even with a score of lager and Baccardi shots in front of them the following night, need to know. Some was even played before the London Tube that'll be taking them to the Ministry of Sound existed, let alone YouTube.

Let's see (or hear, rather) if Prom 38 in August will also become a fave rave of mine.