100 concerts

Video:

• Katrin's 100th SAILOR show:
  filmed by Christel Müller © www.sailor-music.com

For a long time now fans of SAILOR will be aware that however much they have enjoyed and appreciated the band over the years, ocean-going amounts of imagination were required to recall past glories in relation to its theatrical, highly distinctive and ‘totemic’ mascot - the infamous "Nickelodeon" - long considered to be SAILOR’s audio-visual trademark by fans and promoters the world over.
Of course, for those ‘in the know’ all of the subsequent versions were loosely based on our very first solid wood contraption replete with doorbell mechanisms, ‘Kemble’ back-to-back pianos and the earliest of stone-age synthesizers, all lovingly assembled by our own youthful hands ‘back in the day’ at the Nightingale pub in wood Green - possibly the heaviest and most complicated musical instrument ever to grace a stage!
Hundreds of shows and tours had sadly rendered the latest edition, last in a long line of imitations virtually unusable, (Mark 6 according to Katrin Wagner including the dreaded cabaret ‘Table-odeon’ but let’s not go into that please!) - battered and "unfit for purpose" with all that was left – just a few bits of cardboard and sad twisted metal.
But what to do? We’d had so many different designs, all good in some ways but perhaps either too heavy for today’s airline’s exacting weight standards, Ryanair’s blunt rudeness or too difficult and time-consuming to erect (know the problem?) - plus all manner of other technical issues. Ask Mark or Dan (or better still, don’t!)
*** A Hundred Smiles ***
So the road to our beautiful brand new shiny 'Nick' in some strange metaphysical way (in my mind at least) started way back last autumn 09 when upon leaving Prezzo’s with Ann late one night in my home town of Lewes, I glimpsed the back of a custom-built intriguingly-designed van shooting past, the only thing I could make out on the back of which was "X-Piano Orchestra" and "A hundred smiles per hour!" But alas, no phone number.
A thought immediately sprang to mind. Whoever designed and built this unique mode of transport, could they not surely be the ‘imagineers’ who could conjure up a design for SAILOR’s new Nickelodeon…..the Mark 7?
Later scouring the net I found a Myspace site for the "X-Piano Orchestra" and someone called Paul Harrison. I left several messages over the passing weeks but alas, received no reply whatsoever.
Having all but given up hope in this direction, a few months later I happened to visit a lighting store in Brighton to look into some new ideas for the group and it’s theatrical development, whereupon a conversation with the owner unexpectedly led to a reclusive local ‘boffin’ named Paul, a builder of amazing props for all kinds of theatrical events - even Disney’s "Lion King" up in the West End, Brighton storefronts and props for MTV videos.
*** "Underneath the Arches..." ***
"Is he by any chance connected with the X-Piano Orchestra?"
I enquired, only to delightfully realize that this was indeed the individual concerned. Unfortunately the owner had no contact details for Paul but a vague idea that his workshop was somewhere under the arches of the huge viaduct that trains slowly traverse on their last leg towards Brighton station, but couldn’t tell me exactly where.
After several sorties in my car, much walking around asking puzzled passers-by and knocking on doors, out of the blue I eventually came upon the old van parked adjacent to some workshop buildings... Eureka!
Henry will back me up on this, (as admit in my enthusiasms am prone to occasional exaggeration!) but knocking the door, finding it slightly open and hesitantly entering Paul’s topsy-turvy workshop, I suddenly felt like a child again walking into a vast emporia of Disney magic, a dark twinkling cave of stage props, masks, musical instruments and charming mannequins the like of which I’d never seen outside of ‘Toy Story’ or ‘Pinnochio’ (for older readers!) At three in the afternoon the boffin-designer-in-chief himself, a modern-day Gepetto, was actually fast asleep on a raised platform bed above his desk. You couldn’t make it up!
After a few cups of tea, initially drowsy and no doubt startled by a stranger entering his workshop (also apparently his home!) unannounced, Paul immediately warmed to the theatricality of Sailor, remembered all of our hits and was thrilled to be asked to design and build SAILOR’s Nickelodeon Mark 7.
I knew I had definitely come to the right place!
Over many visits and consultations in the weeks and subsequent months, Paul, with technical assistance and exquisite design of the internal structure and engineering aspects from staging expert, Alex Saunders, began to construct a model. Armed only with stringent weight, size and design requirements from Henry and myself plus a few old photographs from fans, they thoughtfully, and with a wonderful eye for quality, elegance and detail slowly designed and assembled the unique new construction you now see before you and that we are proud to call "The Nickelodeon Mark 7".
The inaugural "build and pack" on August 6th, only one day before our show in Torgau, Germany was incongruously attended by none other than the self-proclaimed "God of Hellfire" himself– also no stranger to camp theatricality and entertainment...the legendary Arthur Brown. Don’t ask me why!
He suddenly appeared out of nowhere like a ghost from ‘Top of the Pops’ at the workshop just at the precise moment we needed an extra pair of hands (or perhaps just to prove that the story could indeed become even more bizarre and unlikely!)
Like moths to a flame, the universal laws of Theatrical Entertainment are obviously governed by mysterious dark forces of which we know not!
Shortly coming to your town….SAILOR On Fire?
Who knows?
Phil Pickett

And now... some photos:

With help from Alex's daughter Ray...and Arthur!

Assembling front for the first time with Alex

Phil with the God of Hellfire

First concert with the new Nickelodeon - August 2010

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