Meet James Reid who restores and hires out mechanical organs as well as making bespoke musical books from his Doncaster home.
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00:00 I'm not an organist, it's a mechanical organ, it plays by itself.
00:02 And how does that work?
00:04 Plays folding cardboard books with punched holes in them and you play it and you put
00:09 it into a device that reads it and you play any tune you want on it, it plays by itself,
00:14 not by me.
00:15 And how did you get into that?
00:17 From my dad from when I was very small and then I just grew up with it and I've made
00:21 it my business now.
00:22 We hire him out and we make the books and repairs and everything.
00:26 How do you make one of the organs?
00:28 I don't make organs, I only restore them.
00:32 It's all made out of wood and leather and you have to know about which glues to use
00:35 and everything.
00:36 You get a small amount of metal work in it but yeah, mostly wood and leather.
00:40 I only repair them, I don't actually build them.
00:42 James Reid has followed in his father's footsteps, restoring, painting and transforming old organs
00:51 so they're in their state of glory, mechanical organs which is powered by musical books,
00:59 all printed especially by James at home.
01:04 He now supplies other organists with such books to play all sorts of songs with their
01:12 organ.
01:13 James was celebrating Yorkshire Day the other day at Pontefract Castle where as ever he
01:21 wheeled up his mechanical organ and entertained all the crowds.
01:28 I'm a mother fucker.
01:30 [Music]
01:41 [Music]