grand but when they got back to London after that initial visit they
realised they’d left their dog here!
Ed: Yes its incredible really, once on my way here I saw a hawk on a
pigeon and I thought this is interesting, I probably wont see anything
quite as exciting as that for the rest of the day. But when I got here I
came in to find Richard photographing Rod (musician friend) lying on
his stomach with some onions wearing a beret and I thought, “oh, my
hawk on a pigeon has been surpassed already”. Only here would you
experience these sorts of things.
What’s the best thing about living and working in Arlesey ?
Ed: It’s a great location its easy to get to for our customers, just off
the A1. There is a long history of community involvement and that
is wonderful. And this (building) being here, its incredible. This place
would have been knocked down and developed somewhere else.
Richard: Yes it would be old school walk or something… But unlike
living in Kensington (which I’ve never done) people come here because
they want somewhere to live to raise a family. We nearly bought a
place in Ashwell and I wonder, we might not have hit it off in Ashwell!
What inventions have you devised in this workshop, its like a
treasure trove?
Richard: One of my grandfather’s sayings was “Never stop any one
telling you something because you don’t know what you might learn”.
Ed: There is another interesting facet to this, which is Richard has
some engineering experience and sometimes what you’re taught at
college doesn’t prepare you for what you are going to come up against
in the real world – so we’ve been able to rescue things over the years
that have been condemned because no one else wants to or can’t fix
their minor faults.
Richard: And I’ve often made devices, gadgets
Ed: Oh yes there are very few other piano establishments that have
enjoyed the wealth of inventions. The jewel in the crown is the bead
blaster
Richard: Its lovely industrial bead, which is sand with the corners
rounded off, amazing stuff, like miniscule glass ball bearings, like
dust or flour. And you can clean up felt, it takes the muck off without
eroding it.
I like to experiment – I was trying to think of something I could clean
the insides of pianos with and I thought one day, flour is very soft. So, I
got a grand piano on its side and I got the sandblast gun
and I put flour in it. There was an enormous cloud, and I was
completely white and at that very moment a friend turned up.
Not only was it a complete disast