ORGANIST Ian Gough (pictured) makes his first appearance at Elland’s Rex Cinema on September 21.
He will be playing the Sunday afternoon concert slot at 2.30pm, filling the September slot usually occupied by veteran musician Arnold Loxam.
Big shoes to fill but Rex owner Charles Morris is confident Ian has the background to take on the challenge.
Ian is from Cannock in Staffordshire and began playing the electronic organ at the age of seven.
He was inspired to learn after hearing the Mighty Wurlitzer at the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool.
But it was not until he was 30 that Ian stumbled across the website of Joyce Alldred, the well-known organist from Marple in Cheshire and formerly of the Davenport Cinema, Stockport, and began transferring his skills to the theatre organ.
Ian made his debut on the theatre organ two years ago at the Plaza Super Cinema in Stockport. Since then has become a regular face there and at the Lancastrian Theatre Organ Trust’s Peel Green heritage centre.
He has also played at Stockport Town Hall for the trust and at Woking in Surrey for the American Theatre Organ Society.
Last year Ian won the society’s Amateur Theatre Organist Competition.
