Nicholas Martin B.E.M
Nicholas Martin B.E.M Nick began his music career studying the piano at nine years of age. He took a keen interest in the organ shortly afterwards. A family visit to Blackpool, in 1969 (when he was five), gave him the chance to hear the Wurlitzer organ being played in the famous Tower Ballroom by “Mr Blackpool” – Reginald Dixon. The sound of this famous organ captivated Nick who became infatuated by it to the point that he later started learning to play the organ. At age eleven it became his ambition to perform at this most famous of venues. Nick’s Tower Ballroom ambition was achieved in 1981, he accepted a post as resident organist – and was then just 17 years of age! He played there seven days a week during the 1981 and 1982 seasons. While at Blackpool, Nigel Turner a businessman proposed that Nick became involved in the opening of a new organ entertainments complex – “Turner’s Musical Merry-go-Round”. The feature piece was to be a Wurlitzer theatre organ; this organ had been installed in the Paramount, later Odeon, Cinema Newcastle. This organ has long been considered as one of the finest in the U.K. It originally came from the Wurlitzer Organ factory in North Tonawanda, New York State, U.S.A. Nick became the resident Wurlitzer organist at “Turner’s”, in April 1983, and remained there until its closure in June 2004
