Autographed Fairlight keyboard up for auction….

From This auction…picked up via the Fairlight Mailing List.

A little while ago, some bright spark (Peter Gabriel) came up with the idea of getting a Fairlight keyboard signed by some of the famous artists who had used them. The event was staged to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Fairlight CMI and the resulting keyboard went on exhibition. Now it is being auctioned in aid of Witness, the human rights organisation that encourages people to video injustices against humanity as proof of the wrong doing and hopefully to bring an end to the suffering.

Signatures include Bono, Mark Knopfler, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Thomas Dolby, Todd Rundgren, Sir George Martin, Steve Winwood, Barry Gibb, Brian Wilson, Herbie Hancock, Annie Lennox, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, David Bowie & Peter Vogel, one half of the duo that invented the Fairlight itself (The other being Kim Ryrie). Peter Vogel even recorded his own contribution, along with that of the other Fairlight developers (Ryrie and Michael Carlos) in a video available Here. Peter’s blog can also be seen Here.

The soundtrack to the video is some classic Fairlight cheese :o)

For some strange reason, the auction page features that cheesy 1985 Grammy performance by Stevie Wonder, Thomas Dolby, Howard Jones & Herbie Hancock where they blatantly lip sync and mime in front of a load of gear pr0n…

There are many more Fairlight clips on YouTube that would have been more appropriate (such as the ones in the post above this !!)

Anyway, I doubt many of us will be able to afford the asking price for this but let’s hope it goes for a huge amount of money and then let’s hope it goes on public display somewhere. They can charge to see it and raise even more money for the charity.