*Note: Excerpt from article in April 2008 ALLEGRO Magazine of Local 802 Musicians Union in honor of Earth Day April 22 and Environmentalism "Beat On The Street":
I am about to go over to Germany for my annu-
al music tour with my Hammond organ so I’d like
to tell you my way of doing a “green tour” that I
have perfected.
In the past, a Hammond B3 organ weighed 425
pounds (without the Leslie speaker) so it was not
possible for me to take one to Europe.
In 1991, I got the first really portable model. It
was one of the first 10 prototypes of the Ham-
mond-Suzuki XB-2, with multi-voltage for any-
where in the world.
I flew over to Germany with it on Pakistan Airlines.
I found that by using a Kart-A-Bag Super 600
heavy-duty luggage cart with “stair slides” (like
what UPS and FedEx uses), I could hoist it up on
to any train or bus.
I traveled all over Europe this way, and was pic-
tured doing it eventually in a magazine ad for Kart-
A-Bag for quite a while. They had a contest going for
a long time where they would give away one “Ham-
mond Super 600 Kart-A-Bag” every month from a
drawing.
I jokingly refer to it as my “tour bus.” I see a lot of
bands touring with big tour buses and they look real
nice and comfy but they also burn a lot of fuel.
With my technique I ride on the high speed trains
in Germany, the local trains, up and down in the
Metro of Paris and in Prague on the street cars.
Jon Hammond
*Photo:
Organist and Local 802 member Jon Hammond with
his touring rig waiting for a train in Germany. One
way to go green is to skip the tour bus altogether.
