Len Rawle, MBE, (born 1938 in

Tonypandy Tonypandy is a town, community and electoral ward located in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, within the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan, Wales, lying in the Rhondda Fawr Valley. A former industrial coal mining town, the town w ...

) is a Welsh organ builder and organist. A

London College of Music London College of Music (LCM) is a music school in London, England. It is one of eight separate schools that make up the University of West London. History LCM was founded in 1887 and existed as an independent music conservatoire based at ...

graduate, he is particularly noted for his restoration of Wurlitzer theatre organs. In 1973 he appeared in ''

Metro-Land Metro-land (or Metroland) is a name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Middlesex in the early part of the 20th century that were served by the Metropolit ...

'', contributing ''

Chattanooga Choo Choo "Chattanooga Choo Choo" is a 1941 song written by Mack Gordon and composed by Harry Warren. It was originally recorded as a big band/swing tune by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra and featured in the 1941 movie ''Sun Valley Serenade''. It was ...

''. Rawle has given numerous concerts and workshops in the USA, Australia and Europe. In May 2001 he played on "Western New York's mightiest Wurlitzer theater pipe organ" in Buffalo. In Metroland Rawle actually plays The Varsity Drag, a song which would have been popular when Betjeman was a young man. Rawle was made an MBE in 2012. He often played at the Barry Memorial Hall in

Barry, Vale of Glamorgan Barry ( cy, Y Barri; ) is a town in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, on the north coast of the Bristol Channel approximately south-southwest of Cardiff. Barry is a seaside resort, with attractions including several beaches and the resurrected B ...

. He currently maintains the Wurlitzer organ in

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

and has previously maintained several other Wurlitzer organs such as the Gaumont State Kilburn and the former Empire Leicester Square Wurlitzer, which he installed in his Chorleywood home. That instrument was sold to a fellow enthusiast in 2015 to be restored and installed in a new purpose-built location in Suffolk. Rawle was also involved in a £40,000 project restore the Granada Tooting Wurlitzer organ, described as "one of the most significant restoration projects in the UK".

References

External links

British Pathé newsreel about Rawle, 1960
Welsh organists British male organists 1938 births Living people People from Tonypandy Organ builders of the United Kingdom Members of the Order of the British Empire 21st-century organists 21st-century British male musicians {{UK-music-bio-stub