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Post by cusqueno on Jul 13, 2018 8:03:07 GMT
I have received a number of very interesting e-mails from John R. McLaren, the son of John McLaren who was President of Yamaha USA during the Lambert and Viscount years. John Snr is happily still with us, but these reports are from his son. John Jnr has given his permission for me to copy his material to this forum, asking only that he be credited for it. Please respect this if you copy it elsewhere. Many thanks John! To start this off and to excite our guitar enthusiasts, see this about John Snr's involvement in the guitar/amp business: This is unrelated to bikes but you can put a picture of my father to his name. www.namm.org/library/oral-history/john-mclarenJohn McLaren John McLaren is the president of BBE Sound, which develops pro audio gear. The company purchased G&L Guitars and has been dedicated to keeping the spirit of the founders and their ideas and traditions evident in each guitar. G&L was originally formed by George Fullerton and Leo Fender and has become a successful guitar line around the world. In the early part of his career, John worked for Yamaha, which resulted in strong friendships he continues to this day. More recently John has been a strong supporter of the NAMM Oral History program and the Museum of Making Music. Interview Date: April 25, 2003 Job Title: President Company: BBE Sound Tags: Leo Fender Electric Guitars Music Manufacturing Guitars-Amps-Fretted G&L Guitars Clavinova Yamaha Corporation of America |
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Post by cusqueno on Jul 13, 2018 10:14:58 GMT
I have put some photos from John here: flic.kr/s/aHskBjtQUTI think I have some others squirrelled away somewhere and will add them when I find them. |
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Post by theformeremployee on Jul 15, 2018 10:43:24 GMT
viscount-lambert-bikes.blogspot.com/2011/01/history-part-2.htmlThere are a few errors - the Bilston factory was closed when the 200,000 Viscount bicycle order had been fulfilled, or partly fulfilled. It was far too big an overhead. Remember that Britain was sliding into recession at the end of the 70s. Trusty Manufacturing indeed had a very small factory at Potters Bar, in which they hand-made the Pavemaster range of children's bicycles and the intention was to augment this with 'cheaper' sports bicycles, using Taiwan sourced lugged frames. The Sebring was typical - many had been painted and assembled at Bilston. Some fillet welding of frames using the aircraft-industry sourced Phoenix tubing (Clive Marriott apparently made his money from making 'pattern' spares for DC3 aircraft, the Ford Transit workhorse in the aviation world)continued at Potters Bar (an interesting post from Anthony Collett-monty) and they ran a professional cycling team but as stated, the whole business closed around 1983/84. It seems only one employee transferred to Potters Bar (Fred Evans, Stores/Spares) the rest just went onto other things. The managing director of Trusty was Harry Lazarus who was the original sales director of Trusty (he had married Rosemary Levy, daughter of one of the original family owners, Joe Levy) but the firm had been a (small) part of Cope Allman for many years), pre the Viscount set-up. There is a huge amount of detail which has been preserved.
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,418 
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Post by Jem on Jul 15, 2018 12:32:52 GMT
As an aside (but not completely off topic) those G&L guitars are great quality for the money.
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Post by raymondo on Jul 22, 2018 23:16:14 GMT
Is this the same Joe Levy who owns Tottenham Hotspurs FC?
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Post by blackwizard on Jul 25, 2018 7:30:36 GMT
I thought it was Daniel Levey that had Spurs!
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Post by theformeremployee on Jul 26, 2018 9:34:57 GMT
Joe and his brother Leslie had been in business with their father since 1919 as the Aberdale Cycle Co, and after 1945, had made a motorised bicycle to the design of Mr Bown alongside bicycles.
Aberdale's assets were combined in 1959 with the British Cycle Corporation at Handsworth, Birmingham. BCC was taken over by Raleigh in 1960.There is a reference to Raleigh taking over Aberdale in 1943 but I can't think that is right. Trusty was formed by Joe Levy and I have always assumed that the forerunners of Cope Allman (Leonard Matchan and Louis(?)Manson) were financiers and ultimately owners of Trusty, who bought the assets of Lambert, created Viscount and ten years later, nothing was left but memories (and P45s). But all this needs research - there is so much on line and only so many hours in the day !
Cope Allman's main business was packaging for cosmetics. Lipstick is/was (I don't buy much....) sold in a small tube.
See where Graces Guide takes one !
""
Cope, Allman and Co, tube makers of Icknield Sq, Birmingham (1914)
precision engineers and non-ferrous tube makers, which evolved into a very widely spread company producing cosmetics, fashion clothers and food,, etc, of Bournemouth (1962)
c.1899 Company incorporated
1914 Brass, copper and steel tube maker[1]
1931 Court appearance, apparently for bankruptcy[2]
1932 Reduction in capital[3]
By 1956 Was a maker of brass bedsteads and was almost defunct
1956 Acquired by Leonard Matchan, who had had a career with Max Factor and Revlon, who used it as the basis for a conglomerate[4]
By 1957 was a public company
1957 Moved to new premises; also proposed to purchase a small mill; seeking further acquisitions in order to provide diversification[5].
1959 Shares admitted for trading[6]
1961 Acquired Gilbey Engineering[7]. Acquired Etablissements Leon Reboul, France's only maker of lipstick containers, which was similar in size to Edward Webster, Cope Allman's subsidiary[8]
""
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Post by dracco on Jul 26, 2018 13:19:51 GMT
Interesting: I didn't know that Leonard Matchan had a hand in the Viscount history. - I was born and brought up in Jersey, where Leonard Matchan settled in order to run his various businesses in a tax-sheltered environment, and he invested some of his money in a number of hotels in the island and made significant contributions to the local economy. Then in the 1960s he bought the island of Brecqhou - just offshore from Sark, from where he commuted by helicopter, and where he lived until his death. Brecqhou was subsequently bought the Barclay brothers, owners of the Daily Telegraph, who have an unfeasibly large mansion there, and who have subsequently made themselves highly unpopular with the residents of Sark when they tried (unsuccessfully) to engineer a political takeover of that island.
Matchan was a very colourful character in the Channel Islands, with a strong sense of humour most obviously manifest after he settled on Brecqhou, whereupon he issued his own currency - the "knacker" - and had a small run of coins minted bearing a coat of arms (claimed to be his)on one side and a....um....phallic representation on the reverse.
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,418
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Post by Jem on Jul 26, 2018 16:15:30 GMT
Would that be the tax haven loving Barclay brothers who own the Daily Telegraph ,and who along with other various daily's complain that the working classes try to avoid paying their taxes ? Is that irony or just hypocrisy ?
I know politics are taboo on forums but I just cannot resist posting up this little allegory
"You are sitting at table with a newspaper owner, a banker and an immigrant sharing 10 cookies. The banker swipes 9 cookies and then the newspaper owner looks at you and earnestly says "watch out for the immigrant, he's after your cookie".
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Post by dracco on Jul 26, 2018 16:40:10 GMT
The very same "weirdo Barclay brothers" as described by Private Eye.
Sark is thought of as a traditionally a feudal state, ruled by it's Seigneur (the most famous being the "Dame of Sark" who was incumbent during the German Occupation between 1940-45), although this is not really the case. There is a democratically elected body.
The Barclays bought up a number of local properties and businesses (all the local hotels), set up their own local 'newspaper' and put a lot of their placemen into the community. They then agitated for reform of the political system, in which the community elected members to the local parliament (the Chief Pleas), using the argument that the system was undemocratic (which coming from the Barclays is a bit rich).
Some reforms of the system were made, basically reducing the number of members ("conseillers") and at the next election, the Barclays ensured that their henchmen stood for election. Not one of them was elected (the Barclays being highly unpopular locally), and the brothers then threatened to close down all the businesses they'd purchased, putting about half the population out of work.
I remember that this was featured prominently on the Radio 4 Today programme, almost certainly because one of its presenters, Sarah Montague, is from Guernsey - with which Sark has very close ties.
Sark is an extremely pleasant place to visit. It's small, so you can walk round it in a day, and it's car-free, which makes cycling around very easy (so long as you don't try and cycle up from the harbour: it's a very steep hill), although you can never cycle very far.
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,418
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Post by Jem on Jul 27, 2018 10:01:49 GMT
Dracco - very interesting background on Sark and it's politics, thanks. My wife is lobbying for a break on Sark sometime.
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Post by scottw on Jul 27, 2018 16:28:21 GMT
Dracco - very interesting background on Sark and it's politics, thanks. My wife is lobbying for a break on Sark sometime. Hope you remember to take your 'knackers'. What is the exchange rate on these I wonder... |
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Jem
Viscount
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Posts: 3,418
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Post by Jem on Jul 27, 2018 18:57:01 GMT
Dracco - very interesting background on Sark and it's politics, thanks. My wife is lobbying for a break on Sark sometime. Hope you remember to take your 'knackers'. What is the exchange rate on these I wonder... I usually have my knackers with me... |
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Post by blackwizard on Jul 27, 2018 22:41:13 GMT
Sadly the Barclays have a do as I say not as I do mentality and just want to own and buy everything they can. I know Sark from holidays as a kid and it is a lovely peaceful island........why they cannot just leave the residents alone and live their own solitary lives on their own private little island is beyond me but then power and wealth does strange things to people. Private Eye certainly does characterise them as nutters that’s for sure!
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Post by theformeremployee on Jul 28, 2018 11:22:12 GMT
Something else I didn't know about Cope Alman, who had very little to do with we greasy fingered cycle engineers/salesmen in wherethehellisBilston? It was the Bell Fruit one armed bandit firm who 'controlled' Bilston. Someone made the journey to us to give us some help on exchange rate cover or somesuch financial engineering. All Cope Allman really did was to put us onto the aerosol manufacturers in Portsmouth who took bikes out to Europe for us.
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