Hello all welcome to the Blackpool report.
This years report is a more focused affair rather then day by day, and so there will be no concert reports as such, as it can be taken for granted that they were all top notch.
As in my previous reports, these are my Personal Impressions and may not be the same as others.
I have decided this year to break it down into manufactures.

Allen: Had their usual range of Theatre and Classical Organs on show.

Casio: Had their range of keyboards and Pianos on show, all of which for their price point gave excellent sounds and performance.

Hammond: Had various models on show including the Exceed Organ (Basically a XK135 with lower keys and pedals integrated with a Ketron XD9, all built into a smart unit)

Ketron: Existing range on show all giving excellent sounds and performances, the new Audya is not expected till much later in the year, but may make an appearance at the September Pakefield Festival.

Korg: Had their range on display with all the latest OS updates, with a superb performance on Sunday Night from Rod Pooley on the PA 800. All of the sounds produced were excellent with many as good or better then Yamahas SA voices, the most impressive part though were the Style backings. (Close your eyes and you would think you were listening to a real live band)
Overall I still think the PA1X as the better overall balance, but compared to the PA 800 the sounds do seem a little flat.
Personally I don’t think it would be a good move to go from PA1X to PA 800, but to hang on and see what Korg has in the Pipeline.(If the PA 800 is anything to go by it should be really special)

Lowery: Full range of Organs on display

Orla: Full range of Organs, Pianos and keyboards on display

Roland Organs: Bad news if you have just bought one, as a new range is being launched later in the year. (Good deals on existing models)
Interestingly they were still pushing the existing range with some excellent demos and concert performances.

Roland Keyboards: What a disappointment, (NOT the Instruments) there was no real promotion of the boards and the dealers seemed put out if you asked for a demo, however if you showed any interest in the E80 they were over like a flash, with particular emphasis to get G70 owners to upgrade. (Plenty of free styles Registrations etc)
Interestingly the E80 was being used through external SR Technology speakers, with the dealer refusing to disconnect them so that you could hear the internal speakers. (He kept saying it was too difficult to set back up, although I hardly see how pushing a couple of plugs in and out would be difficult, particularly as he kept banging on about how good the internal speakers where)
I will leave you to draw your own conclusions on this.
As to the sounds and styles of Roland, they were as good as ever, but I have to say compared to the new instruments being introduced by other manufactures, they do appear to be falling behind. (Maybe the dealers have inside information that a new range is on the cards, although I didn’t hear any rumours)

Wersi: Only had 1 instrument on show (Good job the sounds and styles are the same quality on all their instruments) due to selling pretty much their entire demo stock at the Pakefield Festival a couple of weeks earlier.
For those that are not aware, all Wersi instruments are built to customer requirements due to the various hardware setups that are available, and consequently have a 4 – 6 week lead time. (Plenty of orders were taken at Pakefield, and I am sure they did well at Blackpool as well)
The sounds of OAS 7 were impeccable as usual (Easily a match or better then other manufactures in a lot of departments)
The capabilities of the OAA were also way in advance of most other manufactures (First time I had seen or heard it live) arranger sections (Although the Audya may put a spanner in the works when it is released) with too many features to go into details.
If you get the chance to hear Tyros 2 styles played with the OAA do so, as the styles are easily a match to the live sounds of other manufactures. My guess is that the sound system in the Tyros 2 is the limitation causing the closed in (Squeaky Clean) sound of the Tyros 2 Styles. (The Wersi OAA totally liberates them)
Around September there should be another big update, with most likely a new instrument as well.

Yamaha: All the model range was in attendance, but no D-Deck which is now unlikely to come to Europe, however the new S900 was there (Although from previous internet demos and the spec I wasn’t expecting much) and what a board, Yamaha have definitely got a winner on their hands, the sounds and styles you get for the price are quite amazing.
The S900 has the characteristic Tyros 2 sound, but don’t get carried away as it is NOT a Tyros2, but (To quote a US saying) it kicks the 3000s butt into the middle of next week. Well done Yamaha.

This concludes the report from Blackpool from My Perspective, however I think the real showcase of instruments is going to be at the Pakefield festival in September.

Point to note, not one demo anywhere on the net came close to producing the quality of sound that listening to all the instruments live gave.

Bill