I shouldn't use up members' bandwidth laughing at literals, but
the roll title "Grief Piano Concerto" (DrSallyK@aol's list)
reminds me of the 1989 "Last Night of the Proms" when Percy
Grainger's performance of the solo part of the Grieg concerto,
taken from his piano-plus-orchestra arrangement on Duo-Art, was
accompanied by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles
Davis. Peter Davis provided his Duo-Art pushup (converted from a
Themodist 65/88n and preserving the pianola bass/treble divide at
E/F, incidentally) and Rex Lawson acted as minder. This was the
good old Albert Hall in London, with every seat taken - 7,000
people.

The way Rex does these things, he likes to give full service, so
it seemed good public relations to allow "Percy" to give the
tuning A for the second half of the concert. So he added a long
perforation for the A and to be absolutely certain Percy didn't
start straight off with that big two-handed crash, put in two
"stop" perforations, one after the A and one immediately before
the starting chord. (This is in the reroll position which concert
instruments don't need - the pushup can even be programmed to play
different sections of a roll at different speeds and use the
reroll port for the change commands.) Having given the A, Percy
could then be motored gently up to the start as the conductor came
in and took his bow. Alas, in the tension of the moment, Rex
forgot to motor Percy up to the starting gate until Davis raised
his baton, with the result that the piano came in a quarter of a
second late.

Ouch ! those of us watching the programme thought - is this going
to be the Grief Piano Concerto ? Happily, though, there were no
further hitches and the piece went wonderfully, just as it did
when the roll had been used on Denis Condon's pushup in Sydney
Opera House, Australia,  two years earlier.

Just a bit of reminiscence - sorry.

Dan Wilson