Lothar And The Hand People, was a New York City based psychedelic rock band that formed in 1965 in Colorado, where most of the guys were students at the University of Denver. They moved to New York City in the late Spring of 1966, after playing a big "farewell" concert to Denver. This show was headlined by the Lovin' Spoonful (John Sebastian and crew).
Lothar And The Hand People, were often considered to be somewhat notorious, in the sense that they were frequently noted as one of the weirder psychedelic bands of the mid to late 60’s, on behalf of their spacey music and use of the theremin, which is a fully electronic musical instrument designed to be played without being touched. The controlling sections usually consist of two metal antenna’s that sense the relative position of the players hands. The sensors control the audio oscillator(s) for frequency from one hand and volumne from the other. The electronic signals from the theremin are amplified and sent through a loud speaker. To play the theremin, the player moves and waves his hands around the two metal antenna’s, controlling the instruments frequency and amplitude producing surreal and eerie sounding portamento, tremolo and vibratro sounds, that are often used in the production of sound effects in the soundtracks of horror films. One of their most popular songs was /is"Space Hymn", which was often played on the late at night radio show by New York's WNEW-FM disc jockey Alison Steele.
According to Paul Conly of Lothar And The Hand People, Often fans would ask, "Which one of you is Lothar?" As quoted from recent communication between myself (Janet) and Paul Conly on (03-05-08), Paul states....
"At first, we would answer as a joke, "The theremin is Lothar." After a short time, we all realized that it made a lot of sense that we humans were the Hand People and that Lothar was our theremin. The ultimate Lothar, as I envisioned it, would be a robot -- a combination of theremin, computer and synthesizer that could move around on stage with the Hand People and musically interact with them as well. I had a working design in mind by the late 60's, but never could get the money together to have the ultimate Lothar built." - -Paul Conly
It has been stated in a variety of articles floating about, that some of the bands albums have been known to feature up to as many as four theremins played at once. However, in recent communication on (03-05-08), between myself (Janet) and Paul Conly of Lothar And The Hand People. Paul has informed me, that it is not true and that there is another band which chose their name "as an homage" to their band, who has made such claims on behalf of their own, that often gets confused for Lothar And The Hand People, who's band name will not be mentioned on the account that Lothar And The Hand People are not happy about this other band using any part of their name and therefore, they do not warrant any attention or publicity.
It has also frequently been stated in a variety of articles floating about in comparing Lothar And The Hand People, that the Beach Boys used a theremin on their well known song "Good Vibrations", which in addition, has also been corrected to me by Paul, stating ..." it is a misconception by many and that the Beach Boys did not use a theremin on "Good Vibrations". They actually used an electronic device that really was an oscillator hooked up to a "ribbon controller" so that the player could control the pitch of the notes. The player's finger ran up and down the ribbon, and it was not like a theremin which, is pitch controlled by the player's hand movements in the air, not touching the antenna or the theremin at all."
By: Jan editor)
