About Me

Nick Foley, Hammond Organ Player

My name is Nick and I’ve been a Hammond organ player for three quarters of my life. I’m based in the British Midlands and am fascinated and/or obsessed (depending upon your viewpoint) by all things Hammond. Over the last three decades, I’ve worked my way up through many of the best organ clones such as Yamaha SKs and Hammond XBs to arrive at my current setup of a Hammond XK-Pro rig for touring and a 1960 Hammond C3 organ for recording. I use these with a Lounsberry Organ Grinder pedal and either a Leslie 122 or 145.

Over the years I’ve picked up a few tips on choosing, buying, restoring, gigging and recording these incredible instruments. This website gives me the opportunity to share a few of these and help keep the Hammond Organ sound alive for the next generation of players.

A Little History

This site began back in 2008 when I was looking around for a new musical challenge; hence the “Hammond For Hire” name. Today I’m the organ player for a 1960’s live act called The Quik Beats and am out gigging most weeks. We aim for that real, authentic vibe and the goal is to see how close we can get to the sound, look and feel of the original artists. That’s why for me, there’s no substitute for Hammond. I also take on the odd bit of session work when I can fit it around our schedule and even the occasional one-off live dep if its too good to pass on.

Over the years I have been lucky enough to play in lots of great bands, visited some incredible venues and even been booked to support some of my heroes such as Ian Dury’s Blockheads, Focus, The Pretty Things, Roy Wood, Slim Chance and Secret Affair. I’ve bumped into various members of Black Sabbath, UFO, Fairport Convention and Jethro Tull along the way too … and all thanks to the the fact that as a kid, I inherited a ropey Bontempi organ and discovered Deep Purple in the same month.

Nick Foley Hammond Organ Riff-Off Winner

Recently, I was amazed and honoured to win the Hammond USA Riff-Off, narrowly coming in ahead of some incredible organ players. I founded and administrate the Jon Lord Appreciation Society page on Facebook with more than 5,500 members as well as the Hammond C3 Owners Club and Tony Ashton pages too. I’d love for you to drop in.

Hopefully the information on this site might help inspire a few other players to go on and win the next one.

Get in Touch

If you’re struggling with any aspect of the Hammond Organ sound and feel I might be able to help, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Likewise if you’re an instrument manufacturer or retailer and need a little consumer feedback, I’m always happy to assist.