“I didnt know how to work any of it. It felt like being at the controls of a spacecraft: a spacecraft that I had absolutely no idea how to fly”: Elton John says hes never got over his Hammond organ phobia [Video]

To the casual observer, the piano and organ are pretty similar. The keys are laid out the same, so the skills required to play each instrument are transferable, right? Not so, and if you don’t believe us, just ask Elton John.

In a new self-penned piece for The Guardian, in which he namechecks some of the great British keyboard players who he believes are worthy of greater recognition, John begins by recalling his days on the club circuit in the ‘60s, explaining that if you were in the support band – as, when part of Bluesology, he was frequently – you had to make do with the keyboard that the headline act would be using later, because there was no room to set up your own gear.

“My nightmare, which regularly came true, was arriving at the venue to find a Hammond organ on stage,” says John. “The Hammondwas an enormous, intimidating thing, like …