Our December Concert
Our December concert started with Colin Ensor playing I Won’t Tell A Soul, Daisy, Rosie O’Grady, Lily Of Laguna, You Beautiful Doll, Who Were You With Last Night, Maggie, Don’t Dilly Dally, Ma He’s Making Eyes At Me, and Happy Days & Lonely Nights. Our next player was Bernard Bamber who gave us great renditions of Love Letters In The Sand, Jealous Heart, Putting On The Style, Home On The Range, The Village Where I Went To School and These Shoes Keep Walking Back To Me. Bill Agnew then took to the stage and played Tobermoray’s Wedding, 100 Pipers, Muckin’ O’ Georgies, Wild Rover, You Made Me Love You, Music Music Music, Who’s Sorry Now, Arrividerci Roma, Someone To Watch Over You, Quando Quando and Obladi Oblada. As the food was being prepared at the back of the room, I then played Sailors Hornpipe, Magic Roundabout, Whispering Hope, American Patrol, Black Mask Waltz and Oslo Waltz. As people started to get their food, Andrew Baker played a medley for us starting with a Christmas selection, finishing with Rock Around the Clock. Tom Bennett was next on to the stage to play a medley which included I saw Mummy Kissing Santa Claus. To end his spot, Tom then Sang CHRISTMAS. Bernard Belshaw played White Christmas, Let’s Face The Music and Dance, Blaze Away, You Make Me Feel So Young, I Hear Music, Allo Allo and Radetzky March. As we continued eating and socialising, Ann Parker then took her spot on the stage and played Bel Viso, Under Paris Skies, Yodelling Polka, My Florence and Beautiful Days. The music continued with Graham Driver playing a selection of tunes including Bluebell Polka and Weasel’s revenge. We had a player making her debut on stage next. Rosemary Askew-Clough did a great job of entertaining us with Silent Night, The First Noel and Away In A Manger. To finish the night, Tom Bennett played Puppet On A String, Blue Danube, Killarney and Now Is The Hour. As is normal, we had enjoyed a great Christmas concert and enjoyed some great food. Thanks to all who were there and who made the night such a success.
David Batty
This Wednesday
This Wednesday is our Guest Artist concert featuring Harry Hussey. Doors open at 7.30 for an 8pm start. I will see you on Wednesday for a great concert. Remember that Harry plays things that were around before the 1960’s and that he doesnt come armed with a programme, you have to shout out what you want him to play! Make sure you turn up early for a good seat. Remember we also need a local player or three to support our guest artists so bring along your accordion if you would like to do a spot. It will be nice to catch up with everyone after Christmas. See you there… David Batty
Harry Hussey
For Harry Hussey’s 80th birthday year, he has been touring clubs where he has played in the past, donating his fee to charity. Please support Harry on Wednesday and think of stuff for him to play..
2010 Membership
Thanks to all who paid their £5 annual membership, this gets you this newsletter through the post and a £1 discount on admission on concert nights. If you have still not renewed your membership, then you can pay your membership on the door at the Harry Hussey Concert this Wednesday. We have a selection of old newsletters which are always by the door on concert nights, please take a few and pass them on to people who may be interested in attending our concerts. It is always nice to meet new folk.
Harry Hussey Tour Dates
Harry Hussey (who is our guest artist this week) sent us a list of his new tour dates for us to include on his website so I am also reproducing them here in case any of you can make any of these dates. Obviously you want to be at the first one which is this Wednesday at Leyland, but I meant apart from that one!
January 20th Leyland Accordion Club <<Recommended
21st – 22nd Bolton, Alan Venn, 01204 840279
23rd Middlesborough Accordion Club
February 5th – 7th Southport, Jazz on a winters weekend 01704 541790
19th – 21st Eastbourne Accordion Festival 01323 733700
25th Harlow Accordion Club
April 11th White Horse Accordion Club 20th Canterbury Accordion Club
May 9th – 14th Blackpool, Norbreck .
The Hammond Revival
The Hammond Revival is on Thursday 21st and Friday 22nd of January, and again on Sunday 24th of January at Regional Park Golf Club, Links Road, off Chorley New Road, Lostock, Bolton, BL6 4AF. Concerts featuring Harry Hussey and others start at 7.30pm and continue through until 10 pm. The admission is £8.50 per person and includes a pasty and tea. For more info contact Alan Venn on 01204 840279.
Tom Alexander New CD
Tom Alexander is once again releasing another new accordion CD. This one is not due out for a few months because the master recordings have only just been finished. These are the tracks on the CD but they will not necessarily be in this order. The Old Alliance, My Home Medley, Matching With Andy, Barcarolle, Clarinet Polka, Irish Waltz Medley, Gallop From William Tell, The Rose, Hoots Mon, Roses In Blue, Take The Floor, Lonely Scapa Flow, Shuffling Samuel, The Hebrew Slaves, Tribute To Felix Burns, The March Hare, Marino Polka, Chitchat Polka, Storming The Celidh and Hits From The Blitz. I will give you further details including pricing and a shot of the cover when they are finalised.
Eastbourne Accordion Festival
The February Eastbourne Accordion Festival will take place from the 19th to the 22nd of February 2010 at The Queens Hotel, Eastbourne. The festival features Alan Young, Angie Lukins, Harry Hussey, Roman Voloshchuk and John Romero in concert. The traders and organisations in attendance will be Electronic Accordions, Carillon Studios, Stan Mayhew, Trevani Music & Gifts and TSA Recordings. This event always gets a good review from the people who attend it. If you are looking for a break in February, and would like a weekend of accordions, then I recommend it. The cost of the weekend is £205 per person, telephone John or Jackie Romero on 01323 733700 for further details or to obtain your booking form.
T-Mobile Advert
Several months ago, T-Mobile were filming the reactions of people who were asked the question “What would you do if you had unlimited free text messages on your phone?”, one response was from Josh Ward who was in a market in London. Josh’s answer was that he would call all his friends and set up the biggest band in the world. T-Mobile thought that was a great idea and so helped Josh to contact musician friends to make this a reality. Word of this big band spread over text messages and then the Internet. The end result was that Myself and Rebecca Parker took part in the filming of the T-Mobile advert at the Trafford Centre in November. Many people found out about the event via email and twitter and decided to make the journey to join in the band. There were only a small number of us at first but, as shoppers walked by and saw what we were doing, the numbers quickly swelled to several hundred people all singing, dancing and playing musical instruments in this band, while an army of cameramen filmed the action. There were also two other accordionists that you might be able to spot in the video, these were Derek Stubbs and Leo Hickey from Stockport, who seemed to enjoy the day. They are just in front and to the left of myself and Rebecca in the picture in the right. The pictures on this page were taken from the video of the event. After 3 hours of filming, many of the musicians and all the shoppers went home, but a group of about 10 of us went upstairs in to the the Management Suite of the Trafford Centre where we recorded parts of the track as solo recordings. These solo tracks were then used later on to lay over the top of the video in order to bring the instruments out from the noise of the crowd. The tune Come With Me has been made into a pop single (See cover on the left) which was released this week and has already gone to 101 in the ITunes download charts as I write this. The video of the event started going out on Channel 5 and Channel 4 as a special 3 minute advert. The event has also been seen on satellite channels including Sky News. If you missed it then take a look at www.myspace.com/joshward84 where you can watch the video.