Leyland Accordion Club, Leyland, Lancashire, England.

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Leyland Accordion Club - 19th April 2006

 

Our April Concert

Our April concert opened with Mary Hall playing Dance Of Moscow. Mary was followed by David Rigby playing Loveliest Night Of The Year, Now Is The Hour, When Your'e In Love and Highland Cathederal. Colin Ensor then took to the stage playing Down Forget Me Not Lane, What More Can I Say, I Won't Tell A Soul, La Vie En Rose and Under Paris Skies. Our next player was Gerard Dawber playing Winster Gallop, Dingle Regatta, Floral Dance, Winster Processional, Irish Rover and Bless This House on his infuriating looking 2 row Melodion. Because his instrument plays a different note on suck and blow, most of us are amazed that anyone can get any tunes out of one, but Gerard seems to have mastered this evil puzzle! Rebecca Parker played Valtz Continentale before Marion Jones played on a borrowed accordion. After the break, Ann Parker was our next player with Mika, Kalinka, Cossack Dance and Hungarian Rhapsody. After the break, Basil Berry played Red Sails In The Sunset and Harbour Lights by the same composer. These were followed by April In Portugal, April In Paris and the Matt Monroe hit Love Is A Many Splendoured thing.Our next player, Bill Agnew, played Lady Of Spain, Tulips From Amsterdam, That's Amore, Someone To Watch Over You, Oslo Waltz, Bluebell Polka, Easter Parade, Lambeth Walk, Maybe It's Because I'm A Londoner, My Old Man's A Dustman, Sunny Side Of The Street, Georgia, Eye Level, I Hear Music, and Tea For Two. Harry Davies was our next performer playing Glencoe, Fernando, Drink Drink, Music Of The Night, He'll Have To Go and Vienna Of My Dreams. After I had played a few tunes, it was time to finish the evening with a medley of tunes courtesy of Bill Agnew. Three hours had gone by so quickly, after a good post-show chat, the last of us left the club about 11.30pm. David Batty

New Rope String Band


Those of you who were fans of The Old Rope String Band and their accordionist Tim Dalling, will be pleased to know that, following the death of one of their members last year, they have now taken on two musicians and reformed as The New Rope String Band. Further details can be found at their www.newropestringband.co.uk website.

 

Weekend Teaching Session

We had a very successful run of teaching sessions at the club a few years ago. These were led by Steve Roxton, Johnny Coleclough, George Syrett, Walter Perrie etc. I was thinking that it's time we had another set of these sessions which were run on a Saturday from 10am to 5pm. Each was attended by about 20 people enjoying a morning of group tuition and tips followed by a pie and peas lunch provided as part of the cost of the day. This led to an afternoon of tuition finishing at 5pm. If you are interested in attending one or more of these sessions if I put them on again then please leave your name on the desk at the club so that I can find out if there is interest in these sessions again.

 

Eastbourne Festival

I have just recieved a letter with a few of the artists so far booked for Eastbourne festivals. In October they have David Lukins, Perl Fawcett-Adriano, Harry Hussey and more to come. In February they have already booked Steve Roxton, Gary Blair and Harry Hussey. Telephone John on 01323 733700 for further details. Tell him Leyland Accordion Club sent you.

 

This Wednesday


This Wednesday we have George Syrett & Rodney McNamarra as our guest artists. I have been asked many times when I am getting these two back, well now they are here so make sure you don't miss this great night. Doors open at 7.30 for an 8pm start, I look forward to seeing you there.
David Batty

 

 

Our Next Guest Artists


On Wednesday we see the welcome return of George Syrett and Rodney McNamarra to the club. It's been several years since George and Rodney played at the club, but now we have managed to get them again this Wednesday. Many of you will not know that he has toured America twice. I bet many people do not know that he has recorded for the BBC, worked with Les Dawson and recorded a track with Marc Almond for a Paris Catwalk show. He has launched more Citroen Cars and Beaujolais Wine than I care to remember. I do know that one highlight was being the first accordionist to play at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. I have published some pictures here to show the occasion, but I'll leave it up to him to tell you about it. Rodney has once again been nominated for an award (something like European Drummer Of The Year) and, like other years, he is quite likely to win it again. This promises to be a great night of entertainment, as those of you who have seen this pair before will know. If you have friends or family who might like a good entertaining night out, then please let them know about the club, they won't be disappointed on Wednesday if you bring them down. Doors open at 7.30, make sure you turn up early for a good seat.

 

 

Marine Hall Festival


The Wyre International Accordion Festival took place on April 16th, Easter Sunday, at The Marine Hall, The Esplanade, Fleetwood. There were a total of 47 sections of competition from Beginner to Advanced, 10 sections included for the Late Starter, Polka, Musette, Scottish, Duet and Group, and 5 Entertainment categories. This Festival also included the CMA Junior and Senior Classical, and Junior and Senior Variety Qualifiers for the CMA Trophée Mondial.

 

Our Website

Our Internet website has had 93146 visitors as at 14th of May 2006. That's 1068 visitors to the main page of our website since last month. Our radio station has been attracting a lot of interest lately with 1305 listener hours in the last 30 days. I was sent two CD's by Perl Fawcett-Adriano this week and two from Karen Street which will shortly be added to the list of music people can listen to via its www.accordionradio.co.uk website. I just did a search on Google for "Leyland Accordion Club" and we now have 5040 mentions on there instead of the 2000+ we used to have. That's an amazing number of sites and web pages talking about our club and our website. It's no wonder that, when I go to festivals and meet people from around the country, someone might ask "how do I find your site" and I then hear comments from others like "just type 'accordion' into the Internet and you willl find it". It's nice to know that it's almost impossible to miss our club on something so big as the Internet.

 

Accordion World Subscription

Accordion World recently sent me a subscription reminder. The magazine costs £13.75 for 6 bi-monthly issues in full A4 colour. If you are interested in an annual subscription then send your cheque for £13.75 to David Keen, Accordion World, 19 Frays Waye, Uxbridge, Middlesex, UB8 2RJ and tell him Leyland Accordion Club sent you.

Music While you Work Book

A new book has been published telling the story of the BBC radio programme ‘Music While You Work’. Written by accordionist and broadcaster Brian Reynolds, the book includes information about many of the musicians, bands and orchestras that appeared over the years. This show was the idea of Prime Minister Winston Churchill in June 1940, who wanted a daily music program that would boost public morale and motivate the war effort. The accordion featured significantly on ‘Music While You Work’, and the book includes biographies (with pictures) of regular performers Jack Emblow, Gerald Crossman, Primo Scala, and George Scott-Wood. Also Gerald Delmondi, Albert Delroy, Pearl Fawcett, Henry Krein, Billy Reid and other accordionists. ‘Music While You Work’ was broadcast daily until 1967, when programming changes at the BBC took it off the air. This nostalgic book, a fascinating look back in time, is in hardback, its ISBN number is 1- 84624 - 004 - 2.

Blackpool Accordion Festival

The Blackpool Accordion Festival took place this month at the Norbreck Castle Hotel. The festival ran from Friday to Monday with an optional Thursday night for a few of us who chose this option. I enjoyed my time at the festival although it was spoiled by a 'bug' which grabbed most of the accordion festival attendees over the 3 to 4 days we were there. The Sunday concert had dwindled to an audience of 40 people by 10pm as people disappeared to their rooms to be sick or to lie down. The hotel described this as a 24 hour 'bug' but most people I know who attended were still feeling ill a week later. The entertainment was good and I did enjoy the festival despite the outbreak of whatever it was that we all got. I was given the job of organising the buskers group which played in a concert on the Sunday morning. We added two more accordions to our collection from the auction and met some very nice people. I don't know at the moment if Tom is organising another festival next year but as soon as I find out I'll put the date in here if there is one.

Accordion On TV

On Tuesday 23rd May 2006 at 07:30 to 08:30 am on BBC 2 there is a children's programme called Level Up, the programme description includes the following reference to an accordion player:- "Sam and Mark face a musical challenge when a young accordion player puts the boys through their paces". This is only part of the programme but if you are up and not busy at that time then you might want to take a look at it. Also on Discovery channel they are repeating the "How it's made" - Accordion programme several times over the forthcoming month.

A Busker To Remember

This busker (on the right) is all in bright blue along with 2 dummies all in blue and a blue shopping trolley. I don't think you would ever forget this act if you saw it on the street. I don't know if he is a good player but he gets full marks for marketing.

 

 

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