| Leyland Accordion Club - 18th October 2006
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Our October Concert
Our October concert night started with Tom Bennett playing Night Flower by Henry Mancini followed by Spanish Eyes. After telling us a joke Tom continued with Begin The Beguine and Shadows Of Paris from The Pink Panther film. Our next player was David Rigby who got the audience singing along to After The Ball Is Over and Daisy Bell. Davids next three pieces were The Spinning Wheel, Highland Cathederal and Whispering Hope. Our next player leading us up to the first break was Bill Agnew playing Que Sera Sera, If You Love Me, Snow Waltz, Scotland The Brave, Only You and Cuckoo Waltz. After the break we continued the entertainment with Ecic Dabrowski making his debut as a player at the club. I wrote about Eric in the middle pages of the last newsletter so it was nice to see him playing at the club this month. Eric played Tonights The Night, Green Leaves Of Summer, The Anniversary Waltz and Besame Mucho, this was followed by a selection of Polish Folk tunes, then to finish he played Amazing Grace. Colin Ensor was our next player starting with The Blacksmith and What More Can I Say. The music continued with Try A Little Tenderness, Seth Davey and to finish, Rare Auld Times. Taking us up to the second break of the evening was Basil Berry playing Mona Lisa, Tenderly, S'Wunderful, Lady Be Good, Fascinating Rhythm and Elmers Tune. After the second break and the raffle we continued with Bill Agnew playng Look For The Silver Lining, Whispering, All Of Me, No Regrets, La View En Rose, The Lady Is A Tramp, Baby Face, Red Red Robin, Bye Bye Blackbird, Bye Bye Blues, Eternally, Bluebell Polka, Mocking Bird Hill and finally Jacqueline Polka. Harry Davies was our next player with Fernando, Vienna City Of My Dreams, Stranger On The Shore, The Ballad Of Glencoe and Matchstalk Men. To finish the night I took to the stage and played Blackpool Belle, Sally, Whispering Hope and finally Now Is The Hour. David Batty
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Callum McKinnon DVD
At our last guest artist night, I recorded the show with my new Broadcast Quality video camera. The video from this has been edited in my computer into a 90 minute DVD featuring the complete Callum McKinnon concert. Callum is going to be selling these DVDs when he tours up and down Blackpool seafront. One of the 'Extras' on the DVD is an advert for Leyland Accordion Club, which means the club, it's website, the accordion festival site and our online radio station are going to be promoted through these DVDs. Once Callum has an idea of a price for the DVD I will let you know in a future newsletter. Callum was doing a good trade in CD's at the concert, selling them for just £3! From the feedback I received, I believe they are quite good. A DVD is a much better option than a CD, the picture quality is excellent, as is the sound, plus you get a full 90 minutes of the 75 tunes and songs to watch in full stereo on your TV.
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Accordion For Sale
Guerrini Accordion - Classic model, 96 Bass, Full musette, 4 voice, 37 treble keys, double cassotto, hand made reeds, full decoration in black, pearlised keys, 9 treble couplers, 3 bass couplers, quality sound, complete with fully lined hard case, beautiful instrument. £2200
For further details Email becki.parker@btinternet.com or telephone 01772 864887 and ask for Ann Parker
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Alan Venn Weekend
As mentioned in the last newsletter, Alan Venn held a great weekend of entertainment last week at Blackpool, this included keyboard and accordion instruction throughout the day, with concerts each night featuring a wealth of talent including Harry Hussy on accordion. Alan has more of these festivals planned for next year so if you are looking for a few days away at Blackpool in a nice family run hotel,with nobody else there but musicians and music lovers, then give Alan a ring on 01204 840279 for further details.
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This Wednesday
This Wednesday we have Rosemary Wright as our guest artist. Rosemary, who can normally be seen playing at accordion festivals, is travelling up from Leicestershire to play for us on Wednesday, Rosemary will be playing a good selection of Classical, Populars, Accordion Classics, Light Jazz, French Musette and Scottish music on her two accordions, one musette, the other a straight tuned model. The doors open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start. Make sure you get there early for a good seat. I look forward to seeing you there. David Batty
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Club Membership
It's that time of year that I start mentioning the club membership fees, which is staying at £5 per year. The membership fee gets you this newsletter delivered to your door every month, and also grants you discount on the admission price of any, or all, of our concerts until the end of 2007. I mention the membership in November so that we can start collecting them at the club in November, December or January. This gives you plenty of time to remember to renew your membership. Also, it spreads the administration over three months therefore ensuring we don't have a queuing problem at the door, which would happen if everyone had to renew their membership at the same monthly concert. If you can't get to the forthcoming concerts, then you can send a cheque, made payable to Leyland Accordion Club, to the address on the back of this newsletter.
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Our Website
Our Internet website has had 99305 visitors as at 11th of November 2006. That's 1123 visitors to the main page of our website since last month. I am confident that in next months newsletter, I will be able to say that we have reached the 100,000 visitors milestone - watch this space.
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Caister 2006
The 2006 Caister International Accordion Festival, November 2nd/6th, was indeed a great success, enabling a succession of first class accordion artistes to enthral their audiences with a variety of styles and repertoires. The concerts included Scottish dancing, with Gary Blair playing and calling the dances. The opening night concert began with Harry Hussey playing requests, followed by Italy’s Roberto Lucanero playing lively folk dance tunes on his 2-row diatonic button accordion. Romano Viazzani then performed a repertoire of serious music compositions, including some Piazzolla pieces, followed by a complete contrast with Jack Emblow and Tony Compton’s set of jazz standards. The Friday evening concert began with Harry Hussey again playing requests, but was mainly given over to the Art Van Damme Quintet, whose performance of classic jazz arrangements was as exciting as it was nostalgic. The Quintet members were Art Van Damme , Pat McCarthy (guitar), Roger Nobes (vibes), Len Skeets (bass), and Bobby Worth (drums). The Saturday evening concert featured Harry Hussey, Roberto Lucanero, Gary Blair and the accordion sextet Norvic Concordia, followed by a performance by Giancarlo Caporilli from Italy, a regular at this festival, who produced immaculate renditions of Continental and original compositions. The final concert on Sunday evening was mainly taken up with the weekend workshop orchestras and bands, with excellent performances given by all participants. After these, Pearl Fawcett-Adriano took centre stage and gave a marvellous performance of popular classics, demonstrating how acoustic and electronic voices can blend tastefully and effectively together. Following Pearl, there were unscheduled contributions from Romano Viazzani , Giancarlo Caporilli, and from David Halcrow, Jim Halcrow and Alan Nicolson, a trio of accordionists from Shetland. The festival concluded with all the guest artistes and organiser Heather Smith on stage together, jamming ‘Bel Viso’ with great gusto.
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Our Website
It was 10am when I set off from Leyland in Lancashire, heading ‘down south’ to attend the fourth Eastbourne Accordion Festival organised by John Romero. Although I had a 300 mile trip ahead of me, I knew that it would be worth it if John’s previous events were anything to go by. After navigating the M6, M40, M25 and the M23, Eastbourne was in sight, I arrived just in time for the complimentary ‘welcome cup of coffee’. There were two acts on to welcome arrivals, Genarro Fiondella and Alan Young. The food at The Cumberland Hotel is always excellent and tonight’s was no exception. After filling ourselves with food and meeting lots of old friends, we headed to attend the evening concert. This opened with Pearl Fawcett-Adriano playing some spectacular pieces, showing a very nice style and a great rapport with the audience, which went down well. After a break, David Lukins entertained us with a great selection of music, which was followed first by the organiser John Romero then Harry Hussey. The final part of the night from 11.30pm was Guest Busking lead by Harry Hussey and Alan Young. I finally fell in to bed about 1am leaving some people having a session in the bar area, which lasted until about 3am (from what I heard at breakfast the next day). Saturday was a glorious sunny day but there was no time to waste. The first orchestra session started at 9am with Genaro Fiondella, this was followed by Alastair Cameron giving Scottish tuition and David Lukins running a Left Hand Control & Rhythm workshop. Sue Bennett was leading an Absolute Beginners session in the upstairs bar, then it was time to choose between a Trevani workshop in the ballroom or a Harry Hussey Jazz workshop in the bar. During lunchtime, Alan Young entertained the diners in the bar area. During the weekend, I visited Charlie Watkins’ stand to play with wires and ‘all things MIDI’, browsed the music in the room occupied by Trevani and had a look through Electronic Accordions’ display of accordions and accessories. The town is only ten minutes walk away from the hotel so, after a short shopping trip, it was back to the ballroom to hear Harry Hussey doing his thing. This was followed by a Guests Concert where we mere mortals were allowed to annoy the audience - this was well attended and well received. After a complimentary cup of coffee/tea and cakes we had time for a rest before Dinner at 6pm. The Saturday evening concert featured entertaining performances from Charlie Watkins, Romano Viazzani, Pearl Fawcett-Adriano, and David Lukins. This was followed by Dancing with Alastair Cameron and, finally, to end the evening, Gennaro Fiondella playing in the bar until the early hours. Sunday saw workshops on Folk and Barn Dance, Orchestra Playing, Left Hand Control & Rhythm, Absolute Beginners and Jazz. In the afternoon the Guests Concert saw two hours of amateurs strutting our stuff. The evening concert featured Pearl Fawcett-Adriano, Gennaro Fiondella, The Lukins Family, John Romero and Harry Hussey, followed by a Pro-Jam session with all the above players taking part. The evening ended with a Guests Session led by Harry Hussey and Alan Young. The following morning, after a farewell concert, I pointed the car ‘up north’ and reflected on a great weekend away. This had been the first October concert at Eastbourne in a departure from its annual February only spot, but there was no doubt it was a great success. Due to demand, last February the hotel was packed to capacity, with no room for the guest artists who had to stay in a nearby hotel! Suffice to say, my room is already booked for this coming February as this is one festival I don’t want to miss.
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Birmingham Accordion Centre
Rob Beecroft runs Birmingham Accordion Centre on an industrial estate outside of Birmingham. For many years, a number of people from Leyland Accordion Club have been making the trip down to Birmingham to buy accordions or have their own repaired. Many of the black flashy new looking accordions you see at the club were bought from Birmingham. Recently Rob has spent £8000 upgrading his workshop so that he can carry out more repairs. Not only does Rob tune accordions, but he can also manufacture parts that are no longer available. His workshop is equipped with lathes and all kinds of equipment that allow him to solve any accordion problem. Rob also has a wide range of accordions that he sells at less than the retail price so you can be guaranteed of a good bargain. You can find out more information about Birmingham Accordion Centre by visiting www.accordioncentre.co.uk (due to be updated showing conversion by next month) or by telephoning Rob on 0121 753 3709
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