Leyland Accordion Club, Leyland, Lancashire, England.

If you came to this page via a search engine then you have just found one page of our archive of 160+ monthly newsletters which may contain the information you are looking for. You can also click HERE to go to the main site which contains a wealth of text files, audio streams, video, musical information, items for sale, notice board and contact information for the UK accordion scene

For Accordion CD's DVD's Music Books and other items for sale visit our shop at
www.accordionshop.com

Leyland Accordion Club - 12th August 1998

We opened our August meeting with Frank Scholes playing Grand old Duke of York and many other tunes, followed by Rebecca Postlewhite playing Granada, Triste Soiree and Fisarmonica Impazita. Rebecca was 18 years old the following day and received a rousing version of Happy Birthday, sung by the club members with Jeff Ward playing the accordion. Tom Bennett was up next while Rebecca had to disappear because her workmates had arranged a meal for her birthday, but she came to see us at the club first, now that's dedication. Tom played Blue Danube and Moonlight Serenade. Tom recently entertained at a 60th Birthday party, another semi-professional in the wings? Back to reality, George Hicks was up next followed by Andrew Figg, who played Sonata No. 1 in C, Pinnocchio and Kalinka. Jay and Jeff Ward then gave us three pieces including Tea for Two and Karioka. After a small break, which gave members of the Chester Accordion Club time to set up their equipment, we continued with Wendy Beautement and Ken Farran playing March Au Etoile plus one other. Ken Farran was the accordion player on 'Hetty Wainthrop on 29th August. It was time for our visitors from Chester to play as a group, it was a nine piece group who played Semper fidelis, What now My Love, I Love You So, Alpen Waltz, a 1960's medley and finally finishing with Arnbachaan March. I really enjoyed listening to our visitors from Chester, and a few days after the club I received a letter from Elsa Chatterton asking me to thank all the Leyland Club Members for making them all feel welcome, and that they enjoyed their visit to our club. They have also given us an open invitation to visit the Chester club which I hope we can arrange sometime. Peter Whiteley was next playing Ballad of Glencoe and Danny Boy, I was to follow Peter and someone was asking me a question when Peter played his last piece and it was only as I was getting ready to play that I suddenly thought that the tune I had the music for in my hand sounded familiar, like I had heard it recently, when I asked Peter he confirmed that the last piece he played was Return to Sorrento, so on to plan B, I played a Johnny Cash Medley consisting of I'll Walk the Line, San Quentin and Ring of Fire. With 29 accordionists on the list to play that night I decided to play just the one tune. Agnes Maclaren followed me but had to be persuaded to play, she wanted to follow someone who was rubbish so I said I would put her on after me. She did very well with her new MIDI setup which was seeing it's first outing that evening. Agnes gave us a Scottish Medley and was later accompanied by Richard on the Spoons. Jean Southern and George Hicks followed Agnes with amongst others Ozlo Waltz. Dugald Mcallum gave us a couple of tunes next including 'Jim Johnsons Highland Two Step', this just left time for Bill and Richard to finish the night playing us up to 11.10pm and hometime. A couple of players realising we were struggling to fit everyone in said they would stand down from the list. so Basil Berry and Bert Winstanley sorry, but we did try and cram 29 accordionists in to 3 hours and almost succeeded. The atmosphere was brilliant as usual and I look forward to this Wednesday when Tom Alexander promises to provide us with a great evenings entertainment. See you on 9th September for once again the most fun you can have with your clothes on. David Batty

Northwest Tonight

Northwest Tonight are looking for people to write in about their hobbies for a new series called 'Obsessions'. I sent them an email about the accordion and the club in the hope that we can get some publicity for our instrument. I pointed them at our website and told them when we meet. If you see Gordon Burns at the club you will know they were interested.

Our Internet Website

Our Internet website has had 4665 visitors as at 6th September 1998, 475 visitors since last month. I have not updated the site much this month because my accounts were due in at Companies House at the end of the month and as usual I waited until the last month to start on them. Now they are behind me and I am shortly to add photographs of our players who are playing on the site so that people can click on the picture of the person to hear them play.

Womens Institute Booking

David Batty and Rebecca Postlewhite have been booked to entertain at a WI Christmas meeting in December. The two hours practice a night I am currently spending on new material should get me through it.

Accordions on TV

Further to the article in last months newsletter about the television company contacting me because they wanted to feature the accordion on one of their program, I later rang Ken Hopkins myself to see if anything had come of the contact, he thanked me for passing his number on to them and confirmed that the TV Company had contacted him and that things are progressing at the moment. Ken has over 400 accordions in his collection and is a regular player at accordion festivals. He will keep us updated.

Busking

In an earlier newsletter I wrote about busking, I received a request from Accordion World Magazine for this article to be used in their next issue. Our Rebecca Postlewhite recently took her accordion to France and went Busking in Annecy town. I forgot to tell her that you need a licence over there and she was accosted by a policeman, after realising there was a language problem he gave her 1 hour to play without a licence. Rebecca said she enjoyed the experience and will do it again. I learned about busking licences abroad from Steve Roxton who has one for Jersey as well as his equity card. He enjoys playing some of Jerseys tourist spots in summer. One club member rang me this week to check that you do not need a licence in England, he intends to play in Manchester as soon as the rain stops I will let you know how he gets on. Tom Bennett asked me if I want to go busking with him, we decided to start about 100 miles away and work our way closer with each session. We should be good by the time we get back to Leyland where we are know.

Our forthcoming club nights.

Someone mentioned that the forthcoming club nights list was getting smaller ad they were getting worried by this, you can fear no more- the list below takes us up to the year 2000. As you can see from this list, I have four top artists to find between now and the end of 1999. I have attempted to book a good cross section of accordion professionals for our events to show you the versatility of our instrument. Jan Zukowski has recently been booked for January to give you a taste of classical music as played on his five voice free bass accordion. I have also offered one of the places to a well known Jazz accordionist called Harry Hussey, I will know shortly if he is playing in July or September when he is back in the country. I am waiting for his return call. I have confirmed the dates below in writing with The Highfield, this ensures stability for the club up to the year 2000, while we had the uncertainty of our tenancy recently we could not plan too far ahead, now we do not have those worries anymore. The room we use at The Highfield is to undergo a £32,000 facelift in two weeks, the dance floor is being removed, the whole room carpeted, 30 new chairs added to bring the total up to 100. The upstairs kitchen is being refurbished, the bar is also being taken out to be replaced. New decoration throughout and a new lighting system is being installed. When I first booked The Highfield I managed to secure a discount on the normal room hire. From January we are under a new contract which has added to our running costs and I will no longer be able to keep the £1 admission fee which I started in November 1997 and have managed to keep for 14 months. I will probably have to charge £2 admission next year to safely cover the costs of running the club. I tried to keep the admission fee down as long as possible but a large newsletter base and rising costs cannot allow it. I am sure that like myself you gain enormous pleasure from the club and will understand the need for the increase. There is no need to increase the cost of membership, this will remain at £3 per year. I have spoken to about 20 people on the phone over the last few days to ask their views on these fees and all of them said we have to ensure the future stability of the club and were confident that £2 was a reasonable charge for such a great evenings entertainment and, our new contract taking us up to the year 2000 has done this.

Perth Accordion Club

Perth Accordion Club in Western Australia held their first meeting on Sunday 16th August and had 63 people in attendance. I rang the organiser at midnight here, 8am their time on Sunday morning to wish them well, his wife answered and I could hear him playing the accordion in the background while she shouted for him. He was taken aback that I was ringing from England to wish him luck with his big day. His email back to us along with a couple of photographs taken at the first meeting will be on our club noticeboard on Wednesday

Amounderness Ladies Morris Team

I asked at the club and in the newsletter if anyone would like to play accordion for the Amounderness Ladies Morris Dancers. After seeing a photograph of them I polished my clogs and tucked a couple of hankies in my belt but I was informed by Jeanette Postlewhite that Alan Thwaites has kindly volunteered to fill the post, he has recently been playing with them Jeanette informs me and they are very pleased to have him. Well done Alan.