| Leyland Accordion Club - 21st February 2007
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Our February Concert
Our February concert opened with Mary Hall playing Bianca Capanna and Easdale Heimweh. Jay Ward and Bill Agnew then continued with Basin Street Blues, Saint Louis Blues and Darktown Strutters Ball. Colin Ensor was our next entertainer, giving us What More Can I Say, She, Footsteps Of A Fool and Who's Taking You Home Tonight. Ann Parker played Glamour Girl and My Florence, leaving the stage for Basil Berry. Basil started with I Will Wait For You, then continued with Windmills Of Your Mind, The Summer Knows and What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life. Gerard Dawber then played My Darling Asleep, Lunan Bay, Lassie From Lancashire and Amazing Grace. After Gerard, Tom Bennett gave us Whiter Shade Of Pale and Tarantella Neopolitan. It was now time for the first break. After the break, we continued with Harry Davies playing Matchstalk Men, If You Love Me, Any Dream Will Do, Memory, a German drinking song and, finally Fernando. Rebecca Parker was our next player, Rebecca played Valse Continentale and Bianca Capanna. Dugald McCallum played Princess Accordion, Fordland's Two Step and March Of The Miners (or is it Minors?) Jay Ward and Sylvia played Bella Note, Romany and Irgendno In Fremden Strassen on accordion and keyboard. Graham Driver played Upton On Severn Stick Dance, Staten Island, The Man In The Moon, Jaqueline Waltz, Portobello Hornpipe and Murphys Hornpipe. It was then time for our second break of the evening. After the break and the raffle, we continued with Shirley Seed and Bill Agnew playing Rose Of Trealee, Cockles And Mussels, Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms, I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Margie and, finally, Dear Hearts And Gentle People. We had now reached 11pm with still 3 acts to go, so I just played one tune before Aileen Buchanan played Waters Of Kyle Stewart, Lonely Stornoway, Ye Banks And Braes and Dashing White Sergeant. To finish the night, Bill Agnew played Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Jimmy Brown Song, King Of The Road, Begin The Beguine and Yellow Bird. We finished at 11.15pm, had seen 17 acts, and had a great time in the process. David Batty
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Guest Artists
In the last newsletter, I mentioned that I was looking at forthcoming guest artists. I asked for suggestions as to who you would like to see. At our last concert night, I went round with a sheet of paper and took down all the names suggested - without letting anyone know who had already been mentioned. At the end of the night, I read out the list on stage to give everyone an idea of who others had suggested. I now have a list of names to approach in future months with a view to them playing at Leyland. This month sees the welcome return of George Syrett who got plenty of votes on the above list. Aileen Buchanan will be our guest artist at Leyland in May. This is Aileen's debut at any accordion club as a guest artist, and promises to be a good night. In July, we have Barry Graham playing for us. When Barry plays at Leyland, he will also be making his debut as an accordion club guest artist. I have possibly booked someone for September, but they need to get back to me to let me know that they can be in the area at that time.
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Houghton Weavers New CD
The Houghton Weavers are recording a new CD in April, this is going to be a CD of standard classic folk Number 1 hits that have not been recorded by others for years. The CD is due for release in June, and I will let you have more details after the CD has been recorded. They will also be performing at Thwaites Theatre Blackburn on the 5th of May. Telephone 01254 265 566 for details or to book tickets.
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BBC Radio 3
On Monday 26th of March at 11.15pm, Radio 3 is broadcasting a programme featuring singer songwriter and guitarist Steve Tilston, who joins Andy Kershaw in the studio with Jon Thorne on bass and Chris Parkinson on accordion and harmonica.
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Fleadh Cheoil
The 2007 Irish Fleadh Cheoil (festival of irish music, dance and song) takes place in Tullamore, Offaly, Ireland from the 19th to the 26th of August 2007. See www.fleadh2007.com for further details of this 9 day festival which attracts around 250,000 visitors and musicians from all over the world.
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This Wednesday
This Wednesday, we see the welcome return of George Syrett as our guest artist. George has been a firm favourite in the past, and was one of the names most requested on the list made at the last concert night. I contacted George after that last concert and, as requested, he is playing for you this Wednesday. George says that he has some new stuff to show you, and I know that it's going to be a good night. The doors open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start. Please tell your friends about our concerts, and maybe bring one or two of them along? I look forward to seeing you there.
David Batty
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BBC Radio Shetland
On Tuesday 27th of March, at 6.05pm, BBC Radio Scotland has a programme called Catgut and Ivory which turns the spotlight on accordion and fiddle music in Scotland, with a monthly club news spot. Those who don't live in Scotland will be glad to know that I only tell you these things because you can get these channels if you have access to SKY television.
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NAO UK Championship 2007
The NAO will celebrate their national annual competition and festival in Scarborough from the 4th to the 6th of May 2007. For further information, contact Pauline Noon, 112 Countesthorpe Road, South Wigston, Leicester, Leicestershire. LE18 4PG. Telephone 0116 241 2856 or 0116 278 4094. Email anouk@accordions.com
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Our Website
Our Internet website has had 103475 visitors as at 17th of March 2007. That's 1033 visitors to the main page of our website since last month. The Second Life project (See separate item in this newsletter) I was working on should bring a few more visitors to the club website and radio station once people start finding out about it. We did get two new visitors to the club on our last practice night after they spotted us on the Internet, so we might see some new talent on our stage as a result. It's good to reach out to these accordionists who don't know that there is a gang of us at Leyland until they find us on the Internet, or hear about us by word of mouth. I haven't advertised the club activities locally for a long time so I will be returning to letting the papers and local radio stations know about our concerts from next month onwards, his coupled with our increased online presence should help ensure that we find all the hidden accordionists in the area. Next month I will have more copies of the poster advertising the please pick a copy up at the club if you have somewhere to display one.
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Music Hall Memories
On Performance Channel, Sky channel 271, there is a programme called A Little Of What You Fancy. This is a programme about the history of The Music Hall, featuring old posters, photographs and library material, and its survival in the pubs, clubs and theatres. The programme, which starts at 9am on Saturday 1st of April, is one hour long. The programme is also repeated at various times on 9th, 14th, 20th and 30th of April. The same channel has a concert by The Beach Boys Live In Knebworth from 3pm to 4pm on 5th of April. This programme is also repeated on various other dates.
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Cancer Research Concert
Harry Kipling is organising a charity '5 club get together' which includes Lincoln, Sheffield, Barnsley, Hull and Wetherby. This concert, in aid of cancer research, is to be held on the 17th April. The guests are Harry Hussey, Pearl Fawcett-Adriano, George Syrett, Murray Grainger, Sam Pirt, Wetherby Band, and other artists. The venue is The Shire Hall Howden, Yorkshire. This is just one mile from Junction 32 of the M62. The admission is £6, this includes a buffet, bar, trade stand and raffle. The Compere for the night is George Syrett (who is also our guest artist this month). The doors open early at 5pm so we can all meet and look at trade stands. Harry Hussey and George Syrett said they will come early and give informal tuition and help to anyone who wants it. The hall holds 200 people. To obtain your ticket telephone 01430 860300 Or email henrykipling@fsmail.net.
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Second Life - New Accordion Club
You probably haven't heard of Second Life but you will in the future. Second Life is a 3D World which runs on the Internet. Inside Second Life people can own land, create buildings and have a 'second life'. The world is created by the people in it and, at the time of writing, there are 4,712,654 people in there doing just that. The world in Second Life mimics the real world, people buy land, build houses, shops, offices or even whole universities, and then run a business, meet people or attend classes in this 3D online World. I am in Second Life and after weeks of searching for land in a 'good area', I have purchased 4000 square metres of land, some of which I have used to build an accordion club/shop where accordionists in Second Life can meet, chat about accordions and listen to accordion music. From within Second Life, a person can see a poster in the shop advertising our club website, radio station or accordion festival site. If the poster is touched, it will offer to take the person to visit our site, radio station, etc. This all needs an open mind to understand how it works, because it's not easy for someone who has never been in Second Life to comprehend how big this thing is. You might get an idea of the scale of things when I tell you that people use real money to buy land in there, and in the last 24 hours $1,732,672 US dollars have been spent by the inhabitants buying land or objects in the world. That was not a misprint, over 1.7 millon US dollars are spent in there in any one day. From these figures you might get the idea that this is not a small thing. I have started a group in there called 'Leyland Accordion Club' as a way for accordionists from anywhere in the world to be able to instantly contact each other and arrange to meet at the club. The upstairs of the club will later become a shop advertising accordion related items that people can buy in the real world. In the photograph opposite I am standing on the roof of my new offices looking at the new club, which I hope will be a hangout for many accordionists. Leyland Accordion Club are the first accordion related organisation to have a presence in Second Life, but we are in good company. A small selection of other companies that exist in Second life and who run a section of their businesses in there are Adidas, Radio 1, IBM, Reebok, Reuters, Sun Microsystems, Warner Brothers and NASA. There are virtual banks, stock exchanges, museums, exhibitions, talks, concerts and every kind of shop or special interest groups taking part in this 3D world. Many companies use Second Life for business collaboration, training & education by setting up a conference center, meeting spot or training center. Some artists hold concerts in Second Life where they appear live, the sound being transmitted from a studio somewhere in the world to a virtual theatre, field or even island in Second Life. The assembled audience can watch the performers on stage, or even live video links to the performer on stage somewhere in real life. This kind of technology opens up the ability for accordionists to perform concerts or to have get-togethers in our Second Life Accordion Club. This all sounds like just good fun until you realise that anyone in Second Life can pay or be paid money. Artists can be paid for performing in a concert, or people in the audience who hear them playing can choose to donate some 'change' to them for the performance. This leads to being able to busk in a virtual world, from the comfort of your house, earning money playing in your pyjamas! Now what good is this money you might ask. Well you can buy land with it, become a landlord, rent the land out to others who can't afford to buy land, you can buy many other things in Second Life or, the best bit, you can have the money transferred into your bank account in real life. If you want to know more about Second Life, then visit www.secondlife.com, or to see some videos of things in Second Life visit www.youtube.com and search for 'Second Life', searching for 'Second Life Education' will also find some good films made by major universities showing you around their online campus and facilities. Second Life is almost unknown in this country, but I am convinced that you are going to hear a lot more about it in future, At least you can be assured that Leyland Accordion Club are already in there ahead of most businesses that will later discover it.
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