Leyland Accordion Club - 13th January 1999
Our first meeting of 1999 opened with myself playing Whispering Hope, Plaisir D'Amour and Oslo Waltz. I kept playing while our next player Roy Mabbutt got ready, it was his first time playing in front of a club, Roy, who plays a button accordion started with Under the Bridges of Paris, continued with Loves Last Word is Spoken and finished with Under Paris Skies. Well done Roy, we hope to hear a lot more of you. It was now time for our guest artist to open his first session. Due to the energetic nature of Jan's music we decided to put him on for three shorter spots instead of our normal two, this worked well. Jan started with Trieste Overture by Pietro Deiro and continued with Preludio by A Volpi, Introduction & Rondo Capriciosso by Mendelssohn. After reading the last newsletter, Jan noticed that I mentioned how well he played Air on a G String by J.S. Bach, he then played this as his next piece, which, although slow can be as difficult as the fast pieces according to Jan. I now have an excuse for getting simple tunes wrong! Jan finished his first session with Mosaico Espagnol by Fugazza.
Jan Zukowski - Our guest artist
After the break we had our second new player of the night, Elaine - who looks after you on the door, has been practicing for about three months and played Maggie followed by Highland Cathedral, Elaine played better than I did but, she does have me at home and some of my talent must have influenced her, Ouch! - looks like no tea for me tonight. Linda Grant followed Elaine, following Jimmy Shands recent Knighthood reported in the last newsletter Linda played John MacDonalds March, Francis Wright Waltz which was written by Jimmy Shand, finishing with Bluebell Polka which Jimmy got in to the top 20 of the Pop charts after being played on Housewives Choice. Jimmy was born in 1908 and was sitting in a band by the age of 10, he later worked with my grandad and did not have an accordion at the time, my grandad had just bought a new one and gave Jimmy his old one to play, they then played entertaining workmates. Jimmy received an MBE at Buckingham Palace in March 1962 and his Knighthood in this years New Years Honours List. It was now time for the return of Jan for his second spot of the night. Jan started with Italian Fantasy by P. Frosini, Scherzo by J. Gart, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 by F. Liszt, Hungarian Dance No. 6 by J. Brahms and finishing his second spot with Czardas by F. Fugazza. After the second break we had the raffle, this was followed by our third new player of the night Dave Sykes, Dave did well, playing a German tune Im KinderParadies - A Childs Paradise, followed by A Simple Waltz. Frank Scholes was next playing a selection of French music including Babette and Mademouiselle Du Paris. Frank is going into hospital today (Monday) and so will not be at the club on Wednesday but he says he will be there on the 3rd of March, 'the third of March!' I hear your exclaim! You will have to wait until you get to side two of this newsletter to find out what that's all about. Ok half of you are reading this side now, while the other half could not wait and they are reading the other side. We are having an extra meeting on that date, I just told you lot so the ones who jumped to the other side will be annoyed when they get back here and find that you read it first. This is a bit like the book with the complicated plot, where the victim was shot by someone in another book! Sorry about the last paragraphs but I have been working on this newsletter for 55 minutes now and I could not hold back any longer. What were we talking about? Oh yes accordions. Rebecca Postlewhite was up next with her last performance before she returns to Oxford, Rebecca started with Triste Soirire, continuing with Washington Post, Liberty Bell and finishing with Flambée Montalbanaise. Basil Berry led us up to our guest artists last spot with Body and Soul and All The Things You Are by Jerome Kern. It was time for Jan's third spot, starting with Acquarelli Cubanni by Fancelli, 10Km A FineStrino also by Fancelli, a paso doble by Frosini called Jolly Caballero, a Mazurka by the name of Migliavacca, the polka Perles De Cristal, Jan's own arrangement of Riverdance, Carnival of Venice by Frosini and after shouts of 'More' Jan finished the night by giving us the choice of Sabre Dance or Minute Waltz, Sabre Dance by Khalhaturian sounded bigger so we chose that one. Jan played very well and cannot have failed to impress anyone who heard him, I heard lot's of good comments about the night and we look forward to Jan's return in early 2000. After the night was over we found out that Liz, Jan's wife had taken one car back home to Bolton with Jan's bag containing his car keys. So after unloading my car and having a brew we set off for Bolton to recover his keys, after returning to Leyland and dropping him off at the Highfield I finally got to bed at 3am while Jan set off in his own car heading back home to Bolton. I hope we can see Jan at the club again soon, if we do it will be a treat. I look forward to seeing you all again this Wednesday 10th February.
David Batty
Our Internet Website
Our Internet website has had 8740 visitors as at 8th February 1999, that's 816 visitors since last month. I recently received a message from Colin Borland who lives on Stromness in Orkney. He attended a summer school in Stirling last year and met our Tony Quinn there, he asked me to pass his warmest greetings to Tony. His email message will be on the notice board on Wednesday. Ian Carter has just gone on a jaunt which includes Australia. He will be staying an hours drive from the Perth Accordion Club and he asked me to find out if they meet while he is there. I contacted them over the Internet and they do have a practice night while he is there and they promise to look after him. I have forwarded his address and phone number to Australia, John Dickson who runs Perth Accordion Club will ring Ian on his arrival in Australia to arrange for him to visit them. Ian said that he is looking forward to finding out what kinds of music they play.
New Craze in America
A new craze in America amongst the young is swing, these new swing bands of the 90's are very much like the big bands of the 40's. This craze is expected to move over to England this year so dust off your old music and be prepared.
The new Millennium starts on 1st January 2001
The article in last months newsletter about the fact that the new millennium starts on 1st January 2001 and that we are still in the 20th Century until 31st December 2000, was well received according to the feedback I got at the club. In case you find someone who stubbornly refuses to believe the National Standards Organisation, I have included and extract from a leaflet issued by the Royal Greenwich Observatory which may help you convince them. The time we live by is defined in relation to Greenwich Observatory - the worlds official timekeeper. Millenia A millenium is a period of 1000 years. The question of which year is the first year of the millenium hinges on the date of the first year AD. Unfortunately the sequence of years going from BC to AD does not include a year 0. The sequence of years runs 3 BC, 2 BC, 1 BC, 1 AD, 2 AD, 3 AD etc. This means that the first year of the first millenium was 1 AD. The one thousandth year was 1000 AD and the first day of the second millenium was 1001 AD. It is thus clear that the start of the new millenium will be just after midnight on 1 Jan 2001. Celebrations The year 2000 AD will certainly be celebrated, as is natural for a year with such a round number but, accurately speaking, we will be celebrating the 2000th year or the last year of the millenium, not the start of the new millenium. Whether this will be an excuse for more celebrations in the following year will have to be seen! Royal Greenwich Observatory, Information Leaflet No. 52: "The Year 2000AD," Now if you want to say you want to be one of the first to see the sunrise on the new millennium morning you know that you need to get up on 1st January 2001 to see it, but how can you do this if you cannot afford an expensive trip to New Zealand. Fear not a solution is at hand. Legally all time is defined as being measured in relation to Greenwich Observatory. All the rest of the world is divided in to zones to give then their own local time relative to Greenwich who supply the UTC or Universal Time Constant. The date does not officially change until the ball on top of the Greenwich observatory falls at midnight. This is the date and time according to astronomy, science, shipping, planes, worldwide financial transactions and business law. So all you have to do is get out of bed and look out of the window while those who went to Australia a year earlier are still fast asleep and still paying their credit card bills off!
New Club practice night
Since the club began we have talked about having an extra night in the month for players to get together and practice. Many of you have asked for this since we started. Due to difficulties with the new management this was not possible, well good news, the manager is getting a divorce. His wife now runs The Highfield and she wants us to stay there, she has agreed a decent rate for the room and we can also hire it for another night in the month if we wish. I have booked the room for the rest of the year for our club nights. The original idea was that we would have a get together to practice and share ideas without much of an audience, this means that players who have been club members for months but have not yet played will be able to play in front of others without much pressure. With tea and coffee on tap all evening we should be able to have quite an informal meeting with a short session for players to have a go at performing in front of the smaller group of people in attendance. This night is not just for players, anyone wanting to come and have a listen or a chat is welcome. Anyone wanting to share a piece of music should bring it along with a copy or two if you want someone to play with you. I was hoping to book the fourth Wednesday of each month so that it will be two weeks before and after a club night but the first meeting date was booked up, I have therefore booked the following Wednesday 3rd March 1999 as our first practice/social night. There will not be an extra newsletter going out to remind people of this so mark it on your calendar or in your diary now. We will learn a lot from the first night about what we want to get out of this night. Don't forget to bring your accordion.
Jan Zukowski
Jan Zukowski has been rebooked to play for us on 8th March 2000. Jan is completely self taught and when I asked him about fingering and bellows techniques he said that after one of his performances someone came up to tell him that he had used a thumb on a black note when he shouldn't have! It's a good job they don't come up to me and do the same, we will have to get chairs out and get comfortable while they go through their list. I like Jan's philosophy, if you hit the correct key at the right time and for the right length of time then you are correct, and why pay for bellows and not use them. This all sounds like good advice to me, especially if I don't have to worry about which fingers do the bass work and how far you can open the bellows without offending anybody. Since the last club night I have been ill with flu and then as this was getting a bit better I had to go to Ireland. I have only been back a few days and have really missed playing the accordion. When I put it on last night it seemed that I had forgotten half of what I had learned and needed to think about what I was doing, this shows the importance of playing on a regular basis. I did notice that after spending almost a month without playing it felt good to make my own music rather than just listening to the radio and tv. After my separation from the accordion I promise to pay it more attention in future. I am looking forward to summer so I can go busking again.
Q: How do you protect a valuable instrument? A: Hide it in an accordion case.
Membership Renewal Due
Many thanks to those of you who have paid your membership fees. The newsletter is subsidised because the £3 UK membership just covers stamps for the year, the envelopes, paper, photo developing, labels and laser toner cartridges at £50 a time are covered by takings on the door after artists, rent and all other costs have been paid. This newsletter is not going out this month to 28 people who have not paid membership and have not visited the club for a while. This is only fair to those who have paid.