Leyland Accordion Club - 12th May 1999
Our May meeting was a welcome return for Walter Perrie and Tom Cowing. Walter and Tom were our second Guest Artists in January 1998, this time they returned with their friend Hugh Gebbie. Walter now lives in Wales, Tom lives in Northumberland and Hugh lives in Scotland. Walter and Tom practiced at their respective homes and swapped recordings by post, they then met up at 6.30pm along with Hugh Gebbie who had travelled down from his home in Scotland to accompany them as their drummer, when I arrived at The Highfield at 7pm, they had started their first live practice session before the crowds arrived. Knowing Walter and Tom, I knew we were going to be in for a good night and we were not to be disappointed. The night started off with Linda Grant playing a traditional song from Northumbria called The Bells of Saint Nicholas. Linda then playing three Scottish Jigs starting with Faria's Jig which she composed herself and finally finishing with Under the Linden Tree.
Tom Cowing, Hugh Gebbie and Walter Perrie
Tom Bennett followed Linda playing Getting to Know You, I Could Have Danced All Night and Till There Was You. It was now time for our Guest Artists to take the floor. Walter started with My Own Land, A Gallic number and The Green Hills of Tyrol. After the introductions it was time for some reels in the form of Corn Rigs, Rachel Ray, Bonnie Banchory, Soldiers Joy and Sandy Duff. He then played a Finnish Waltz called KulKuria Waltz. Walter's next piece was a slow air called Margaret Anne Robertson followed by Balmoral Highlanders - a march. It was then back to the reels with St Annes, New High Level and Archie Menzies. A change of pace followed with a French selection starting with the Theme from the TV program Allo Allo followed by C'est Magnifique, Thank Heavens, Under the Bridges of Paris and Milord. Next was an Italian polka Dantesque followed by Chopin's Etude in E and Minute Waltz. It was now time to return to the Scottish Jigs starting with Bonnie Dundee, Lochiel's Welcome to Glasgow, Donald Ian Rankine, Ken Muir's Up and Away and finally finishing with The Lass of Bon Accord. At this point Walter ran off ! I quickly worked out that he must have finished his first half but he did catch everyone by surprise because he was the only one who knew he was finishing there. We quickly got the kettle on and enjoyed 20 minutes of chat and getting to know new friends before we settled down to the second half. We started with John Higham, and then it was my turn before our guest artists returned for their second performance. I played American Patrol, Bless Em All, and Plaisir D' Amour, I looked for Walter but he was talking in the back room, I carried on and played I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now, I then asked someone to tell Walter to come out but he sent a message back to carry on playing! I then played Don't Dilly Dally and Return to Sorrento before Walter re-appeared, it was the longest I had ever played at the club, I would play longer but I tend to cut my time down to make sure I have time left to fit all the players in. I was about to send a message to Walter saying that if he did not appear soon then I was going to have to do his stuff! Thankfully for you I did not have to take this action! After his introduction it was back to Walter, Tom and Hugh starting with a set of Jigs, Hot Punch, The Directors, The Hawthorne Stick, Tam's Hunting Horn and The Quarryman, followed by a selection of Burns Waltzes - Ye Banks and Brae's, My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose, The Rowan Tree and Annie Laurie. This was followed by a set of reels - The White Cockade, The Petronella, The Duke & Dutchess of Edinburgh, Statten Island and Marquis Of Tullibardine. This was quickly followed by The Jacqueline Waltz and a polka The Strathsprey & Reel - The Duke of Fyffes Welcome, Mackenzie Hay and The High Road to Linton. The popular Frosini polka Coquette was next. Now we switched to an Italian selection starting with O Sole Mio, Coma Prima, Volari and finally Funiculi Funicula. A single piece Beautiful Days was followed by two Marches - The Hens March To The Midden (where do they get these titles) and 79th Farewell to Gibraltar. It was time for two Irish Jigs starting with The Kings Favourite and then Father Kelly's Jig. Three nice pieces were then presented in the form of Figoro's Aria, Dance Of The Comedians from the Bartered Bride and La Danza. Slowing things down and giving the players a well earned break Walter called John Higham to the floor to play Your Just In Love with him. Back up to speed again Walter was off with another set of Reels Carcassican Circle, The Bottom Of The Punch Bowl, The Flowers of Edinburgh and My Love is But A Lassie Yet. Slowing down we heard a nice version of Dark Island before the last reels of the night Timour Tartar and The Masons Apron. Walter finished with The Long Long Trail, or he should have finished but he conned myself and Tom Bennett to the floor promising us that we would be finishing with EASY stuff! Anyone who knows Walter will know that we should have spotted a trap, he started with Scotland The Brave (in D I was later told) and after cranking up the speed continued with Bluebells of Scotland and finally finishing with Will Ye No Come Back Again. Myself and Tom untangled our fingers while Walter, Tom and Hugh took their applause. We had a wonderful night listening to some top class playing from this trio. I am sure you will not be surprised that I will be attempting to tempt them back in 2000. I almost forgot to tell you that our room has been newly decorated since you last saw it, I look forward to seeing you again this Wednesday, 9th June, for another great night of entertainment. See you there.
David Batty
Our Internet Website
Our Internet Website has had 13332 visitors as at 10th May 1999, that's 1342 visitors since last month. Our last practice night went well, we gained ourselves a drummer and two new friends in the form of Fred Geldard and his wife Pamela who had seen our TV and Newspaper appearances, Fred played with us on our practice night and will be a regular visitor to the club in future, he will be in attendance this Wednesday and will join in with anyone who requires his services. I had never played with a drummer before, my philosophy was that a metronome could not keep time with me so what hope had a drummer got, I quickly found out that it is not as bad as I thought and I look forward to Fred's debut this Wednesday. If you would like Fred to join you in your playing then just give him a nod as you get up and he will provide an extra dimension to your sound. If you are worried that you have never played this way before then worry not, Fred will only be playing with those who ask him, no need to leave your accordion at home in case your 'Waltz' is like his 4/4 time (these are musical terms I believe).
The accordion on TV.
There was a programme on today about William Shakespeare, on it they
had an accordionist. Good news you may say, until you realise that Shakespeare
supposedly died in 1616 but the accordion was not patented until 1854!
Well known accordionist John Kirkpatrick, who recently starred at the
accordion festival at Blackpool, was on TV two weeks ago providing the
music for a teach yourself folk dancing program, this program is repeated
at 10.30 am, BBC2 on 11th June 1999.
Victorian open day at Winckley Square Preston
Rebecca Postlewhite and myself are playing our accordions on 4th July at Winkley Square in Preston for a Victorian open day.
I now have a Clarinet
I saw a clarinet at a car boot sale for £39 the week before our last practice night, I always wanted to play the clarinet solo and along with an accordion as a duet, well after buying it, I practised all week learning to play, on our practice night myself on clarinet, George Hicks on the Accordion and Fred on the drums played two tunes, this trio will be making their debut on Wednesday night if I don't back out! I only have three weeks practice behind me but I like the sound of the clarinet and accordion and why not jump in at the deep end, at least I can only get better at it. I have always thought that a clarinet sounds good when played alongside an accordion after I saw this at Caister Accordion Festival. Last week Jenette Postlewhite lent me a book showing me where all the notes are on the clarinet, this was quite handy to know as some were missing as I searched all over for them, thanks Jenette from all those who will be listening to me! This just reminded me of something. I am teaching myself to play the clarinet by ear, and I did the same with the accordion, I must have done well with the accordion because a local has been saying "we taught him all he knows"! As anyone who visits the club will know I simply teach myself and play my own thing which does not match any accordion syllabus, I have not been for any lessons and I can only take it as a complement that someone wishes they had taught me. I simply play tunes I like, such as American Patrol, Sailors Hornpipe/Magic Roundabout, Duelling Banjo's, God Save the Queen and Plaisir d'Amour. I only started reading music last year and I spend 10 minutes to 2 hours every day playing anything that seems like it might be interesting, I usually play by ear but I am working hard at reading music. I have noticed in the last few weeks that music reading is getting easier, I will only play from memory at the club though as I consider the music to be the instruction manual for a tune and I prefer to play the tune after I have learned it. Lessons would probably be very helpful but then that might take the fun away for me. The official line is: Nobody has taught me all I know, no matter what anyone has said, I do listen to people, ask loads of questions, and learn a lot from simply 'having a go'.
The result of our TV appearance
The appearance on BBC2's Webwise program on 17th May 1999 of Myself and Tom Bennett playing in the pub part of The Highfield prompted large numbers of people to visit our website, even though our site address was not given out on the programme people could still visit the BBC's website where they can click on a link to us. I went on to the Internet an hour after the programme went out and found we had received 100 visitors since the programme broadcast, over the following 24 hours we had received 240 visitors to the site listening to our Walter Perrie concert which had just appeared on there two days earlier. This appearance has done both the club and the instrument a lot of good, I have received e-mails from new visitors to the site saying how much they like the site and one lady thought it was the most interesting and informative site on the Internet and top of her list of favourite accordion sites to visit. This means that our players are getting well known even if only by name when visitors read our newsletters or search the Internet for a certain tune and get a link to our newsletter pages which are indexed on the Internet, so for example if someone searches on the Internet for 'American Patrol' they will get back amongst other search results one or more of our newsletters and our site as a possible source of the information they want. I regularly get enquiries from people searching for music and finding that one of us has played it at the club, I then contact the player concerned to find out where the music for the tune can be purchased and pass the information back to the Enquirer.
Channel 4 TV use us to find accordionist.
I received a phone call on Tuesday from Channel Four's Big Breakfast. They were searching the Internet for an accordionist or a club in the London area to provide someone to play on their show, the closest they could find was Leyland Accordion Club, I found out that they wanted someone to play the theme from The Godfather on the following morning's program. They received the phone number of a professional accordionist in London who was only an underground ride away from them, as I missed the programme, I do not know if he appeared, it was nice to know that they are finding us on the Internet and using us as a source of accordion talent for TV.