Leyland Accordion Club - 13th October 1999
It is now two years since the club first opened it's doors back in November 1997 with the aim of finding lots of entertaining people and also people who want entertaining. Who would have thought back then that we would have gathered together such a great bunch of people and gained so many new friends as a result. I am sure you feel the same about the new people you have met as a result of coming to the club. Since the club started we have continued with the guest artist every second month, local players concerts on the months in between and this year we started the practise nights as well, this gives us 24 meetings per year at the moment and I am being put under pressure from some members to start another practice night, I am looking at the possibility of this and will be asking those who normally attend the practice nights if this is what they really want. The newsletter started on month one, goes out to about 225 people at the moment and has proved to be a feature of the club that lots of you tell me you look forward to, I still have not got the hang of starting writing it straight after the last club night, I normally start it on the Saturday before the club night and post it on Monday afternoon after a weekend of writing, printing, updating members database, label printing, envelope filling and putting stamps on. I look forward to Monday teatime when I have a days rest in front of me before thinking about Wednesday and all that goes with putting a night on (raffle prizes, tickets, change, list printing, music to play on the tape player, cups, coffee, etc) By the time Wednesdays club is in full swing I am telling myself that I will start earlier next month but I never do, maybe next year I will get the hang of it.
Walter Perrie
We have now gained a total of 18,028 visitors to our website, who follow our progress from all corners of the world, and we have inspired a club to start in Perth, Western Australia. Our members have attended many charity nights as players, as well as Old folks homes and as entertainers at WI meetings and birthday parties etc. Many members now have new friends they meet outside of the club on a social basis and I can see the great improvement in most of our players since they first played at the club and many have said the same of my playing. Knowing that I have someone to play for each month has given me a great incentive to practice and I think that this is also true for many of our players. We have been on Television twice this year, I played on Radio Lancashire when the club was just a few months old and, fingers crossed, I might be playing Live on Radio Lancashire this week on Monday Tuesday or Wednesday, I have to wait for a phone call from them which may arrive after this newsletter is printed and posted. For all that we have done and achieved, I have to thank all the members of the club for being such a good crowd. I am now looking forward to all that we will achieve and do over the next twelve months as well as the new friends we will make. As usual, I will try and say hello to as many as possible on Wednesday but I am so busy organising things I usually miss being able to chat to many of you because there simply isn't enough time to get around to everyone. Please remember if you see someone at the club who looks like a new face or who looks like they are on their own then please say hello, new people to any gathering feel more welcome if someone asks who they are and has a chat with them. I try to do this but I cannot always greet everyone. That's enough from me, what happened at our last meeting. We started our October meeting with Jay and Jeff Ward playing Our Love Is Here To Stay, Man Without Love, A Foggy Day with Jeff doing all the Jazzy bits, Summertime In Venice and a medley consisting of Back In Your Own Back Yard, Please Don't Come and Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone. Dugald McCallum was our first soloist playing Retour Des Hirondelles (Return of the Swallows), Glen Daruel Highlanders, Dovecote Park, a tune from the Orkneys Kate Martins Waltz and an Irish tune Margarets Waltz. Chick Stephens then Played The Waters Of Kysku, My Home, The Highland Cradle Song, Mist Isle, Lochindaal and, after repremanding me for what I wrote the last time he played Lonely Scapa Flow he played it again for us. Last time he played it he told us he worked at Scapa Flow and the song had meaning for him, in the newsletter I wrote that I thought he was a U boat captain or something like that, he complained to me that he was 'not a U boat captain he was on the other side', Sorry Chick but it amused me so much it still makes me smile now! I followed Chick playing Whispering Hope, Sailors Hornpipe Medley and then my new piece Triste Sourire which I had been learning in the car listening to Rebecca playing it on the club tape. Alan Gelling followed me with Carousel Waltz, Lichtenstein Polka, Over The Waves, Bicycle Made For Two, Don't Be Cross and Brahams Lullaby. Next we were treated to music and a lesson from Walter Perrie, he started with I Dreamed A Dream, Castles In The Cloud and Master In The House. At my request he then gave us a tutorial on bellows shake technique and demonstrated with Tulips From Amsterdam and Figaro's Aria. Many people probably have sore left arms as a result of this lesson. Walter then brought his son Adrian on to the floor with his guitar and they played Dark Island and finished with House of the Rising Sun. Walter is also hoping to be at this months meeting with Steve Roxton. Do you like Walter's photograph, it is one of a set of photographs I took of him recently, the difficult bit was keeping him still but I managed it! George Hicks and Jean Southern were next with George starting with his famous Maigret Theme before the pair of them continued with Bel Fiorie, Return To Sorrento, Santa Lucia, Perfidia, Sway and finally Bel Viso. Agnes Mclaren was then 'persuaded' to play and she reluctantly took to the floor. She then treated us to Bonnie Strathclyde, Dancing in Kyle, Make Your Way To Stornaway, Meeting Of The Waters, Endearing Young Charms, Irish Eyes, Mountains of Mourne, Thistle Of Scotland, Scotland The Brave, Bonnie Lass of something and finally finishing with Always Argyll. Dugald McCallum then returned to the floor to play one more tune The March Of The Miners before myself and Walter Perrie returned to play Triste Sourire as a duet, I stuck to the main tune and left Walter to do all the fancy filling in bits. We had had another packed evening of entertainment courtesy of our players and everyone went home happy, I think most went to their own homes but I cannot be sure. I look forward to seeing you all this month at our birthday meeting when we have Steve Roxton from Jersey as our guest artist. See you there on Wednesday (as usual why not bring a friend and make them our friend too).
David Batty
Our Internet Website
Our Internet website has had 18028 visitors as at 8th November 1999, that's 919 visitors since last month. Last month I said I was planning to make lots of improvements to our website but since then I got two large website jobs which have taken all my time up so the changes to our website have been put back a few weeks. One site I am working on is a site which gives you access to cut price plane tickets and special offer flights direct from the airlines databases. The address is www.safewaytravel.demon.co.uk if you want to check prices yourself, once the database goes live later this month you will be able to check ticket prices and special offers in real time the same as the airlines do. This could save you a fortune on your future holiday flights. We had an email from Ken Jones who found our advert in Accordion World magazine, he said "The Leyland Accordion Club site is more than excellent. You are first in the field of Internet communications with regards to the accordion, I hope to gain a lot of information via your web site, perhaps I might get to see you all soon. Give my regards to George Hicks, I have known him for many years." That George Hicks gets everywhere, I went to buy some records at Southport and the chap selling them was a friend of Georges, it's not just the women who know him it seems! I have a feeling that George will be asked to get up and play with the guest artist on Wednesday, last year he was invited to do this and it sounded great.
Lumic Video Recording Steve Roxton
The Lumic International Video Production Company has just released a video featuring accordionist Oleg Sharov titled "Accordion Miniatures". Other accordion videos in their catalogue include "The St Petersburg Musette Ensemble", "Alexander Korbakov in profile", "The Charisma of Caister", and "The Story of Caister ". The Lumic Company has become known for the production of "special interest" videos, which are distributed worldwide. Telephone 01384 404940 Email enquiries@lumicvideo.co.uk or write to Lumic International Video, 45-47 Mount Pleasant, Kingswinford, West Midlands. DY6 9TG. Lumic Video are filming Steve Roxton on Monday and Tuesday before he arrives at our club on Wednesday, I have arranged with them for some promotional material about their accordion videos to be given to him for us at the club on Wednesday.
Millennium Bug
On television they are advertising a leaflet that you are about to receive, it's another Millennium Bug leaflet. Let's hope there is more truth in this one than the last one. In the last one we were told that banks were prepared, but programmers in the industry said they were not ready and will not be, government offices are supposed to be prepared but the passport office fiasco was partly blamed on Year 2000 problems by some in the industry. Even so, the same company has just been given the contract to computerise all 19,000 MOT garages, the Tax Office have already started sending out paperwork such as to the self employed woman in Yorkshire who does not have to pay National Insurance until 6th April 1902! Businesses have already been threatened with Bailifs even though their taxes had been paid in full and on time. This is from the revenue's ey system which they have already classified as compliant! They are getting another system in for another part of the IR which is due to be installed on 29th November just 23 working days before the year 2000. They say they will use pen and paper if it does not work! Not much time for testing there! The USA and Russia have found y2k bugs in their nuclear communications systems and have set up a Centre for Y2K Strategic Stability Centre in Colorado USA to prevent any misunderstandings! So far Japan has been complacent about the problem, but this month the government suddenly told people to stockpile several days worth of food and water and to withdraw enough money before the 31st December because they are closing the banks for the start of the new year. I'm not worried about the bug, I'm worried about how politicians smile and tell us what they want us to think while waving a leaflet at us. I wonder how much of the above will be in the leaflet you will be receiving? Happy new year…………..
Club admission and membership charges
Our newsletter goes out to around 225 people each month, many of these are from around the country and cannot attend our meetings. Our annual membership has stayed at £3 for two years but I have now decided that I have to increase it as the £3 membership does not cover the cost of getting a newsletter for a year (the stamps alone cost £3.12) and the rest of it has to be subsidised by the takings on the club nights, by raising the price to £5 per year this will help cover the costs of the newsletter each month. When I first started the club in November 1997, I said I would keep prices down for as long as possible, now I have decided that we have to increase admission fees from January. I kept them down at £1 for 26 months but with a guest artist every second month, increased rent of the room, booking the room two nights per month instead of the one originally, the website rental and all the other associated costs of running the club, I have to make increases to the door price. It is not something I have wanted to do but many have asked me how I have kept it so cheap for so long and I cannot give them a good answer except that the club borrows off me and pays me back when it can. From January, the admission to practice nights will stay at £1, the concert nights will be £2 and guest artist nights will be £3. This makes us comparable to other clubs on price, but we have a guest artist every second month we have the website getting us fame, and we have the newsletter posted to all members every month, so I think the club still remains great value for money. These changes do not take place until January but I would ask that, as membership fees are due in January if we could start collecting them in November and December as well as January, this will prevent the large queues on the door in January if everyone tries to pay their membership fees at the same time. Last January we had people stood outside queuing while those at the top of the stairs sorted their memberships fees out. This gives everyone three months in which to update their membership for 2000 and this evens my workload out as I do not have to amend so many records in January.
Playing for Preston Womens Institute
I was asked to play at Preston WI's annual meeting which had the theme this year of Europe. They had European food followed by a speaker talking about Europe, then they wanted something to lighten the evening in the form of tunes from around Europe. So myself and Tom split the job between us and each put together tunes representing Europe to entertain the expected crowd of 120 women. Tom started his first session before I joined him for Plaisir D'Amour as a duet which then left me on the stage for my first spot of the night. When I announced that because the subject is Europe, with my first tune we are off to Europe and I started playing Bless E'm All there were roars of laughter followed by singing. From their serious talk and mood we managed to pull them down to our level. I was rebooked by three women as the stripper, another shouted "what are you waiting for then", we had them down to our level by now and after Tom had played his second section I finished the night with a good British ending with Auld Lang Syne, Land of Hope And Glory (accompanied by arms and hankies waving), their theme tune Jerusalem and finally finishing with God Save The Queen. We had lots of praise afterwards and everyone seemed to have enjoyed themselves. We managed to get a lot of laughs and met some very nice people at the same time. Leaflets about our club were taken by about 30 people as they were leaving. Lets hope we get to meet some of them at our own club in the future.
Agnes to Visit Perth Accordion Club In Australia
Our own Agnes Mclaren has now gone to Australia on holiday, she will be attending the Perth Accordion Club's November meeting, which by chance is a Scottish themed meeting, she is being looked after by them while she is there and she is invited to a meal with some of the club members. We await her return and the photographs and stories she will have to tell as the first person to make this pilgrimage.
Jeff Ward in hospital
Jeff Ward had a blood clot on his brain and was rushed to Preston hospital. After an operation, his speech and movement returned and he is now recovering in Blackpool Hospital. I visited him with one of my 'special' get well cards you may have seen recently at the club when Tom got one, I am sure this was instrumental in helping him recover! Jay told him to keep it hidden and get it out to show 'special' visitors! Get well soon from all at the club. There are many people wishing you well.