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Leyland Accordion Club - 11th October 2000
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Editors CommentThe photograph of Walter on the right was taken next to my computer when he visited here to record some tracks for a CD. The full colour version on my screen looks good, but because you are looking at a monochrome small image, you will have to take my word for it. |
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November is the third anniversary of our club, and to celebrate we have a great night of entertainment planned for this Wednesday with our guest artist Fintan Stanley. Bring along your best singing voice and be prepared for some quality entertainment. This is our one and only chance to get Fintan as a guest artist before he returns to the USA, so make sure you don't miss this month's concert because I will probably not be able to rebook him in future and I know that his show is not one to be missed. Because it is our anniversary, and I am pleased that we have been running for three years, I have included in this month's raffle a ticket entitling up to five passengers to a complimentary return channel crossing to France with P&O Ferries, allowing a maximum of three days stay on the continent. This can be used anytime up to 30/6/2001, so whoever wins it can plan their trip at a date which suits them. I know that there will be quite a few new faces at the club simply because we have Fintan Stanley as guest artist so if you want a good seat make sure you arrive early, I will be opening the doors at 7pm, don't forget it's at The Mill which is across the road from The Highfield. See you there...........David BattyOur October ConcertBecause Colin Ensor had ducked out of playing at our September night with the excuse that I had let him drink too much before calling his name out, I felt guilty that I had deprived him of the chance to play so I decided to make it up to him. I opened our October club night with "Welcome to Leyland Accordion Club and to our first player Colin Ensor", the last thing I saw as I exited stage left was a shocked and surprised Colin who was poised with a pint a few inches from his lips. He was caught so unawares that he stood up and provided us with some very nice playing. He started with Hear My Song and then continued with Daisy, Sweet Little Dickie Bird, Rosie O'Grady, The Only Girl In The World and Elmers Tune. Because the playing was sprung on him, Colin had no time for nerves or to get any of his drink he blamed last month. Afterwards he said he was pleased I had put him on first because he had enjoyed playing and knew he could relax for the rest of the night. Our next player was Basil Berry who started with Road To The Isles which he played as a dedication to Jeff Ward because of Jeff's love of Scottish Music! This was followed by Shadow Of Your Smile from the film The Sand Piper before finishing with From Here To Eternity. Our next player Gordon Priestley told us that all the tunes he plays are from the Sedlon books he used to learn to play the accordion. Gordon started with I Myself and It's The Tops. He then apologised to me for playing one of my tunes Whispering Hope. I told him that I had to learn it after I listened to Robert Hood play it on the club tape. I think it is good that the same tune is played by different people at the club, each one will play it in their own style, giving the players different views of the same tune. Gordon finished his session with Barbara Polka. Chick Stephen then took to the floor with his button accordion playing Snow In Summer, Maselda, When The Chapel Bells Ring and The Leaving Of Liverpool. Our next player was John Higham who played Under The Bridges Of Paris. Normally, John sits down to play the accordion but he stood up tonight because he had been told that he needs to practice playing while standing. This is one skill I found difficult myself until I spent time busking along with a one hour CD standing and playing for the duration of the CD. John's next tune was I Was Kaiser Bills Batman followed by Twin Footsteps In The Snow. John then invited Walter Perrie onto the floor to join him playing I Hear Music as a duet. This was followed by John's musical monologue of Tit Willow, Walter provided the musical accompaniment while John left his accordion alone to concentrate on the words. John then left the floor while Walter Perrie took us up to the first break playing a set of jigs. After the first break Bill Agnew started off our second session giving his MIDI setup an airing, the level was perfect for the audience. Many people commented during his performance on how well his equipment sounded but, unfortunately, from Bill's position behind the speaker, he had difficulty hearing the rhythm so he switched to acoustic only after a few medleys. The sound in front of a speaker is always much different to the sound the player hears, that's why you see speakers on the floor in front of players which allow the player to hear the output the audience hears, these are called monitor speakers. Our next players were Jay and Jeff Ward. The first piece they played was a James Last tune Irgendwo In Fremden Strassen, this was followed by a German Polka, Embraceable You, Nearly Always In My Heart and On Green Dolphin Street. Our next player Dugald McCallum played March To The Stars which he had been practising earlier on in the day despite being interrupted three times within the same tune by the phone ringing. We were now dangerously close to 11pm, there was just time for one quick tune from myself before we finished with Walter Perrie. Walter started with La Vie En Rose and continued with, amongst other tunes, Under Paris Skies, Milord, If You Love Me, No Regrets and Figaro's Aria. We finished at 11.15pm and finally cleared the place at 11.35 when I turned the lights out and hinted that it was time to go home. The great atmosphere lasted from 7.15 when we started to 11.35pm when I managed to clear the last people out so I could lock up. We had enjoyed another great night of accordion entertainment courtesy of so many talented people.David Batty
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Our Internet WebsiteOur internet website has had 30275 visitors as at 6th November 2000, that's 1033 visitors since the last newsletter. This figure is the number of true visitors who have been on our site looking round, reading our newsletters and listening to our music. You will find that many sites tell you how many 'hits' they have had, this is a way of conning the public in to believing that they are more popular than they really are, in computing terms a 'hit' is a piece of information requested from say a website, if the first page a visitor to a website looks at has seven items of text, a counter, three pictures and a handful of graphical images or icons on it then each of these items when viewed adds one to the hit counter, so you can see that one person looking at one page can easily add 20 or 30 to the number of hits on a website. Our count is a visitor count, so if a person spends an hour looking around our site they still only add one to the counter. We have received quite a few emails this month from visitors telling us how they take an interest in the club and it's players even though many of them will probably never get to meet any of us. Once we move to the Priory club the site will be updated to reflect our new meeting place, maps and photographs will be changed so I will be taking another wrap around photograph in January. |
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Membership Fee And Looking ForwardIt is now that time of year when the club memberships are due for 2001. Despite all the extra costs we have had this year with The Highfield charging us £70 per month room hire or £80 if we finish after 11pm. I have decided not to increase the membership fees but to leave them at £5 per person. Renewing your membership not only ensures you get cheaper admission to our evenings than non members but you are assured of this excellent newsletter delivering to your door until the end of 2001. This year, when The Highfield were causing us problems and increased costs I decided to cheer myself up by increasing the size of the newsletter from it's original A4 sheet to this A3 folded newsletter. The increased costs were minimal compared with the increased typing I had to do each month but, from the comments I have received about the newsletter, I think the decision to make this larger newsletter was worth it. It's a good job I am a fast typist, when I sit down to write the newsletter I have no idea what is going to be in it apart from a list of one liners I have scribbled down during the month. I then write the whole newsletter, print, copy and post it over two days. Because I am able to type at 75 to 100 words per minute it means that you have to put up with all this reading each month! I had lots of plans for club improvements before the short round fellow appeared at The Highfield and increased our room hire rate by 500%, so when we move fully to The Priory Club in January I will be able to start implementing my shelved plans such as the club sweatshirts, car stickers, accordion case stickers, club video and many ideas I have had which cannot be announced here in case my ideas are pre-empted by others. The increased room hire has prevented me from being able to publicise the club as I used to in the past. I have now decided to wait until January when we settle at our one meeting place at The Priory Club for me to start advertising the club like I used to. I aim to get us on television again in 2001 and I hope to be able to involve the local radio in our evenings as much as possible. The workshops I have introduced using professional entertainers will start on the 25th of this month and continue until May next year when I will have plenty of feedback from attendees. After this initial pilot, we will be able to discuss plans for future workshops or maybe something slightly different... mmm that has just given me another idea for an improvement to the club! If anyone has ideas they think would improve the club then please let me know and I will add them to my list. One or two people have already paid their 2001 membership fee and this is reflected on their newsletter label. I want to start getting the memberships sorted out this month or in December so we don't have a massive queue in January trying to pay memberships and gain admission to the club at the same time. When you have paid your 2001 membership your address label will have your membership number followed by "- 2001" showing you are paid up to December 2001 so there is no disadvantage in paying early. When I started the club in November 1997, I had the idea that the club should be a social event based around the accordion with the emphasis on fun, enjoyment and treating amateur players like the important part of the club that they are. I think we have succeeded in all these areas. I give those players who are recent beginners an equal billing to the more experienced players on the concert nights and in the newsletter. I know that you are going to tell me that the downside of this approach is that no matter how good you get in the future, your chance of 'Starring' above the others is NIL but I think that is the reason for the success of the club - everyone who plays at the club has equal billing, importance and respect even if they only know two tunes or forget a piece half way through their performance and have to stop dead. We do have a number of players who have not played at our concert nights despite being at the club for a year or two! I have told them that I think it is time they played for us and one has said she will play in December, I now have to gently coax the others to follow her lead. It is difficult playing for the first time in front of the club if you are nervous but the players know that I will not push them in to the limelight, I do drop big hints though. Lets hope that this encourages our hidden players to share their skills with us, the workshops may help when ways to combat nerves are taught. That's enough from me, if you have any suggestions (Mike-No!) on how to improve the club or new ways to publicise our concerts then please let me know. |
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Accordion WorkshopAs you will now know, the first of our accordion workshops is to be held on Saturday the 25th of November at The Priory Club. The workshop will start at 10am and continue until 5pm with a break for lunch. The tutor for the day is George Syrett who some of you met at our recent picnic. No music reading knowledge or music theory skills are required to attend this workshop. It will be a light-hearted fun day of learning. The cost is £20 for the full day and the workshop is open to all, so please let players who don't get this newsletter know about it. Either send cheques made payable to Leyland Accordion Club to David Batty, 39 Wray Crescent, Ulnes Walton, Leyland, Lancashire, PR5 3NH or you can book your place in person when you see me at the club this Wednesday. We have had a good response to the idea of these workshops, and Agnes McLaren is annoyed that she will be in Australia for the first one (isn't life tough J) but she said she will be attending all the rest. I have had phone calls from people who have read about the workshops in Accordion World magazine but who live too far away to attend. They have rung me up to say what a good idea they are. One chap who rang me said that with the Internet website, recordings, picnic/concerts, workshops and all the rest of the good things he has heard about our club he wishes he lived near Leyland! I did tell him that they sell houses up here! We have had a booking from a lady in Cumbria who read about the workshops on an Internet website in New Zealand and sent me an email saying that she is a closet accordion player who now needs to 'come out' and saw the workshop as the ideal place to do so and sent me the £20 to book her place. I told her that we would welcome her when she makes the trip down to Leyland on the 25th. I need to have all bookings by the week prior to the 25th so that George knows the amount of photcopying that needs to be done in advance. This is not a music reading day so don't worry about having to read any music during the workshop. The day will suit beginners who are just learning what the left hand is for, through to advanced players looking for avenues to further explore their as yet, untapped potential. |
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Stolen AccordionA 120 bass grey Scandalli accordion with a curved keyboard was stolen on Tuesday 3rd October. The case has a curved twisted wire handle. If you have any knowledge of it's whereabouts or if you have seen this for sale please let the club know.
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Did You Know.In 1686 King Louis the fourteenth of France had an operation for Anal Fistulas. Twice he was cut open without any anaesthetic but the palace of Versailles reported that he bravely endured the operations. At the Cloister of Saint Cyr a group of nuns heard about his operation and decided to write a song about it. The song was called Dieu Sauves Le Roi. This song was heard by an Englishman travelling through France who wrote down the tune and brought it back to England where he translated it to God Save The King. Our British national anthem was therefore born from a hymn to celebrate the successful operation on a French King's Piles! |
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This WednesdayI look forward to seeing you at The Mill Hotel for our first guest artist night for six months! The last guest artist was in May when we had Tony Marchell, we used July as a local players night to give us three local players nights in a row over summer, our next guest artist night was due to be September when we were supposed to have Walter Perrie but because of the fuel blockade it ended up also being a local players night. This Wednesday we will have the brilliant Fintan Stanley, one of our members Harry Davies, saw Fintan recently, and described him as having "Fingers like demented maggots", I know from Fintan's reputation, and from people like Harry who have attended his recent concerts that this is going to be a night to remember. Make sure you get there early if you want a decent seat because I know we are going to get quite a crowd for this concert. The admission on Wednesday will have to increase by £1 per person to cover the cost of booking Fintan but I can assure you that the increase will be worth it. As usual, I will be opening the doors at The Mill from 7pm if you want to arrive early to secure a good seat. For those of you who have not been to The Mill Hotel, it is easy to find. If you are travelling from the East along the A581 Southport Road, instead of turning left into The Highfield car park like you used to do, you simply drive another 200 yards and turn right in to The Mill Hotel car park, you will have found us. I look forward to seeing you there for our first guest artist night for six months, our last one at The Mill Hotel and the last one of the 20th century! If you have any family, friends or neighbours who may enjoy our nights, please bring them along to meet us. This month we are lucky to be holding our concert a week before the planned fuel blockade so this may be the last night out you have for a while! One thing that may be handy to know is that the petrol station you pass on the left just before you get to the club is known for not raising it's prices even when fuel is in short supply. See you on Wednesday... |
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