Leyland Accordion Club, Leyland, Lancashire, England.

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Leyland Accordion Club - 8th November 2000

 

Editors Comment

I am writing the newsletter early because I am again visiting Ireland, I will again be taking my accordion so I don't miss out on any chances to play and I will be looking for new talent to fill our guest artist spots. I will be back in time for our December concert though so don't worry, you won't get away with a month without me playing at the club! Local Players don't forget your accordions. I will see you there............

Fintan Stanley

 

Our November Concert

In the last newsletter I said that it would be advisable to get to the club early if you wanted a good seat, I should have written that it would be advisable to get there early if you wanted any kind of seat! We only had 75 chairs when I had asked for 90. There were other functions on that evening at The Mill so on the night I found out that we were limited to 75 chairs for the evening. By 7.40pm it was a case of standing room only, I managed to get some tables for people to sit on and a couple of plastic garden chairs to help ease the situation. The night started at 8pm promptly with Linda Grant who had a theme of music played by various Scottish bands. Linda started with Over The Drills, which was a polish polka played by Bill Hendry's Band. Linda's next piece was a Strathspey Music For The Dance 'Cashmere Shawl' Miss McPherson Of Scone, Joan and Agnes Young, John Stephen Of Chance Inn, Barry Burn, Irene Fidlers Strathspey and Sky Gathering. I know that this sounds just like a bunch of people but I do have these as a list of song titles. I have to thank Linda who, after reading my comment that the Scots seem to have a thing about naming songs with weird titles that read like a guest list, sent me a photocopy of the history of Scottish dance tunes. Even after reading that publication I am still amazed at the titles that seem to emanate from Scottish composers. I am not sure if some of them need an imagination upgrade or if they are trying to impress people by naming tunes after them. They give no thought for those of us who read these titles and have to work out if it is the name of the piece we are reading, the name of the writer or the name of the person who played it! Linda finished her set playing Canberra Carousel which was a continental waltz by Jim Cleland of Jim McClouds Band. This tune was written to celebrate the bands numerous trips on the Canberra. Our next player was Dugald McCallum who played Indifference and Parade Of The Accordionists, Dugalds fancy fingerwork led us nicely to our guest artist spot which was tonight filled by Fintan Stanley. I first heard Fintan when I was going through some accordion LP records I had bought. When I heard the quality of his playing, I looked at the date printed on the LP which was 1973, I decided to find out if this chap was still alive. I was not going to get caught out a second time, my first good idea to get Tollofsen as a guest artist was about ten years too late! I was pleased to find out that Fintan was alive and well but he was in the USA. I later found out that he was visiting Ireland and Scotland at the end of October returning to the USA in the first week of November which meant he was returning before our club night. Despite this I made a request for him to play for us on the 8th of November which he agreed to do just before leaving the country the following morning. Fintan started his first spot of the night with a few Scottish tunes followed by Reine De Musette which means Queen of Musette. This was followed by Whistling Rufus and Sweet Georgia Brown and back to Whistling Rufus. Next he slowed down to play a Strauss Waltz called Wine Women and Song. Fintan's next tune was the Happy Hours Polka which he played for someone in the room who was from the county Kildare. After explaining that he recently started to sing after being advised to do so at one of his concerts, Fintan showed us he had a fine voice singing the song Rare Old Times while he trained us all to join in with the chorus. It was then back to instrumental tunes with a few tangos in the form of La Paloma, Don't Cry For Me Argentina and Jealousy. The speed then increased considerably when Fintan switched to playing a selection of Irish Jigs on his Fratelli Crosio button accordion. This was a MIDI'd accordion but Fintan kept the MIDI and amplification down to a minimum which went down well with the crowd who despite all the electronics got to hear plenty of reeds. It was then time for some French tunes starting with Reproach and then Bourrasque. It was only at this point that Fintan noticed that he had not opened the bottom strap on his accordion despite the fact that we had heard lots of reeds in his playing, obviously an accordion with good compression. It was time for more singing, starting with Peggy O'Neil, Sweet Rosie O'Grady and My Donegal. It was then back to the instrumentals with All Of Me and After Your gone. It was now time for the break so, to finish with a bang, Tommy Joyce took to the floor with his Bodhran. Whilst Fintan played a set of Irish Jigs Tommy gave his all on his goatskin. After the break it was my turn to play being the only local player left. I sat down to shouts from the trouble makers at the back of the room calling 'Sing' 'Sing', when I said OK there was a big cheer. I warmed my fingers up playing Sailors Hornpipe and then sang and played a comedy song called Wee Small Man which had many in fits of laughter, I hope it was the words and not my singing! After I finished I got a big cheer for being daft enough to sing in the first place. I was about to leave the floor but Fintan would not return until I had played another one so I again sang and played Wild Rover which got everyone singing in the chorus. It was now time for Fintan Stanley to return for his second spot. He started with a tune by Will Starr The Jacqueline Waltz followed by Cuckoo Waltz. Fintans next selection was a set of Glen Miller tunes including Chattanooga Choo Choo, Little Brown Jug and In The Mood. It was now time for some Straus Waltzes including Tales From The Vienna Woods. After telling us a few tales about his cousin Michael in Ireland Fintan continued with more Irish Jigs, Whistling Rufus and Bluebell Polka. A change of pace gave us Misty and Stardust before playing my request of Orange Blossom Special. It was now time for more singing starting with Isle of Innisfree and I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen before a selection of more well known Irish songs. It was getting near to 11pm and time for a spanish selection of tunes including Granada. It was now 11.15 and, while Tommy Joyce got his Bodhran out to finish the night, Fintan was requested to play Blaze Away, a little bit of MIDI trombone added the right touch to this tune while Tommy sat down ready to play, Fintans final set was Sally Gardens and various Irish Jigs in double time with Tommy adding some nice percussion and trying to keep up with Fintan. To end the night at 11.20 Fintan sang We'll Meet Again. Fintan's first set was 1 hour ten minutes long, his second spot was 1 hour 20 minutes giving us a total of two and a half hours of quality music. He said he has enjoyed himself so much over here that he is considering returning next year when we hope to book him for another great night of entertainment.

David Batty

Our Internet Website

Our internet website has had 31127 visitors as at 30th November 2000, that's 852 visitors since the last newsletter. Since our last newsletter the site has been searched quite heavily for information, users have searched for the following words: Music, french, midi, sale, play, Noton, news letter, la vieon rose, la v'on rose, la vi'on rose, Old Scandalli, picture, accordion picture, cavinolo, private, accordian, instrement, Tonella, hohner ariette6, midi, George, wEST Midlands, land of hope and glory, Puppazetti, branelli, andrew figg, workshop, scottish country dance music, ask jeeves, photo, aerial, plasir d'amour, Land Of Hope And Glory, frosini, Excelsior Midivox, Accordians for sale, Accordians, la vie en rose, tangos, excelsior, watch tv over the, bannanas, accordion repairs, Accordians for sale, Accordians dealers, used accordians, accordion repair books, sale, festival november, repairs, midi, button accordions, auction, Diary, citymap, Mario Carini, "stairway to the stars", land of hope and glory, pat Mahon, deuling banjos, pictures, whispering hope, picture of an accordion, and Flambe Montalbanaise. You can see from some of the mis-spellings used like Scotish, Accordian, la vieon rose, la v'on rose, la vi'on rose, and instrement that the person searching would find nothing, on the Internet. On any computer system you have to spell things correctly otherwise you don't find what you are looking for. The person having trouble looking for La Vie En Rose could have searched our site for the word Rose which would have found all occurrences of the word Rose, this would find all mentions of La Vie En Rose as well as Red Rose Cafe and the Last Rose Of Summer without them needing to know how to spell the whole thing. Although this way you don't get an exact match it is easy to look through the results to find what you are looking for. When searching our site or any computer try and use as few words as possible, try and use unusual words if you can. Remember, even if you know the correct title for a piece, how do you know that someone else has spelt it correctly or used foreign accents or unusual punctuation. Just because you can put the correct non spacing diacriticals in place you can't expect that others have done so. I hope to add a few more newsletters to the site in the near future and I have just taken a lot of photographs of our players on stage at The Priory Club, these may appear on the website so people can identify with our players when they read about them in the newsletters. The photograph of Colin on this page is one of those I mentioned, the quality of the original photographs is superb because of the good lighting at the Priory Club where these were taken.

 

Club Membership Fee

Many thanks to those of you who renewed your membership last month, if you have yet to renew, your £5 can be paid to Elaine on Wednesday night, at the practice night, by post or at our January meeting.

 

The Priory Club From The Air

I thought it would be a good idea to show you what to look for when visiting our new venue of The Priory Club for the first time in January. As you can see from this aerial photo I took recently, the place is set back from the road, seeing this photograph should help you find the club easier at your first visit. The Club belongs to St Mary's Church which you can see in the photograph. This is a round church which is easily visible from the main road. The entrance to The Priory Club is a gap in the trees which you may drive past until you get used to its location. You can see the entrance just above the letter 'D' in the word Drive in the photograph. Broadfield Drive runs from the top left of this photograph to the bottom right. It is not too obvious on this photograph, but if you look closely you will notice that, just after you turn off Broadfield Drive between the trees, you pass the grass verge at the roadside, the other side of the trees is a private road running parallel with Broadfield Drive where you can park if the club car park is full. This road runs right past the church to the top left of the photograph and you can park along it's whole length, there is also car parking on three sides of the club. Behind the club hidden in those trees are ponds, ducks, squirrels (I was watching some on Saturday during the workshop) and there is a bridge over the water leading in to the trees if you want a walk or to play outside in summer.

 

Only Joking

At the Pearly Gates, St. Peter's checking ID's. He asks a man, "What did you do on Earth?" The man says, "I was a doctor." St. Peter says, "Ok, go right through those pearly gates. Next! What did you do on Earth?" "I was a school teacher." replied the next chap, "Go right through those pearly gates. Next! And what did you do on Earth?" "I was a musician.", "Go around the side, up the goods lift, then through the kitchen..."!

A drummer, sick of all the drummer jokes, decides to change his instrument. After some thought, he decides on the accordion. So he goes to the music shop and says to the owner, "I'd like to look at the accordions, please." The owner gestures to a shelf in the corner and says "All our accordions are over there." After careful consideration, the drummer says, "I think I'd like the big white one in the corner." The owner looks at him funny and replies, "You're a drummer, right?" The drummer is amazed. "How did you know that?" "Because the 'big white one in the corner' is the radiator." replied the shopkeeper.

 

Accordion Midi Repair

I was requested by Keyboard Services Scotland to add their details to our website. I thought it would be useful to some people if I made their details known here. They offer a comprehensive repair service for electronic accordions, carry out midi conversions and are members of the Musical Instrument Technicians Association. They can be found on the Internet, their website address is www.organfax.co.uk/keyboardservices-scotland.html. Their address and phone number is below for those without computers. Keyboard Services Scotland 9 Kingswood Road Kingswells Aberdeen AB15 8TD Telephone 01224 744585 If you know of any useful addresses then please let the club know so we have a decent database of suppliers, teachers, repairers and associated trades.

 

Accordion Workshop

The first in our series of accordion workshops was held on Saturday the 25th of November at our new venue of The Priory Club. The workshop which started at 10am was the first in a series of workshops aimed at improving our players' confidence and abilities. The first job of the day was to get the kettle on while we waited for everyone to arrive. Tea and coffee seemed to start the day off on a good footing. The workshop started with George Syrett assessing the abilities of the players by asking each one to play a tune of their choice. After each player had played their piece they were given advice on improvements such as coupler changes, speed, intro's, endings and other factors which could improve their chosen piece. This along with general hints and tips from George continued the theme of the mornings session. After a hot lunch we started the second half of the day with volunteers joining George at the stage to lead the rest of us in a tune of their choice while George shouted out the chords for those needing to know what the left hand should be doing. There were plenty of questions and answers flying around during the day although some people may have been trying not to attract attention in case they were asked to play something! One of the questions brought up was "How do you stop the sound from going quiet when you change bellows direction", this is a common question which has a simple answer, it is such a common question that the answer is worth putting in here: you can't change bellows direction and keep a continuous note going, when you change bellows direction you have to time it so that this is done between the notes you are playing, you should also time your change so that it occurs at the end of a phrase when a singer would normally take a breath. Experienced accordionists learn to change bellows direction quickly and smoothly to give the impression that they are keeping the sound going over the change. George had brought his drummer with him for the day which gave us an excellent rhythm section both to show us correct timing for the music we were playing and to provide us with a sound we don't normally hear when we play these same tunes in our own homes. It was surprising how different our simple pieces of music sounded when the drummer started playing and George provided accompaniment. On a regular basis George asked the other players to join in and busk these easy tunes while he shouted out the chords for those who could not busk but could follow his chord announcements on their left hand. The final part of the day ended in a busking session of simple pieces we all knew. The lights went down and with the stage and effects lighting on we finished the last 15 minutes of the day with a good playing/singalong session. When I spoke to some of the players as we were packing up they said the day had gone really quickly. One player was impressed that he could buy cheap beer all day and another one asked me when the next workshop was to be held because he could not wait to do all this again. To answer that last question we will be holding another workshop in January with Walter Perrie. I have yet to arrange a date with Walter and I will publish the details in our next newsletter.

 

St Patricks Day Concert

On Saturday 17th March 2001 there will be a repeat of this years St Patricks Day celebrations at The Wheatsheaf pub at Croston, this will again feature Steve Roxton playing the accordion and singing all things Irish. Last time Steve did this concert at The Wheatsheaf and, despite the other two pubs in the village offering drink at £1 per pint to attract customers, The Wheatsheaf seemed to have attracted everyone in the village. Customers were arriving and telling us that the other two places were empty. The place was packed out to the door all night, it was a good job we got there early for seats. The landlord of The Wheatsheaf was quite sceptical at first when I said that one person with an accordion could replace his original request of an accordionist, drummer, fiddle player and singer. At the end of the evening he said he had never seen his place so busy, the result is a repeat performance on March 17th 2001.

 

Don't Mess With Accordionists

The November 2000 issue of Readers Digest tells the story of Tony Tomei from Los Alamos USA. When the May forest fires swept through the area he removed all his vintage accordions from his home, except, it turns out, his Bugari Armando. Realising his error at leaving one accordion behind, he returned to his home. Tony ended up not only saving his accordion but, after a long night with just a shovel and a rake, saved his home and two others while the rest of his neighbourhood was destroyed!

 

This Wednesday

This Wednesday is our last meeting at The Mill Hotel, this is a local players concert so don't forget your accordions. I hope my singing debut last month has inspired others to try the same, doors open from 7.15pm for an 8pm start. This promises to be another great night to add to the collection. If you have anything for sale then please bring it along, people are always looking for music, accordions etc. If you have not played at the club before then why not try and persuade yourself to play something. I know we have many waiting to take the plunge and I hope we see some of them playing soon. See you on Wednesday at The Mill, 7.15 onwards for an 8pm start.... David Batty

 

 

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