Leyland Accordion Club, Leyland, Lancashire, England.

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Leyland Accordion Club - 18th September 2002

 

Our September Concert

Our September concert opened with fine performances from Bill Agnew and Colin Ensor before our guest artist Alan Helm took to the stage. Alan started with a Scottish medley of Gay Gordons, The Hills Of Perth and Loch Rhuan. The second medley was a singalong - Let Me Call You Sweetheart, In The Shade Of The Old Apple Tree and I'll Be Your Sweetheart. It was back to Scottish tunes next with Lassie Come And Dance With Me and The Ornothologist. Things slowed down with the 50's titles Tammy and Softly Softly before returning to Scottish music again with Duke Of Atholl, Soldiers Dance, Heathers Hills and The Harmonica. Good Companions was followed by more Scottish pieces, Old House, Annie Laurie and Loch Lomond. It was now time for some Irish music with Dear Old Donegal, Mcnamaras Band and If You're Irish Come In To The Parlour. The next two Scottish pieces Allen C Beaton and The Braemar Highland Gathering were followed by Pal Of My Cradle Days, Has Anybody Seen My Girl, Red Red Robin and Home In Pasadena. We then went back to Singalongs with All The Nice Girls Love A Sailor/Ship Ahoy, I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside, The Man Who Broke The Bank At Monte Carlo and Lily The Pink. Just two more medleys to go before the break. First a Burns medley - My Love Is Like A Red Red Rose, Ran Rovin' Robin and The Corn Ricks. The final medley was a collection of Virginia reels - Oh Dem Golden Slippers, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Boil Dem Cabbage Down and Turkey In The Straw. After the break we continued with Alan Helm playing Two Step and a George Hick's favourite Dancing Dustman. The singalongs Old Bull And Bush, After The Ball Is Over and Around The World, were followed by more Scottish pieces - A Wee Dochin Doris, I Love A Lassie, Stop Yer Ticklin' Jock and Muck In The Georgies By. Things slowed down with Let The Rest Of The World Go By, White Cliffs Of Dover, Sing Something Simple and Lily Marlene. The Scandanavian piece Mazurka Lacsic Pretin was then followed by more Scottish pieces - Glen Bucket Lodge, Snouts & Ears and Miss Murray of Lentrose. I do look forward to Scottish songwriters getting some imagination when it comes to choosing titles! It was then back to singalong with Daisy Daisy, Two Lovely Black Eyes, My Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean and Oh Dear What Can The Matter Be. Sweeny's Polka, Denis Murphy's Polka and John Rind's Polka were then followed by the continental pieces Les Hirondelles, Under The Bridges Of Paris, Tulips From Amsterdam and Wonderful Copenhagen. It was almost 11pm and time to finish, there was just time for two medleys, the first an Irish Medley consisting of Mountains Of Mourne, Irish Eyes and a set of Irish reels. The final medley of the night was My Old Man's A Dustman, My Old Man Says Follow The Van, Maybe It's Because I'm A Londoner, It's A Long Way To Tipperary, Pack Up Your Troubles and finally a set of Irish jigs and reels to finish. It had been a great evenings entertainment and I know that some of our players were impressed that most of Alans pieces were at dance tempo. If you don't know what that is then just imagine very slow and deliberate, it gave our players something to listen to that they could easily attempt themselves. If you are asked to play for dancers then after hearing Alan's playing you now know the speed - I don't think many of our players go that slow though! Thanks must go to Alan for travelling from Sunderland to play for us at short notice and for playing so many tunes. I have just typed all those tunes for the second time in a few hours, I keep getting the feeling that I am repeating myself. Don't worry, another coffee has just arrived so you might still get this newsletter on time!

David Batty

Accordion Repair Book ISBN

In the last newsletter I told you about a book called "The Ins And Outs Of The Accordion" for accordion repairers. I received several phone calls and emails asking me where to buy the book. When I wrote the last newsletter I had a copy on it's way to me but I didn't know of a shop which stocked it or it's ISBN number. Since then I have managed to find that it's ISBN number is 2-9517184-1-1 for the English version. If your local bookshop can't get it for you then you can purchase it online at www.musicforaccordion.com with your credit or debit card.

 

Our Internet Website

Our internet website has had 52975 visitors as at the 13th of October 2002, that’s 823 visitors since last month. Our radio station is being listened to for around 19 hours of every day at the moment, this is a lot of listeners and the number is going up each week , it was only a few months ago that we had people listening to it for 12 hours per day, the increase happened because, until about three months ago, I had not told anyone on the Internet about our station. The only people who knew about it were visitors to our site, about three months ago I mentioned it to some accordion type people and word spread quite quickly.

 

Anne Breen Night

On the 14th of November from 8pm to Midnight, there is an Irish night featuring the singer Ann Breen with an Irish disco to finish the night off. This is at The Monaco Ballroom, Atherton Road, Hindley, Wigan. Admission £6, Telephone 01942 255138.

 

Kimmo Pohjonen

I received a phone call from The Royal Northern College Of Music asking if I would be interested in receiving details of an accordionist playing at Manchester on the 30th of October. His name is Kimmo Pohojonen and he is an accordionist, but not like any you have seen before. If you are frightened by weird or unusual then it might not be the night for you, he has been described as "The Finnish Techno Accordion Terrorist"! He mixes accordion playing with voice and electronic effects and dramatic light shows. The admission charge is around £12. I did tell the College when they mentioned the price, that you are used to seeing top players for £3, the most I have ever had to charge is £4 on three occasions. If you are interested then the College have sent me some leaflets on the Kimmo Pohjonen concert, these will be on the door at the club on Wednesday night, you can also telephone 0161 907 5555 or visit www.rncm.ac.uk.

Newsletter Dejavu

I am only just starting this SECOND newsletter of the month with a few hours to go before it's due in the post, this is because I had finished the newsletter once, and was about to print it when I had a serious computer hard drive crash which damaged four hard drives plus the newsletter I had been working on. I have backups of all my work files, so things can be put right after some effort, but in order to get the newsletter done in just a few hours before the post is collected I am on a computer which was unaffected and I am typing like mad, so I hope you are fast readers. My main computer is in bits until I get this newsletter posted. I have to retype everything, including the list of forthcoming dates, so let's see if I get the newsletter finished in time! If you're not reading this then you know that I didn't!

Jazz and Swing Break

Alan Venn's Jazz and Swing Break at Blackpool is from Friday the 8th to Tuesday the 12th of November, this is a organ weekend with some accordion. Alan is also holding some of his Jazz and Swing breaks on the 29th of April to the1st of May 2003, and also on the 8th to the 11th August 2003. You can telephone Alan on 01204 840279 for further details.

Tameside Accordion Festival

The Tameside Accordion Festival is at Ashton Town Hall, Ashton Under Lyne, Tameside, Greater Manchester (Lancashire) on the 17th of November. There will be competitions throughout the day, and trade stalls from Music World, Electronic Accordions, Geoff Holter, The Music Room and Hobgoblin Music. Tel. Mrs Ainscow on 0161 320 9994 for further details.

 

Basils Story

My first attempt at any music began when I was 15 with three terms of lessons on the piano - I must say that it was done mostly without any enthusiasm.

The war against Hitler's Germany began and we moved to what had been a holiday bungalow just outside Stranraer. It had no piped water, gas or electricity - and of course no piano. At school I became friendly with some lads who had started to play instruments just for fun! One lad had a mandolin and another a guitar, and I was taught the three-chord strum. Hawaiian style slide guitars were very popular at the time and I was sorely tempted to have a go. Mother however had become very fond on Tango Bands led with great zip by an accordion, and I was persuaded to spend my hard won savings on a 120 bass Paolo Soprani that was advertised in the local paper for £10. At the time, a London firm called Keith Prowse sold tutors for most instruments at the price of 2/6d (old money), so with a copy I set to work.

One day, while having a go at the latest tune on the veranda of the bungalow, a man sat and listened. Eventually he came to the door and introduced himself as Jack Duffy, a blacksmith living two miles away and having a small accordion band. I agreed to pedal my accordion propped on the crossbar and handlebars two or three times a week to the smithy, and join Jack and his daughter Isobel, where we tried to play tunes like "Pennsylvania Polka" and "You are my sunshine".

Occasionally, a fourth accordion joined us and, eventually, gigs were organised. We played in the village halls in Glenluce, Kirkcolm, and Stoneykirk, also in the old lifeboat house at Portlogan (used as a school in the T.V. series "2,000 acres of sky").

Jack had a chromatic button accordion and Isobel played a 120 bass piano accordion. Jack played all the fast Scottish tunes while Isobel and I tried to back him - my efforts were mostly rhythmic cords. Jack kept strict time with his tackety boots!

Come 1943, I joined the R.A.F. as potential aircrew with a parting comment from Jack "You have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana skin"! I had too much kit to bother with an accordion. When I was released in 1947, after a period of loafing around, I started to study and finished my exams in 1950. I played little accordion, but I do remember "Ghost Riders in the Sky" as one of my efforts.

In the late 1970's, I bought a new Galanti-Dominator II with octave tuning. At that point my interest in chords really began. I only purchased the usual sheet music, which is scored for the piano, but I found that the right hand chords were too expansive for the accordion so I limited the chord structure while playing the bass chord printed.

In 1991, I bought a 96 bass Sonola with double cassoto and, being then retired, my enthusiasm was really fired - so much so that I wrote a whole treatise on the chords and their note content (as yet unpublished). These had become more complicated, and the symbols for them more complex, with the advent of the 101 series of "Hits for Buskers" books, designed for all instruments.

Today I work out my own right hand chords on the basis of the chord symbols, with quite a fair proportion of the chord in the bass, adding single notes to the basic chord button but played together - producing chords such as 6ths, 9ths, m7ths, maj7ths, maj9ths and min9ths. Working it all out and committing it to memory keeps me thoroughly amused. Basil Berry

 

This Wednesday

We have a great night lined up on Wednesday at The Priory Club when we will be holding another of our local players concerts. Remember to get there early for a decent seat. Drag your friends, family or even people you hardly know down to see us and we will do our best to give them a night to remember. Players don't forget your accordions for either solo performances or joining in with the buskers if you don't feel confident at doing the stage bit on your own. I look forward to seeing you all there.

 

 

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