Leyland Accordion Club, Leyland, Lancashire, England.

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Leyland Accordion Club - 15th October 2003

This Wednesday

This Wednesday we have the welcome return of George Syrett and Rodney McNamarra on accordion and drums. The doors are open at 7.30 for an 8pm start. Make sure that you turn up early for a good seat. Please tell your friends and family about the club, the more we can spread the word the more we can spend on guest artists, raffle prizes, etc. The concert finishes at 11pm. I look forward to seeing you there on Wednesday. David Batty

Our Website

Our internet website has had 662446 visitors as at the 17th of November 2003, that’s 968 visitors since last month. I have added a tracking feature to the site which allows me to see which pages people arrive on from the search engines. I can watch them moving around the site and see what they were looking for when they arrived. I can even invite any of them for a chat or they can request the same from me if they need help and I am on the Internet at the time.

Review of Bridlington Festival

We set off for the Bridlington festival with fingers crossed that there was a place booked for us and that the festival was going ahead. Nobody we knew, or at least no-one we had spoken to had a written confirmation of their booking or a receipt for their money. It was like attending a secret underground or clandestine festival with no record of our bookings, just instructions to turn up at Bridlington for further instructions on where to go, etc. The good news was that the festival was on, we did have a hotel booked and things were looking good. When we got to our hotel we found out that we were just a few accordionists sharing with normal holidaymakers. We could not play our accordions at night and the whole of the downstairs lounge area was locked after 10.30 or 11pm. This meant that we had no other option than to go to bed after the concert. One of our members was in an attic room up some very steep steps so had great difficulty taking accordions in and out of the hotel. We were resigned to the fact that we could not play in the hotel so we decided to limit our activities to the Spa complex itself. The evening performances featured some great playing from Gary Blair, David Vernon, Harry Hussey and others. I liked the entertainment, not too many bands, more emphasis on solo players and a bit of variety. The daytime workshops were a disappointment for me, there were three or four bands you could join for the weekend but for non band players like myself there was only one workshop, Harry Hussey talking about Jazz chords. I attended both sessions of this workshop and enjoyed listening to Harry even when some of the audience forced the discussion in to far too technical terms for most of the crowd, as usual though Harry had all the answers and kept us all interested. The only other event was the George Syrett and Rodney - Play with the Pros. This went down really well as it always does, amateur players being given help and support to make a big noise with George, Rodney and other accordionists. The trade stalls had plenty of accordions on them but no music supplier, I normally look forward to browsing through Charlie Watkins and Trevani's stalls, both of thse normally have lots of interesting music books to look through and purchase, but neither of them were at this Bridlington festival. Two of our club members were not as lucky as us with their bookings, there was a problem with their booking which resulted in them being moved from one hotel to another before they had unpacked. On the last night of the festival, the organiser Loretta Rolston gave a speech in which she thanked Paul from the council for allowing this festival to go ahead despite the fact that we owe him lots of money. We all thought that that WE don't owe him anything, we had all paid. We were then asked to ensure that we filled in a feedback form detailing how much money we had spent in Bridlington during our stay (probably to justify us being there) asking where we had travelled from, etc. I could not help but feel that that, in my opinion, the money owed to the council was possibly the reason why nobody I knew could get anything in writing confirming their booking. Overall we did enjoy ourselves, making full use of the fact that Bridlington town is on the doorstep. We did plenty of shopping and looking around the town, getting some fresh sea air and meeting up with people we had not seen for a while.

Bellows Buttons and Keys Club

The next meeting of The Bellows Buttons And Keys Club is on Tuesday, the 2nd of December 2003, at The Royal British Legion, opposite the bus terminal at Cleveleys. The club starts at 8pm and continues until 11pm. Telephone 01253 822046 for details.

Colin Ensor - Out and About

knew that Colin Ensor was keeping busy with his accordion so I asked him to write about his week for the newsletter:-

Been busy just lately. Right after last month’s concert, we were off to the Bridlington Festival (16th - 19th October) which you can read about elsewhere. I’ll just say that I enjoyed the workshops and the concerts at night were excellent, but the hotel booking glitch spoiled things a bit. We, like others, were booked in with non accordionists (which shouldn’t have happened) so we didn’t have the traditional busk into the small hours - not the hotel’s fault. Changes are needed if the event is to survive. Tuesday the 21st was an enjoyable visit with Harry-the-Boat to Hal’s free and easy Wirral Club where if you play something half decently you get barred out for a week – finally made it! Wednesday it was up to the Wyre with David and Elaine where the playing went on until 11-00. Thursday and Sunday were rehearsal days with Tom for Tuesday’s thrash at Southport and Saturday 25th October was a return visit to The Wyevale Garden Centre with Bill Agnew and Bob and Shirley Seed. We shared the spot with some other seniors who played and sang but backed themselves with mini discs (cheats). Bob is looking to retire from the Slaidburn Silver Band as drummer, after 27 years, as soon as a suitable replacement can be found. Tuesday the 28th was a bit different. Tom and I were booked to do an hour or so for a group of Over 50s and retirees at Southport‘s Floral Hall – starting at 8.30 in the morning! We were joined by Tom’s brother Mike on the drums. Mike’s more used to playing rock and heavy metal but survived the culture shock well. We played in the foyer, welcoming the guests in until 9.00 am, then dashed into the main hall to play for the 300 or so who should have been in place by then, but getting 300 seniors moving that quickly stretched the organisers a bit. Then after being given four different times to finish, our spot was suddenly cut to 25 minutes, so the programme of medleys went out of the window and with a quick change of plan, we finished at 9.25am, by which time only about 50 people were in place – the rest were still outside in the big reception area and wouldn’t have known we’d been. Not very satisfactory. That same evening, Tuesday, it was down to Chester Accordion Club with David and Elaine to see the impressive Heather Smith. Effortless playing from a nice lady. An enforced layoff due to the current virus meant missing a Tuesday visit to Gina’s and our practice night as well, but I was up and running again for Friday’s unmissable booking. Liverpool University were having a Victorian themed Open Day to celebrate their Centenary and brought in clowns, street entertainers, a string quartet and an accordionist to busk away happily through the day. We all dived into a big pile of Victorian costume from a Manchester theatre, got kitted out and started around 10.00am. I did an hour outside then moved inside to the wide, warm corridors where the acoustics were great. A few students came over for a chat, a few pictures and to have the mysteries of the accordion explained. (One asked what the bellows did) The young Chinese girls were lovely to talk to - they were just so polite and pleasant - if only everyone was like that! As for the tide of hundreds of students swilling backwards and forwards, some but not many, turned their heads and smiled but most just shuffled through the wall of sound. I tried all sorts of hooks and melody lines but I think that they can only hear thudding and tuneless yapping - shame really. The Organisers were happy with their day’s work and I certainly enjoyed the all day practice session with not one nit-picking accordion-playing critic for miles. I even got home in time to head for Blackpool for one of those great Harry Hussey nights that Alan Venn puts on. But last Tuesday brought a complete change of mood – the sadness of Jeff’s funeral. Jeff will be sadly missed by family, friends and all accordion people. There’s one more trip to the Wyevale centre for this Saturday, their Santa day and then I can have a look at the jobs piling up at home – just looking!
Don’t miss George and Rodney on Wednesday. Colin Ensor.

Jeff Ward

One of the club's first members, Jeff Ward went into hospital recently for an operation, although he seemed to have got through the operation without any problems and we were all pleased with his recovery. He then developed problems and died two weeks ago. His funeral, which was held at Lytham Crematorium, was a great funeral for his family and friends as far as any funeral can be a good event. There were so many familiar faces in the crowd of about 80 people it was like visiting an accordion club, most people there already knew each other. The priest mentioned Jeff's dislike of bagpipes which gave everyone a great laugh. Jeff's Friend, Hal Mason, played the accordion in the middle of the service while Jeffs own accordion was propped up against his coffin. I know that Jay will be amused to hear that many people in the room were frightened by the sight of Jeffs accordion resting on his coffin, if anything had moved towards the curtains then about 30 people would have rushed forwards to save the accordion. I am glad to say that the accordion was put back in to the car while the crowd stood in line to write in the book of condolence for Jay. I was feeling very sad at Jeff's funeral as were many others, he will be sorely missed. I can only look forward to Jay returning to the club when she feels ready.

Wyre Accordion Club

The next meeting of the Wyre Accordion Club will be on Wednesday the 26th of November 2003, at Cleveleys. Telephone 01253 852648 for further details or directions. The club normally starts at 8pm, some people go home about 10pm but we stay to 11pm.