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| Leyland Accordion Club - 19th November 2003
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Our November ConcertOur November concert opened with Tom Bennett playing The Theme From Love Story and Somewhere My Love. Basil Berry then took to the stage playing Around The World, Love Is My Reason, At Last, Moonlight Serenade, The Lady Is A Tramp and Tea For Two. Our next player was Ian Fralick from Morecambe making a welcome return to the club, Ian played Sunrise Sunset and some other pieces but I'm afraid that I missed the titles. It was now time for our guest artists George Syrett and Rodney McNamarra to start their first half. with The Demon Infant. There were many pieces they played without announcing their titles so I have to miss some out I'm afraid. After three of these pieces they played Once In A While, Your Cheating Heart, Spanish Eyes and Amazing Grace. George then demonstrated his Korg module which he bought from a defunct rock group. The fun then started as they both demonstrated how they play at 8am in Asda and other well known shops & shopping centres. There was plenty of joking around, good tunes and lots more fun to come throughout the night. Their next piece was a tango that George didn't know the title of, then Golden Tango which he did know. I Will Wait For You led to a selection of Blues tunes. A quickstep in the form of Say Has anybody seen my girl, was followed by a Scottish selection. After Blaze Away we moved to a Jewish piece Hatifa. George then played The Petite Waltz and Charlie Boy. After playing Anchors Aweigh on his left hand only, we had a selection of Jim Reeves numbers followed by some Glen Miller pieces to finish the first half. After the break, Colin Ensor played We Just Couldn't Say Goodnight, Island Of Dreams, I'm Getting Sentimental Over You and Scaraboccio. I played one tune before I was joined by George and Rodney to give me some playing advice and backing, Bill Agnew then joined George for a fantastic session before Tom Bennett and Ian Fralick each had their own sessions on stage with George and Rodney. George and Rodney then played through to 11pm with another wide selection of pieces joined together with merriment. We had enjoyed a great night out and look forward to doing it all again when George and Rodney return. David Batty |
Club MembershipIt's once again the end of a year and time for renewal of club memberships. The cost of membership is not changing from it's normal £5 for the year. This gets you in to the club for £1 cheaper than non members, it also gets you this wonderful newsletter full of facts, news and exciting 'things', delivered to your door 12 times per year. You can pay on the door this Week or by the January Guest Artist Concert. |
Ken HartleyI know that many of you don't know Ken Hartley, he last played at Leyland five and a half years ago, but many who do know him will be sad to hear that he died this week. Ken only played at one of our nights, a local players night in June 1998, he played March of the Accordion De Lyon, Beethovens Sonata in G, All The Things You Are and the Happy Mountaineers. Ken was well known in the accordion world as a professional player. His funeral service is at 9am on Tuesday 16th December at St Theresas Church, North Drive, Cleveleys, at 9am, moving at 10am to the crematorium at Poulton Le Fylde.
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Bellows Buttons and Keys ClubThe next meeting of The Bellows Buttons And Keys Club is on Tuesday, the 23rd 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. |
Eastbourne Accordion FestivalThere is some good news for us on the Accordion Festival Front in the news that a new, potentially very good accordion festival, is to be held from from a Friday the 20th of February to Monday the 23rd of February. Unlike most festivals, the organiser of this one, John Romero, is a professional accordionist who knows what accordionists would like to see at such an event. We were discussing his idea a couple of months ago when he was just thinking of this venture, I was pleased to hear that he had plenty of ideas for organising things the way I would like to see them done at a festival. My view is that you should have workshops during the day to teach new skills, there should be impromptu play areas where accordionists and a small audience can get together. It is also important that the trade stalls area must include sheet music suppliers for the majority of people who are not looking to buy a new accordion. When choosing guest artists it makes sense that instead of paying a fortune to bring one player from a far flung corner of the world, the same amount of money can be spent on the wealth of local talent available in this country. Another advantage of having English speaking players at the festival, is that the fact that they understand your own language. This then becomes useful for the next important feature of a good accordion festival. The professionals who are playing in the evening concerts should be available during the day to hold masterclasses, these give festival attendees the chance to pick up some gems of information from the pro's and a chance to get answers to their questions. When John later told me that he was going ahead with his plans, it was then clear to me that this would be something worth attending. The venue of The Albany Hotel in Eastbourne keeps everything under one roof. The fact that you can walk from your room to the concert room or trade area and back without getting wet is a definite bonus. Some of the artists already booked for the festival include Harry Hussey, George Syrett, Genaro Fiondella and of course the festival organiser John Romero himself. I will have further details of the full lineup in the next newsletter. Charlie Watkins will be in attendance with his trade stall as will Trevani, these two stalls are usually my favourite stalls at any accordion event because they have lots of interesting music to browse through and each time you return to them you see something new that you missed last time. Other stallholders booked so far include Accordion World Magazine, Worthing Accordion School, Orla UK, Handmade Music, and Carillon Studios. You are encouraged to take your accordion to the festival so that you can take part in the workshops. Sunday night is the Jam Night where the guest artists get together to see what develops in a session that could lead anywhere. The Albany Hotel venue is a medium sized hotel which has recently been taken over by new owners and has had a refurbishment. The weekend break is half board with meals served from the carvery (the evening meal is four courses). Afternoon tea and coffee is included in the price, all rooms have en-suite bathrooms, colour tv, and complimentary tea/coffee making facilities. Eastbourne is 300 miles away from Leyland, it is 6 hours by road, I have not checked train costs or prices but car sharing sounds like a good idea if you are thinkng of going . If you would like further details of the festival then ring John on 01323 733700, visit his website at www.carillonstudios.co.uk or write to 2 The Retreat, Avard Crescent, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN20 8TY. Tell him that you heard about the festival from Leyland Accordion Club.
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Chester Accordion ClubThere is no meeting of the Chester Accordion Club in December so the next meeting is on Tuesday the 27th of January at The Castrol Club, Chester Road, Whitby, Ellesmere Port. The night starts at 7.30pm. Telephone Lyn on 0151 339 9850. |
Our WebsiteOur internet website has had 63,117 visitors as at the 13th of December 2003, that’s 671 visitors since last month. I am currently compiling a list of accordionists email addresses for a mailing list. If I have urgent or important news which will miss the newsletter deadline then I will send it out to those on the mailing list. If you would like to be added to this list then please let me have a copy of your email address, or send an email to david@accordionclub.co.uk. I won't be sending many messages out but just a few times a year something happens that I think people would like to know about, but the event will be over by the time the newsletter comes out. At these times I normally email or ring a handful of people with the details.
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A Few Words From ColinI reckon the editor’s getting a taste for putting his feet up and getting us to fill up the newsletter as he’s asked me to tell you (again) about some recent happenings. First, on Saturday 15th Nov. there was the Santa day at the Wyevale Garden Centre with Bill Agnew and Bob and Shirley Seed. As with last year we didn’t actually see the elusive Santa himself but his Grotto queue did patiently shuffle past our good central spot, so that we enjoyed a captive audience who seemed to enjoy our festive contribution. Mentioning Bill there reminds me that he recently acquired an old attic-rescue Mengozzi which has some long-neglected hand made reeds and plenty of air leaks. He brought it along to the concert night last month and gave a terrific virtuoso performance on it, with George and Rodney. Bill says he doesn’t intend keeping it but it is felt by some of us that he should. Two days after our last concert Tom and I were at the Chorley Christmas Lights Switch on. The plan was for an open-top bus with celebrities, local dignitaries and Christmassy accordionists, to lead a candle lit procession through the streets of Chorley for an hour, culminating in the switch-on of the town’s Christmas Lights. The celebrities were led by actor Tony Caunce (ex Roy Evans of Eastenders) and an attractive Nolan sister (no name, sorry but not quite the most watched one) At the very back end of the long procession was a brass band but right at the very front and immediately behind our bus was a loud, full-on, oil drum type steel band, which drowned out our lovely carols and Christmas tunes. I’m discovering the need to be adaptable at these things and as Tom and I decided that we couldn’t beat their insistent bing–bonging we joined them by picking up their beat and using them as our backing group. I’ve forgotten how many times we did the Jingle Bells Samba but it worked! Whenever the tin men paused, we dived in with a quick carol or two then went back up-beat as they burst into life again. It was great belting out In The Mood etc. but Silent Night doesn’t reggae very well. We came to the switch-on and a quick few bars of the Eastenders theme led to Tony, surrounded by the “lights - camera - action” team, lighting up the town, then it was back to the beginning and time to go home and get warm again. It didn’t rain and it was certainly a novel experience though Tom and I would have preferred to give the crowds some more Christmassy sounds. It’s good to see Ian Fralick and Barbara back amongst us. They made the journey down from Morecambe to our last practice night where we could see that although he enjoys his straight-tuned Sonola, Ian still hankers after a musette instrument - which most of us seem to prefer-(your editor being a notable exception) Wednesday 26th Nov. was the Wyre Club’s Annual Christmas Buffet which was enjoyed by double the number who usually attend. I had a very well deserved win in the draw for Annie’s Christmas cake. Anne Parker busied herself all evening making an audio tape of the evening’s entertainment for Ken Hartley who seemed to be recovering from a stroke, but sadly we have to report another loss to our movement. I’ll remember Ken as a most accomplished player who made incredible sounds come out of a small basic instrument. Don’t forget Wednesday is our local players’ night and Christmas feast – bring your accordions and appetites along. It only remains for me to wish you all a very Happy Christmas. Be seeing you. Colin Ensor. |
Wyre Accordion ClubThe next meeting of the Wyre Accordion Club will be on Wednesday the 28th of January 2004, 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.
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Jay Ward.
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This Wednesday
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