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| Leyland Accordion Club - 21st April 2004
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Our April ConcertOur April concert night was a local players' concert, it starting with Chick Stephen playing After All These Years, Old Flames and Song Of Myra. Tom Bennett continued the theme of slow ballads with Whiter Shade Of Pale before launching in to a selection of tunes from the musical Oliver. To finish his spot, Tom played the popular piece Umbrelllas Of Cherbourg. Our next player Phil Sanderson played By A Babbling Brook, You Raise Me Up, I've Grown Accustomed To Her Face and Bread & Fishes. Our next performer was Ann Parker playing Beer Barrel Polka, El Relicario and The Carnival Is Over. Leading us up to the first break of the evening, Dugald McCallum started with Duncan Johnson and The Old Grey before finishing our first session with Princess Accordion and finally Death Or Glory. After the break, Harry Davis started with the slow pieces Any Dream Will Do and Memories before upping the pace with a selection of German drinking songs. Making his debut on the stage, our next player was Steve Heap playing A Gavotte and the Bob Dylan piece Blowing In The Wind. Well done Steve for joining the ranks of players who have entertained us at the club and doing such a good job of it. Our next players were a threesome who played on the floor in front of the stage, Jay (on keyboard), Sylvia and Jean (on accordions) played Your Cheating Heart, I Can't Stop Loving You, I Love You Because, Take These Chains, Red Sails In The Sunset and finally a Henry Mancini medley of You Do Something To Me, Three Little Words and Somebody Stole My Gal. As the threesome left the floor, a duo in the form of Shirley Seed and Bill Agnew were getting ready on the stage. Their chosen pieces were Cockles And Mussels, Rose Of Tralee, Those Endearing Young Charms, The Robert E Lee, Dream A Dream Of Little Dream Of Me and Amapola. Shirley then left the stage leaving Bill Agnew to do his solo spot. Bill's medley of tunes included Begin The Beguine, MacNamara's Band, You Belong To Me, The Blue Tango, When The Angelus Was Ringing, You're Too Good To Be True and Who's Sorry Now. It was now time for the second break of the evening. After the break, Derek Corlett started the final session of the night with Petite Waltz, All In An April Evening, a waltz called Genevieve, and to finish, a selection of Irish Jigs. Jean Southern, this time as a solo artist, was our next player, playing My Florence and Espana. It was almost time to finish the evening, due to good timing, I had managed to get through all the players and leave about 20 minutes for the buskers to finish the night off. While the buskers set up on the floor in front of me, I played one piece until they were ready to play. I normally let the buskers set up while I am playing because I like to keep the night flowing, which is why I always have the next player cued and ready to take to the stage during the night. We had enjoyed a great concert with plenty of variety and fun. The ending with about 15 accordionists playing sing-along pieces was a great way to finish the night off. If you haven't played in front of the club before then I suggest that joining in with the buskers on the practice nights and at the end of the evening is a great way to build your confidence up. The last of us finally left the club at around 11.45pm. Our next night this Wednesday the 19th of May features Tom Alexander as our guest artist. Although Tom is from Scotland, he plays a lot of non scottish material including many technical pieces. Bring along your family for a great night of accordion entertainment David Batty |
Ray Burgon ConcertRay Burgon is holding another of his charity concerts on the 2nd of October, this is a concert featuring the Sheffield City Variety Band supported by young accordionists. Tickets are £5, telephone Ray on 0114 231 1495 for more details. |
This WednesdayOn Wednesday we have the welcome return of Tom Alexander to the club. Despite his great popularity whenever he plays for us, we have not had Tom at the club since July 1999. It is often difficult to pin him down because he is usually on a tour somewhere in the world with his brother Jack. This is going to be an excellent night of entertainment, for those of you who don't know the name, Tom Alexander is famous for being one half of The Alexander Brothers duo. The Alexander Brothers had a top 20 hit with Nobodys Child in the 1970's and have many gold LP's to their name, have fans all round the world and are usually seen at large venues like Sydney Opera House, The London Palladium and Leyland Accordion Club. The admission charge will be £4 instead of the usual £3 because of the costs associated with a high profile player plus travelling expenses from Scotland. I expect that there will be a good turnout on Wednesday so make sure you turn up early for a good seat. The Roland accordion and Bridgenorth festival leaflets will be available. Doors open at 7.30pm, come along early and enjoy 30 minutes of chat before the music starts. I will see you there on Wednesday.........
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Alan Venn's Weekend BreakHarry Hussey will be at The Mount Hotel from the 11th to the 13th of June. This is an Alan Venn organised residential event featuring daily workshop and concert sessions as well as a night time concert. To book your room and place at this excellent event, telephone Alan Venn on 01204 840279. |
Wanted, 72 Bass AccordionOne of our members Graham Howard is looking for a 72 Bass accordion to replace a 120 bass model that is now too heavy for him. He is looking to spend around £200 on a suitable instrument. If you have one for sale, then please leave your details at the club and I will pass them on to him.
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Bridgenorth Folk FestivalI have been sent a pack of leaflets about the Bridgenorth Folk Festival which is to be held at Bridgenorth in Shropshire from the 27th to the 30th of August. The leaflets will be on the door this Wednesday at the club if you are interested, or you can visit www.bridgenorthfolkfest.co.uk on the Internet for further details. There is an information phone number 01746 768813 or for details of accommodation ring 01746 763257. |
Bridlington Accordion FestivalThe next festival at Bridlington is to be held on the 14th to the 17th of October 2004 at the usual venue of The Spa Centre. For those of you who haven't attended this accordion festival before, The Spa Centre is a seafront theatre where the evening concert, the daytime trade show and the various band practice sessions are held. Visitors to the festival stay in various bed and breakfast places around Bridlington (most are within ten minutes walk of The Spa Centre), meeting at The Spa Centre for the concerts etc. Further details can be obtained from Loretta Rolston on 01501 820910.
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Rhyl Festival March 2005The next Rhyl festival is to be held from Thursday the 10th to Sunday the 13th of March 2005 at Lyons Robin Hood Holiday Park, Coast Road, Rhyll, North Wales. The event will be offering both half board and self catering accommodation. Self catering chalets and caravans will be available. Further information can be obtained by telephoning Loretta Rolston on 01501 820910. |
Future Guest ArtistsI have recently been looking at booking various new faces as guest artists at Leyland. Acts we are hoping to have sometime include Gary Blair, David Vernon, Bill Agnew and a few more who I have approached with a view to playing as guest artists. Booking artists who have to travel several hundred miles can be difficult, we almost had Gary Blair a few months ago when he was passing Leyland, but a booking in Scotland meant that he had to drive past us on the motorway just hours before our concert night. We were so close to having him as a guest artist that night. I am still on the lookout to bring you top talent from around the country and hopefully I have a few surprises up my sleeve should things go to plan. |
Recycling Of This NewsletterIf you normally throw this newsletter away after you have read it then this plea is to you; could those of you who dispose of your newsletter in the bin please bring them back to the club and leave them on the table at the door, these can then be sent out to people asking for details of the club, can be handed to new members who will enjoy reading back issues and it will allow me to leave a selection of newsletter available for interested parties at the various events I attend. If you normally collect or save your newsletter then don't give them up if you don't want to, I am only looking to reclaim those that would normally be thrown in the bin. Many thanks…….. |
Our WebsiteOur internet website has had 67719 visitors as at the 16th of May 2004, that’s 783 visitors since last month. |
Roland Demonstration Of The FR7I have arranged with Roland UK for a demonstrator to visit Leyland Accordion Club on the 16th of June. This is one of our local players' nights but we will have a one hour demonstration of the new Roland accordion in the middle between the two breaks. This will reduce the amount of time for our local players but it will give us a great chance to have a professional player showing us the latest state of the art accordion and what it can do. The accordion is only being released in June so we were lucky to be the first in the diary for what will become a series of demonstrations around the country of this new technology. Please tell your friends (even keyboard players) about the 16th of June. There was great excitement after our last newsletter when people heard about this new accordion, various professional accordion players have expressed an interest in buying one and I have had various calls from Roland who were surprised to be getting calls about the accordion, not knowing that it had been featured in our last newsletter in advance of it's UK release date. Roland has sent me a box of leaflets on the accordion which arrived a couple of days after our last concert, I will therefore have these leaflets available on Wednesday. |
St Audries Bay FestivalThis is to be held at St Audries Bay, in Somerset, from the 17th to the 24th of July 2004. This event tends to book up early with repeat bookings from the previous year so don’t delay if you are interested in going. Telephone Mary Randle on 01984 632515. |
North Staffordshire Accordion ClubBert Santilly is the guest artist at the North Staffordshire Accordion Club on the 18th of May. I know that this newsletter will probably only arrive on your doorstep on the 18th so I decided to chance mentioning this event in case you are looking for somewhere to visit within 70 miles of Leyland. If you would like details/directions, telephone Steve Hughes on 01782 822472 during the day. |
Harold Bleasdale SnrWe were sad to hear the news that Harold Bleasdale Senior died last week, he was a regular member of the club since The Highfield days and was responsible for introducing Harold Bleasdale Jnr to the joys of being an accordionist. Harold Bleasdale Snr was my first boss when I left school when I started my first employment as an apprentice HGV fitter at Bleasdales Transport of Leyland. I saw the job advertised in the newspaper during my last week at school. I went along for an interview at which I was asked if I wanted to start on the following Monday, I turned this down, saying that I wanted a week off school before I started work, I then started the following Monday. Years later when Harold Snr came to the club, he reported back to Harold Jnr that one of his ex-employees was running it. Harold Jnr couldn’t think who this was so came along to see who I was, and hasn’t been away since. Our thoughts go out to Harold, Gladys, John and the rest of the family. |
Lancashire Accordion FestivalThere is to be a new Lancashire based accordion festival in 2005. I don’t have enough details to give you specific information because it hasn’t even been decided where the festival will be held. I hope to have more information for you in the next newsletter. |
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