Leyland Accordion Club, Leyland, Lancashire, England.

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Leyland Accordion Club - 21st July 2004

American Visitors

I was contacted over the Internet by Marilyn O'Neil from Connecticut Accordion Club who had seen our website. She was about to tour England on holiday with her husband. They were looking to see if they could meet some accordionists while they were in England. We didn't have a clubnight when they were over so I invited them, Ken and Colin to my house for an accordion extravaganza. We had a great time with these new friends from America and have had an invite, or rather an insistance, that I should visit their club if I am ever over there. I was pleased to meet these accordionists from the States and I do hope to be able to call and visit their club one day. Because their club has only been going for four months, I am sending a number of our newsletters over so that they can get an idea of what we get up to. Who knows, we may see more people calling over here if they are on holiday in England. I like the thought of promoting inter-club visits if possible.

This Wednesday

This Wednesday we have another local players concert, doors open at 7.30pm if you would like to have time for a chat with others before the concert starts. Our last local players concert had an hour of the Roland demo in the middle of it so this month we are back to having three hours of a wide variety of musical styles from our local players. If you haven't played at the club recenly (or at all) then why not bring your accordion along and give us a tune. After this month there will be only two more local players nights to perform at before the end of the year!

Next Months Guest Artist

Our guest artist next month is Walter Perrie with Bruce. You will remember that they played for us about 18 months ago when Walter on accordion and Bruce on violin walked round the dance floor playing various numbers including a lot of French pieces. Many people commented on how much they enjoyed this night and I promised many that I would bring the pair back again by popular demand. Why not bring a friend along on that night and give them a treat.

Recycling Of Newsletters

Many thanks to those of you who leave your unwanted newsletters on the table near to the door at the club. Every one of those newsletters is going to a good home, either to people who ring up to ask about the club or given out randomly to various groups or people who have expressed an interest in what we do. I'll not mention this too often but if you can remember not to bin any newsletters then I will ensure that they get re-used.

Our Website

Our internet website has had 70289 visitors as at the 14th of August 2004, that’s 772 visitors since last month. Our noticeboard is well used on there, on average it receives one message every three days from someone buying or selling an accordion, as well as from people looking for information. It's good to see it used so much, at first people used to be frightened to use it but in the last year people seem to have got over their fear of posting a message on our website and now we are seeing much more activity on there. Although a message appears on the noticeboard every three days on average, I can see that we have visitors reading the notiecboard messages every few minutes of the day-that's hundreds of people each week dropping in to see what's happening and possibly grab a bargain.

Accordion Scales Books

Gary Dahl is the author of the recently released book "Mel Bay's Master Accordion Scale Book With Jazz Scale Studies". The book has been designed to develop the professional or recreational accordionist further toward advanced musicianship. The Mel Bay Master Accordion Scale Book contains fundamental classical and jazz scales with explanations which are presented in a clear and concise format. The book is dedicated to famous jazz performer, Art Van Damme and sells online. More information on the book can be found at www.accordions.com/garydahl.

Our Radio Station

I have had lots of emails this month from people who are enjoying the radio station. We have again had an increase in listeners with 1311 people listening in compared with 1244 last month. I also know that 1138 had us on their list of favourite internet radio stations but this month that number has gone up to 1194.

Jersey Trip

I bid on a Roland RA95 Arranger on the Ebay auction site on the Internet, the item was located in Jersey. I finally won the bidding and a couple of hours later, after a phonecall to my dad to collect the item for me, I had booked a ticket on the Ferry to Jersey. My dad had said that I could have his Excelsior Midivox accordion because my accordion does not have the room inside it to fit a standard MIDI kit. After a six hour drive to Poole, I put my car in storage while I boarded the ferry as a foot passenger. The following day was the concert night at the accordion club which gave me a chance to visit another club. The final day of my visit was washed out by the storms which were lashing the south coast of England. The open air accordion concert in the park was cancelled which gave me time to do some shopping in St. Helier. Although I had been to the hotel before, I visited the Mayfair hotel to take a look round with a view to seeing how the new accordion festival will fit in there. The hotel is quite nice, it has lots of split level areas for workshops, trade stalls etc. and it has a nice sized concert room. The hotel, which is only two minutes walk from the main shopping area of St. Helier can be seen on www.modernhotels.com although the photographs don’t do the place justice, and make it difficult to appreciate the size and suitability of the venue for a festival. I can assure you that it’s an excellent place for an accordion festival. I have brochures on the Mayfair hotel, maps of Jersey etc. and will bring them along to the club. During my stay I saw the arena for the Saturday night ITV programme Simply The Best which is being filmed in Jersey. The arena looks a lot bigger on TV than it does in real life, those wide angle lenses make it look huge. The return trip on the ferry was the morning after the storm. The staff on the boat put sick bags on every table because the passengers on the trip from England had used all the others up! I decided to fight fire with fire and ordered a chicken curry as we left harbour. All was well and I was pleased to take the chicken curry through customs with me along with the accordion, expander and a set of footpedals. I had to part company with the accordion during the ferry trip, the accordion was protected by just a Fragile sticker! Customs didn’t stop me on the way through despite the bulkiness of my luggage and on reaching the car park I confirmed that the accordion was working fine. Five and a half hours later via the M5 and M6 I returned home. For anyone thinking of going to Poole, I can tell you that the distance is 252 miles from Leyland, it can be done in 5 hours 30 minutes without a break. The average speed, with road works, traffic jams on the motorways and travelling through various villages down south, is only 46 miles per hour.

Charity Player Wanted

A player is required to play at a annual charity concert which is called Thistle Show 2004. This has a Scottish theme and the charity this year is the Parkinsons disease group. It is to be held on Saturday 13th November 2004 at 7.30pm at St.James Club, St. James Road, Orrell, Wigan. This would require the person to play one spot in the first half and and another in the second half. As this is a charity event they are unable to pay a fee but would certainly pay travelling expenses. If you are interested in this event then contact Kathleen Merchant via her email kamerchant@supanet.com

Chorley Busking Day

On Saturday September the 11th, Chorley is holding it's second annual busking day. This is a day where buskers are allocated various spots around the town where they have to play. The judges then walk round and mark the buskers on their performance. The winner gets £150, £100 for second place and £50 for third place. Last year the event which was won by an accordionist and violin player saw clog dancers, country music, jazz music, morris dancers & songs from shows amongst other acts competing in the competition. The accordion is an ideal instrument for this type of competition because you don't need backing tapes or amplifiers, it looks difficult to play and most people are impressed when they see fingers flying around on the left hand side buttons. If you can play without music then that is always a good way to connect with the crowd as you look at them while playing. If you would like to enter the competition then contact Angie on 01257 263678. The Chorley Guardian are also accepting entries for the competition. This is a competition with no entry fee, it's for fun and it could earn you £150, why not take part and get some accordions out there in Chorley, it beats a strumming guitar any day.