Our November Concert
Liz Tait
Our November concert started with David Rigby playing Good Old Summertime, Mountains Of Mourne, Irish Lullaby, On Top Of Old Smoky, Highland Cathedral, Old Rugged Cross, Loveliest Night Of The Year, Snow Waltz and The Merry Widow Waltz. Our next player was Patrick Halpin playing Bonny Banks Of Loch Lomond, Red River Valley, Deep In The Heart Of Texas, McAlpines Fusiliers, Daisy and For Ever and Ever. Next to take to the stage was Reuben Hickinbotham, Reuben played Cry Me a River, Schindlers List, Crazy, Bewitched, Stormy Weather, I’ll See You In My Dreams and What A Wonderful World. It was now time for our first break of the evening. After a lot of chat and great socialising we continued the entertainment with Ann Parker playing The Godfather, Romanze, Chopsticks, Frog Chorus and Snow Waltz. Our next player Liz Tait(pictured) was making her debut at the club. Liz took to the stage and gave us great renditions of La Marianne, Schottische A Virmoux, Aure Tu Puerta Cerrada and Di Mezinke. Liz’s debut was a great one with some very nice playing and no hint of nerves. I am looking forward to hearing lots more from Liz in future as long as she gives me a hint how to spell the tune titles 🙂 To follow Liz we had John Lennox and Harvey Seager strolling on the dance floor playing Return To Sorrento, Just One Cornetto, Those Were The Days, Arrividerci Roma and Delilah. It was now time for our second break of the evening. During the break Bob Seed set up his drums and, after the break he went on to play with Ruben. Bob and Reuben played Besame Mucho, Strangers In The Night, Ecstacy and Amor. Our next player was Hilda McCann played 76 Trombones, I don’t see me In Your Eyes Anymore, Aint She Sweet, That’s Amore, Tennessee Waltz and At The Balalaika. Colin Ensor then took to the stage, he started with Down Forget Me Not Lane, You’ll Never Know, There I’ve Said It Again, Please Don’t Talk about Me When I’m Gone and Charmaine. Rebecca followed Colin, she started with Home On The Range then continued with My Wild Irish Rose, Valtz D’Amelie, Bianca Cappana and finally to finish she played Moon River. To end the night there was just time for me to play three tunes, I started with Return To Sorrento, continued with Fleur De Paris and finished the night with Bless This House. We had enjoyed a great local players night thanks to all those who played (and those who turned up to be listeners), thanks you to all of you who played or attended.
Jacob Join Christmas Party this Wednesday
As usual this month is our Christmas Party, please practice your party pieces for the last club night of the year. Remember, at the December night members can play the accordion or they can bring along their other skills. In the past we have had bagpipes, keyboards, guitars, monologues, midi performances etc. December will also be when we have a Jacobs Join so please bring not only yourself, but also some food such as a few sandwiches, meat pies, sausage rolls or things on sticks to add to our Jacobs Join (a communal feast). December is our informal let your hair down night and is the last night of the year you can meet up with people before Christmas. Please try to make it on Wednesday and make our last night of the year one to remember.
Membership
We are starting to collect Membership fees for 2017, this is to remain at the same price it has always been which is £5 per year. I keep prices down to make the club affordable while still helping towards our expenses. You can pay your membership on the door in December or January. The proceeds go towards the great artists we have lined up in the coming months, stamps for postage and also an Internet service to send out the newsletters to those who choose to receive the newsletter by email (those who get the newsletter by email get working links they can click on rather than have to type in). If you are paying by cheque please make your cheque payable to “David Batty”.
This Wednesday
This Wednesday is our Christmas Concert and Jacobs Join. Please bring your accordion along and give us a tune or two. I am hoping we have a player or two making their debut on Wednesday? If you can bring along a few sandwiches or things on sticks, cakes, sausage rolls or something similar to the above then please do so, the food will be put together on the tables at the back of the room to give us a feast to enjoy while we have our last great social night of the year. Please try to support this event The doors open on Wednesday night at 7.30pm for a prompt 8pm start. Please bring along your friends and anyone who might be interested in attending. If you see someone you don’t know then please say hello and make them welcome to the club.
David Batty
The Guardian : Readers Recommend
Each week the Music Section of the Guardian set a theme and asks readers to send in their song suggestions for that theme. On the 24th of November 2016 the theme was the Accordion.
The playlist creator Lynton Crosby writes….
“Accordions are everywhere. From Odessa in Ukraine to Odessa in Texas, from Mombasa to Mumbai, you’ll hear them on street corners and in concert halls. Our first extra terrestrial contact will probably be with a little green man playing Bobby Shafto’ on a squeezebox. I thought selecting this playlist would be relatively easy, a piece of cake: I’d just pick the accordion-based songs and tunes I’ve known and loved and that I’d have nominated myself had I not been in the chair. What could be the problem? People were bound to nominate them – I’d only have to put them into a pleasing running order and write a few words about them.
It turned out to be a lot more difficult than that. Some of my prospective choices did turn up; some songs turned up but with different singers. But all in all, not that many. What I did get was a tumultuous variety. A bit of Havana here, a bit of Kinshasa there.”
The chosen suggestions for the Accordion themed playlist were:
- Les Negresses Vertes: Zobi La Mouche
- Beirut: Scenic World
- Flaco Jiménez and Linda Ronstadt: El Puente
- The Pogues: A Pair of Brown Eyes
- KD Lang: Constant Craving
- Gotan Project: Vuelvo al Sur
- Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Swimming Song
- Paul Simon: The Boy in the Bubble
- The Kinks: Alcohol
- Molotov Jukebox: Get Ready
- Kevin Coyne: Are We Dreaming?
The playlist is certainly a variety of music containing the accordion! To read the original article and to listen to the selected songs visit www.theguardian.com/music/2016/nov/24/readers-recommend-playlist-your-songs-with-the-accordion-pogues-kd-lang
Accordion Babes Pin-up Calendar
Renee de la Prade an American Accordionist has funded a 2017 Accordion Babes Pin-up 
Calendar through kickstarter. Kickstarter is a fund raising platform where people ask others on the Internet to raise money for a project. The Fund raising campaign start on the 19th June 2016 hoping to raise $10,000 US Dollars to cover the cost of production, by the 10th July 2016 they had raised $10,950 through 150 Backers, which means the calendar has gone into production and is available to buy world wide. So if you’d like to buy the calendar or have a sneek peak at what is in the Calendar visit www.accordionpinupcalendar.com the calendar is $20 which is roughly £15
New Accordion Magazine
A New Accordion Magazine is due to be released around the 8th or 9th January 2017. The 
New Magazine will be called “Accordion Post” and is produced by Barry Smith who runs the Midlands Accordion Festivals. The New Magazine will be printed on A4 Glossy paper. Postage, cost and details of how to subscribe have not been released yet though.
Wirral Accordion club
This club is on every Tuesday at The Place In The Park, 109 Liscard Road, Wallasey CH44 9AE. The night starts at 7pm.
Wyre Club
The next meeting of the Wyre Club is on Wednesday 25th January 2017 at The North Euston Hotel on the Esplanade at Fleetwood, FY7 6BN. Further details tel. 01253 883681.
Interesting/Useful Items For Musicians
A while ago I came across some manuscript tape that you can stick over music to make corrections or changes. The handy thing is you can remove the tape at anytime to go back to the original printed music. The tape comes in 5 Meter rolls and is 25mm wide, the stave lines are a standard 8mm. The price of the tape is £7.75 including postage and can be bought from Amazon http://amzn.to/2hbq3RY or from the makers Overscore www.overscoretape.com
After seeing this tape it got me thinking about other useful items that may be of interest/use to some of you. The next item is called Keysies, which are clear stickers to identify Keys on a piano keyboard. As well as identifying the note name, it also shows the position on the stave and identifies the black notes at either side of the white note. The stickers are removable and do not leave a sticky residue. These stickers would be most useful for a complete beginner with no music knowledge. These are priced at about £5, you get 52 stickers which is enough for a 88 key keyboard. http://amzn.to/2h1pw68
Next is a 5 nibbed pen.. Which probably sounds silly but for teachers and composers I imagine this pen could be quite useful in consistently drawing a stave The pen costs about £7.28 from Thomann which includes postage and VAT. https://www.thomann.de/gb/josef_siggemann_noligraph.htm
The next two items are most suited to musician in a band or orchestra.
The first item is a magnetic pencil holder, to save you from accidently knocking your pencil off your music stand and scrabbling around to pick it up. The magnetic pencil holder costs around £4 but before you rush off to buy one, I suggest you check your music stand is made of a ferrous metal, a quick way to check would be to see if a fridge magnet sticks to it. The pencil holder is purchasable from Amazon at http://amzn.to/2gYBT2n
The last items are Music Stand Magnets to keep your music where it should be even on the windiest of days if you are performing outside. The magnets are small enough to not get in the way but strong enough to hold several piece of music. There are a pack of 10 steel cased priced at £17 http://amzn.to/2g5TDXW and a pack of 4 coloured plastic cased priced at £5 http://amzn.to/2g61bdj
The Music Room at Cleckheaton Closing Down
The Music Room at Cleckheaton have sent out an email stating they are closing their doors for good and are having a closing down sale. A final closing date was not given but their email stated opening times of Tuesday December 6th 9:30 – 3:30, Closed Wednesday 7th open again 9:30 – 3:30 Thursday 8th Friday 9th.
Their email also stated they have heavily discounted stock but another 10% off can be claimed when checking out online by using voucher code “Mandolin”. If you are hoping to visit before they close call 01274 852020 before visiting the shop, as you will be reading this newsletter after the above dates and I can’t tell you when their last day of trading will be.
Chester Accordion Club
Chester Accordion Club’s next meeting is on Tuesday 31st January at The Groves Club, Chester Road (A5032), Whitby, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire. Telephone Barry Graham on 01978 760065.