Our January Concert
Our January concert started with Colin Ensor playing Please, Pigalle, Secondary Waltz and Sweetheart Of All My Dreams. Ann Parker was our next player, she played played Yodelling Polka, Sazmba Fantasia and Bel Viso. Bernard Belshaw then took to the stage playing You Make Me Feel So Young, Moonlight Serenade and Blaze Away. Our next player was our guest artist David Vernon. It had been a while since we had seen David at the club so we were looking forward to his return. We were not to be disappointed. He started his first session with Midnight Waltz, The Balmoral Highlanders and a tune he wrote called Greenbank Hornpipe. He continued the entertainment with Sweet Biddy Daly, Blackthorn Stick and Cambridge Hornpipe. A change of style brought us Helse Dem Der Hemma, Wildforest Flower Waltz, Sakkiaven Polka and Vigan. His next piece was The Roulette Wheel, a tune that involved a lot of arpegios. Things slowed down for The Dark Island, Excelsior, Wallie Lawsons Waltz and John Stephen Waltz, It was almost time for the break, so David finished his first half with The Wind That Shakes The Piggery, Donald Ian Rankin, Jeans Reel and Jaqueline Waltz. After the break, I started off the second half of the evening with Triste Sourire before leaving the stage for David to start his second spot of the evening. His first tune was Cuckoo Waltz, this was followed by a Jewish medley consisting of Jerusalem Of Gold, Zemir Atik, Alseryelt and Frailach No 12. We had a change of pace with The Firefly Waltz followed by Star Spangled Banner, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Dixie, Yellow Rose Of Texas, Doo Dah, Orange Blossom Special and The Lone Ranger. It was then back to the Scottish music with a selection of Robbie Burns tunes including My Love Is A Like A Red Rose and Ye Banks and Braes. It was getting near to the end of the night as David changed to a selection of accordion favourites including Dancing Fingers, Happy Hours Polka and Bel Viso. After wishing everyone a safe journey home, David ended his spot with a Scottish medley of The Athole Highlanders, Staten Island, Flowers Of Edinburgh, Auld Land Syne. There were calls for more as David took his applause, so he ended up finishing with The High Level Hornpipe. David had been selling his new CD during the evening, we may have mentioned this once or twice. At the end of the night he had just had an empty case which had once been full of CD’s, he had sold out. He promised to return to Leyland and I know we look forward to his return.
David Batty
Audrey Davies
Audrey Davies, wife of Harry Davies, sadly died recently, her funeral was held on the Monday before Christmas. There were over 100 people in attendance including many from the club. Harry has asked me to thank all those people who heard the news, and, as a result, sent best wishes or attended the funeral.
This Wednesday
we have one of our great Local Players Concerts. Players please ensure you have your accordion with you. We look forward to hearing you. We will have the usual great entertainment, two breaks for tea/coffee so lots of chance to have a good chat. We have some newcomers at to the club so please say hello to someone you haven’t spoke to before. Doors open at 7.30 for an 8pm start. .See you there…
Accordion Shop Website
We have just released a new website at www.accordionshop.com. This website sells CDs, DVDs, Sheet Music Books, Second Hand Accordions or related items at affordable prices. The website has only been going a week but it already has recordings of Fintan Stanley, Steve Roxton, Calum McKinnon, Colin Ensor, John MacDonald, Sue Coppard and Tom Alexander on there. I have contacted more artists who are looking to have their products on the site. I aim to offer CDs of our guest artists on the site in future. This means that you will easily be able to find their products if you missed buying one after one of our concerts. The first of these artists have not yet played for us but they will be featured in the shop this month, they are the Kyiv Duo mentioned below…
The Kyiv Accordion Duo
I have booked The Kyiv Duo as our guest artists on 15th of July. Although they live in Ukraine, they are in England in July raising money for the children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The group Hippokrat is a society of mothers and disabled children in the Chernov region of the Ukraine. It was founded in 1996. Chernigiv is 70km from the site of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. There are at least 1,000 invalid children in Chernigiv which has a total population of 350,000 and those children, unfortunately, get little help from the State. Hippokrat aims to provide the families of the disabled children with food and medicine. The Kyiv Duo (Oleksiy Kolomoiets and Igor Sayenko) are both students at the National Music Academy of Ukraine. They both began there in 2001 and have performed together since then, as ‘Kyiv Duo Classic’. This doesn’t mean that they perform only classical music, but their repertoire includes Bach, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov as well as traditional Ukrainian and Russian music. I have heard many of their pieces and they do play some really nice light classics and folk tunes. See them in July…
Calum McKinnon DVD and CD
New Calum McKinnon DVD and CDs have just been released this week. The DVD features 1 hour and 20 minutes of non stop singalong tunes from Calum playing at Leyland Accordion Club. This was filmed at Leyland, then it was edited into a DVD and accompanying CD soundtrack for Calum to sell when he is playing in the hotels. The CD is the soundtrack taken from the DVD for anyone who does not have a DVD player. We will have copies at the club on Wednesday if you are interested. We have not seen Calum at the club for a while so its probably about time we had his return. We are booked up this year so I’ll see about getting him next year.
Organ, Keyboard and Accordion Holidays
Alan Venn is holding a special 21st Year Celebration Event on the 21st to the 24th of April 2009 at The Annan Hotel in Llandudno.
Guest musicians booked for the very special 3 day event are Andrew Seddon and Alan Venn on organ and keyboard and Harry Hussey on accordion. Contact Alan Venn on 01204 840279 for more details.
Accordion For Sale
Alan Young is selling a Galanti Super Dominator, this is a Double Cassotto in good condition for £1375. Telephone Alan on 01983 616240.
The Worlds Largest Accordion
A few months ago we wrote about the worlds largest accordion. We are writing about it again because they are looking for accordion players or anyone who can read music and perhaps play the piano, to assist with a project by artist Ruth Ewan, who is taking part in the Triennial exhibition at Tate Britain, a gallery situated at Millbank in London. Ewan takes as her focus the history of protest and activism.
As part of ‘Squeezebox Jukebox’, the world’s largest accordion will be shipped over from Italy and installed in the galleries at Tate Britain. The largest playable accordion in the world is 253-cm (99.6-in) tall, 190-cm (74.8-in) wide, and 85-cm (33.4-in) deep, and weighs approximately 200 kg (440 lb). The instrument, built by Giancarlo Francenella (Italy), bears the name “Castelfidardo” after the city in Italy, where it was constructed. A selection of protest and political songs are currently being transcribed for playing on the giant accordion throughout the exhibition. This is where they need help. The accordion is to be played daily and requires two people to play it; a rota is currently being drawn up to schedule in players and we need volunteers to fill it. A ‘shift’ on the rota would typically mean playing one or two songs and would take a commitment of around 10-15 minutes. The exhibition runs from February 2nd to April 26th 2009. For accordion players and able music lovers alike this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience playing an unusual instrument on a gargantuan scale! Volunteers travel expenses will be covered.
For further information email: abi.spinks@tate.org.uk
Alan’s Gardening and Music Breaks
Alan Venn who is well know for his Organ, Keyboard and Accordion events has released his schedule for his next gardening holidays. These are to be held on Friday 24th – Sunday 26th April 2009 and Friday 9th – Sunday 11th October 2009 at The Annan Hotel, Llandudno. This is Alan Venn’s Description of the Event “Peter Foley, who is a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio Lancashire’s Gardening programmes, is the guest speaker arranged for these two events. He was awarded an RHS Silver Gilt award for his garden design at the recent RHS Flower Show at Tatton Park in July 2008. These 2 events will include a visit to the famous Bodnant Garden in the Conwy Valley with Peter as our guide. These holidays will include some musical entertainment in addition to the full programme of gardening activities. More details are included in the August 2008 Garden Services & Holidays Newsletter produced each quarter by Alan Venn. Contact Alan Venn on 01204 840279 for more details
Accordions For Sale
Black Scandalli Custom Built Model. This accordion has 9 treble couplers with 2 repeats, 2 bass couplers, 41 Keys and 120 Bass buttons. This accordion has just had a full stripdown and retuning at Birmingham Accordion Centre. The only reason for sale is that I am upgrading to a five voice model which only went on sale AFTER I had had this one stripped and tuned. £450
Black Galotta 120 Bass. This has 11 right hand couplers, 3 left hand couplers. Very nice sound, very responsive Hand Made Reeds. Retractable bellows straps that retract in to the case of the accordion when not fastened. The bass couplers operate a set of dots on top of the accordion which show you (on a musical stave) which reed blocks are being used by the bass section. £450
Photographs of these accordions can be found on the internet website www.accordionshop.com or Telephone David on 01772 454328