Our July Concert
Our July concert started with Basil Berry played 4 Kerns, Can’t Help Loving That Man Of Mine, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, Long Ago And Far Away and All The Things You Are. I went on stage after Basil and played Oslo Waltz, Whispering Hope, Sailors Horn Pipe, Magic Roundabout and Black Mask Waltz. Colin Ensor then played Domino, At The Balalaika, Maigret and That Lovely Weekend. It was time for our guest artists The Kyiv Duo to make their debut at Leyland Accordion Club. I met the Kyiv Duo on the Internet about a year ago when they contacted me to ask about appearing at Leyland. We had a few converstions via Skype and I listened to some sample tracks they sent me. Once I heard the tracks I knew we had to book them. The Kyiv duo are from Ukraine so I arranged for them to play in July as part of a tour they were planning, their itinery included many diverse places around the country. The Duo opened up with Pieces from The Nutcracker Suite:- Miniature Overture, Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy – Waltz Of The Flowers and Trepak. The audience had realised by now that these were not average players, their fingerwork, timing and accuracy were just about perfect. Their arrangements of these popular tunes lasted on average 5 minutes as they intertwined their own variations with the main tune. The concert continued with Elegy, Sabre Dance, Carmen-Fantasy, Ave Maria and Navara. It was now time for the break, there was a great Buzz as people commented on how good the guest artists were. The Kyiv Duo were selling two CD’s, one of which sold out at the end of the break. The second half of hte night started with Bernard Bamber playing the Jim Reeves tune I Love You Because. He continued with Rambling Rose, Nobody’s Darling, Home On The Range, Bonny Banks Of Loch Lomond and Que Sera Sera. It was now time for the return of The Kyiv Duo. The duo continued with Oblivion, Libertango, Flick Flack, Chardash, Dancing Violinist, Mischievous Tunes, Rassipuha and finally to finish, Hungarian Chardash. For those of you who missed this concert, you missed a great performance by this pair. I have put a video of Hungarian Chardash on our website so you can get an idea of what the concert was like. It is obvious that this pair have done a lot of practice and it really showed in this concert.
David Batty
This Wednesday
This Wednesday we have one of our great local players concerts featuring some great entertainment from our talented local players. These are always fun and well laid back nights featuring a wide variety of music, dodgy jokes from Tom Bennett and some great fun from all the players, each with their own brand of entertainment. Doors open at 7.30 for an 8pm start. Please let your friends know about this event. Please bring your accordion and give us a tune. If you have an accordion or some accordion related item for sale then please bring it along and hopefully make a sale. We have sold many accordions at the club, the last one was at our last practice night. By this Wednesday I might know who our September guest artist is, I do have a plan that might work, I’ll let you know on Wednesday if dates are confirmed. I look forward to seeing you there for a great night out for a couple of pounds.
Behind The Bellows
You might be interested in what the maker of a new film about the accordion has to say:-
“Behind the Bellows is a documentary about the accordion itself and not about accordion music – that’s a big subject and another film needs to be made about that. So the music sections are brief. It also isn’t about the biographies of accordion players — that’s another big (and interesting) subject. In order to keep my project manageable and within my miniscule budget, I’ve limited the material to dealing with the accordion itself, as a musical object. I’ve also tried to limit subjects to things a general viewer might understand rather than discussing music theory or terminology aimed at musicians only. Regarding DVD distribution, I first have to deal with legal issues surrounding the use of historic video clips and music (in other words: money to pay lawyers and music publishers). So at this time, I can’t really say when I might be able to sell DVDs — though I want to. The first public premiere of “Behind the Bellows” will take place at this year’s Cotati Accordion Festival (Aug 22nd and 23rd in Cotati California)”.
Hands On Music
Concertinas At Witney is on the 26th and 27th of September 2009. This event features a wide range of music for English, anglo and duet concertinas, featuring Jenny Cox, Michael Jary, John Morgan, Emmanuel Pariselle, Simon Thoumlre and Dave Townsend.
Eastbourne Music Festival
John Romero is organising another of his great Eastbourne Accordion Festival weekends. This features Oleg Sharov, David Lukins, Angie Lukins, Harry Hussey, Sue Bennett, Romeo Achino, Giuseppe Grosso and John Romero. There will be concerts, seminars and tuition, charity raffles, trade stands, musical accessories, sheet music, accordions, good food, fun busking sessions and some great company. The weekend runs from Friday October 16th to Sunday October 19th 2009. The venue is The Eastbourne Centre which has fantastic bedrooms, spacious seminar rooms, three lifts, a large bar and beautiful dining room, it also features a 150 seat air conditioned theatre. There is plenty of parking available with the council offering special rates of 50p per day for hotel guests. The event costs £215 per person, more details can be found by telephoning John or Jackie on 01323 733700. Visit www.eastbourne-music-festivals.co.uk or send an email to jackie@eastbourne-music-festivals.co.uk.
Our 2009 Picnic/Concert
The rain arrived on the day of our 2009 picnic/concert but it was just a few showers that finished by the afternoon. The caravanners who had stayed overnight were already playing on the stage as I arrived about midday. With the weather, I didn’t hold much hope for people thinking the event was still on, but I was pleased to see the cars started turning up and we made it happen. I have included a series of photographs here to show a bit of the day which featured solos, duets and even a couple of young trumpet players. We finished about 6pm and despite the rainy start I still ended up with a tan.
TV Switch Off – (beware the follow up)
You only have 3 months before the analogue tv signal is switched off, this is the normal BBC1, BBC2, ITV, CH4 and CH5 signals. From November these channels will not work. You will have to get a set-top box to continue watch these channels, luckily set top boxes are only about £30. The disadvantage of the new system is that unless you get one with a twin tuner, you can’t watch one channel and record another one. You will have to get one set-top box for every tv in the house. This plan was dreamt up many years ago because the government wanted to sell off the space currently occupied by the terrestrial tv signal, they could licence it for lots of money. This led to the big switchover which causes massive disruption and cost to normal folk. They started with northern areas and will end the process in a few years with their own signal being switched off, we are one of the first areas to lose our signal. The latest news is that they have a plan to do the same with the radio signal, meaning that every stereo, car stereo etc. will have to be replaced or upgraded if you want to listen to British channels, in future your radio might only pick up foreign stations,