Our October Concert
David Rigby kicked off our October Concert with Loveliest Night Of The Year,Whispering Hope, Snow Waltz, Highland Cathedral, Spinning Wheel, After The Ball, Dark Island and Daisy. Our next player Sara Daly took to the stage and played Wild Colonial Boy, You Made Me Love You, Early One Morning and Waltz Of The Little Girl. Our next player was Bernard Belshaw who started with Just The Way You Look Tonight and Malaguena, he continued with How Wonder To Know, Thank You For The Music, Blaze Away, Moonlight Serenade and Ecstasy. It was now time for the break, there was plenty of chat and socialising, it was a shame to stop the break but we had to press on. John Lennox was our first player after the break, he played Delilah, The Green Glens Of Antrim, Skidereen, Mountains Of Mourne, Those Were The Days, Lilli Marlene and Falling In Love Again. Colin Ensor followed John, Colin played Once In A While, I Wont Tell A Soul, You’ll Never Know, May You Always, Sunshine Of Your Smile, Someday Five Foot Two Eyes Of Blue, My Happiness, Carolina Moon, La Paloma and O Sole Mio. We were then treated to Graham Driver playing Carolines Waltz, Crab Street Stepdance, Staten Island, Lovely Nancy, Vannitaise, Much Wenlock and The Pullet. It was now my turn to play my one tune: Oslo Waltz. To finish the night we had the talented Bernard Belshaw playing Blue Tango, Golden Tango, You Make Me Feel So Young, True Love, Moulin Rouge, La Cumparsita, Dambusters March and ‘Allo ‘Allo.
Although we finished at 11pm, the chat went on until 11.30, we finally left the club about 11.30pm
David Batty
This Wednesday
This Wednesday is a Guest Artist Concert featuring the talents of Julie Best. Julie Last played solo for us in March 2005, you have also seen Julie several times playing duets with Jean Corrighan. The concert this Wednesday night is guaranteed to be a good night, I look forward to seeing you there. Please bring a friend or two to the concert, the club is not just about a musical instrument, it is a social club based around a musical instrument, so come along on Wednesday for a great concert and for some great socialising. If you see a new visitor to the club, please go along and say hello, I am sure they will be pleased to see a friendly face. The doors open at 7.30pm for an 8pm start. The time between 7.30 and 8pm is an excellent time to catch up with everybody and make some new friends.
Eastbourne Accordion Festival
The February festival is on 18th – 21st of February 2011 at The Queens Hotel, Eastborne, the cost is £210.00 per person. Appearing at the February festival will be Harry Hussey, Gary Blair, Pearl Adriano, Jenny Neal and Angie Lukins.
The October Festival 2011 is going to be held at The Burlington Hotel which is in Folkstone, Kent. Folkstone is 50 Miles West of Eastbourne, along the coast line. For more information contact John on 01323 733700
Playing For Royalty
On Tuesday 21st September 2010 Steve Roxton provided romantic continental music for the arrival of HRH Pricess Anne as she visited the newly re-opened National Brewery Centre at Burton-on-Trent. He followed the Princess and her Cortage as she inspected the dray horses and brewery museum exhibits.
Play Accordion on your IPad
Learning to play Piano Accordion can now cost £2.39. If you have an IPad or an Ipod/Iphone. There are 2 Piano Accordion applications, 3 Concertina applications, 3 Melodeon applications and 1 Button Accordion application for the IPad they range in price from £1.79 to £3.49. If you have an Iphone/Ipod there are plenty of Accordion applications for you too, there are 4 Piano Accordion applications, 5 Concertina applications and 1 button accordion application they range in price from Free to £2.39. We have not tried any of the applications but there are plenty of video reviews/demos of the applications on YouTube if you search for “Ipad Accordion” From what we have seen from the YouTube videos the applications are useful if you’re out and you don’t want to lug your Accordion round or if you want to do some silent practice.
Blackpool Accordion Festival
Blackpool Accordion Festival is to be held from the 15th to the 20th of May 2011. The event will be at the Norbreck Castle Hotel and will be shared with the Organ and Keyboard Cavalcade Festival, There have been no details released of who will be appearing at the concert or the cost of the festival. We rang Sceptre Promotions on 01780 782093 who are selling the bookings but they have no details of the event.
Accordion For Sale
Midi Electronic accordion for Sale (down south), excellent condition. good working order. Its A Scandalli Farfisa Electronic MDX24 along with a sound Module XD3 sound Module the price is £2000. Contact Gennaro Fiondella at gennaro.fiondella@talktalk.net.
Folk Ambush In Liverpool
Shoppers in Liverpool on 23rd October had a surprise when five Melodeons, four Concertinas, six Fiddles, a Guitar, Mandolin, Recorder, Harmonica, two Flutes, a Banjo, five Dancers, a Bodhran and a Djembe Drum decended onto the streets of Liverpool playing Davy-Davy Knick Knack and the Oyster Girl. The Event was organised beforehand with emails being sent out to recruit people to join in the ambush, in the email were strict instructions not to let the press know, The main object of the ambush was ” to surprise (ambush) with folk music and dance, to delight and entertain and to encourage dance participation among the public. The vital element of surprise means we must be spread out and not appear as a band or group in one area. It’s also important to visually look as though we are merely a group of pedestrians who happened to have our instruments or dance shoes and have just decided to perform on the spot (so no dressing up whatsoever!) In this sense we are infiltrated (for want of a better word) among the public.” The First performance was at 12 noon in South John St, at the new shoppping centre Liverpool One. The Second Performance was at 1pm in Church St, on all sides of street, The Third Performance was back at Liverpool one at 2pm and the Fourth Performance Was at Church Street at 3pm. The whole ambush was being filmed, and was put on to YouTube shortly afterwards. Myself and Rebecca were going to attend but due to an unexpected loss of one of our friends we were unable to go. From what we have heard the ambush went well and the Video was uploaded to YouTube a week ago, To find the video Search YouTube for “Folk Ambush Liverpool” The Video is 10 Minutes long and at the time of writing this, the video has had 1,216 views.
60 Years Of Organising
Bill Wilkie MBE stepped down after 60 years (1949 to 2009) as organizer of the All Scotland Accordion & Fiddle Festival in Perth. The 2010 festival took place on October 30th, in a new format and venue at The Salutation Hotel in Perth. The festival will now be run by a committee, whose chairman is Peter Bruce. The accordion adjudicators are Alastair MacCuish, Wayne Robertson and Gordon Shand, and Claire Telford adjudicates the fiddle sections.
Top Note Organ Society 1993 – 2010
At the end of the year Top Note Organ Society in Leyland will be closing down due to falling numbers of visitors, they have been going since 1993. The Top Note Organ Society used to enjoy between 100 and 200 people attending on a concert night, recently, with the recession, the numbers have gone down to 30 on a normal night and 40 on a good night. This seems to be a trend accross all Accordion and Organ clubs, numbers have fallen and some clubs have been forced to shut down. I kept our admission at the 1997 rate until this year but was forced to increase the admission price this year by £1, this was to help offset lower numbers of attendees and increasing costs.