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Leyland Accordion Club Newsletter
July 2010 |
| Message From The Editor |
Welcome to this newsletter detailing our club activities along with other news we feel is of interest to our members and site visitors. Please tell your accordion friends about our newsletter, they can subscribe to it by visiting www.accordionclub.co.uk, then filling the form in at the top of the page.
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| Our Last Concert |
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Our June concert started with myself playing Triste Sourire, Oslo Waltz and Whispering Hope. David Rigby was our next player, he gave us great renditions of Spinning Wheel, Snow Waltz, Daisy, Dark Island, Loveliest Night Of The Year, Amazing Grace, In The Good Old Summertime and Highland Cathedral. Albert Draper Made his Debut at the club as a monologue reader, he recited Last Waltz, Polish Remover and Four Husbands. Bernard Bamber then took to the stage and played Leaving Of Liverpool, In My Liverpool Home, Liverpool Lou, Irish Rover, I Belong To Glasgow and Maggie. Bill Agnew played Let Him Go Let Him Tarry, McNamara's Band, Wild Rover, Cuckoo Waltz, Blueberry Hill, Oh Boy, Dambusters, Stop Your Ticklin Jock, Goodnight Irene, Teddy Bears Picnic, Oh Johnny, Yellow Bird and South Of The Border. After the break we started the second part of the night with Colin Ensor playing Reine De Musette, We Just Couldn't Say Goonight, Charmaine, Freight Train, Folsom Prison Blues, Leaving Lerwick Harbour, You'll Never Know, May You Always, Sunshine Of Your Smile and Someday. Graham Driver then took to the stage and played Portobello Road, Jaqueline Watlz, Vannitaise, Lovely Nancy, Upton On Severn Stick Dance, Much Wenlock, Weasels Revenge, Rochdale Coconut Dance, Jump At The Sun and The Pullet. After the second break of the night we started the third section with Bernard Bamber playing I Have A Dream, Waltzing Matilda, Down By The Riverside, Tennessee Waltz, Caroline Moon and Missouri Waltz. It was now almost 11pm so we finished the night with the talented Bill Agnew playing a Medley consisting of Campton Races, La Vie En Rose, Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You, Happy Days And Lonley Nights, You're No One Till Somebody Loves You and Harvest Home. We had been so busy this evening that we only got to have the second break late, at the end of the night there was the usual chat until around 11.30pm when we eventually left the club. Once again it had been another good night thanks to everyone who played and to everyone who was a superb audience member.
David Batty
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| Our Internet Website |
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Our Internet website has had 139,959 visitors as at the 14th of July 2010, that's 719 visitors since last month.
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Cambridge Folk Festival |
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The Cambridge Folk Festival 2010 is on Sky Arts 1 (Sky Channel 256) on Saturday 21st August 2010 from 21:00 to 23:00. This 2 hour long concert is in Dolby Stereo and Widescreen.
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| Accordion Orchestra Workshop |
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On Sunday 31st October 2010 at Ripley Village Hall, Nr. Guildford, Surrey, a Special "All Day" Accordion Orchestra Workshop is being held from 9.00am to 5.00pm (possible later). The estimated cost of attending this Accordion Orchestra Workshop will be in the region of just £5.00 per person. The Orchestra will be conducted by John Leslie from Accordions Of London. This event is organised by: The Tillingbourne Accordion Orchestra & The Guildford Accordion Club The Postcode for this event is GU23 6AJ.
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| Accordion Stolen in Evesham |
Richard Adey was setting up to play in Evesham  when his Scandalli Super L Accordion Was Stolen. To the right is a picture of the stolen Accordion which has the grill missing. If you have any information please contact Richard Adey on 07944571702 or richard.adey@btinternet.com.
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| Accordion Wars |
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On BBC Radio Scotland Julie Fowlis presents a programme on the Accordion in Scottish Folk Music and the rivalries that have existed between Folk and the Scottish Country Dance Music participants.
In the world of folk music these days the accordion is everywhere. This presence has not always been the case. In fact, it is relatively recent. We will hear from many participants and contributors including Jimmie Macgregor, Donald Shaw and Emily Smith to get to the real story. It will be broadcast on 17th July at 6.00am but it will be available on the BBC Iplayer website for 7 days so you can listen to it anytime up to the 24th of July.
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| Interview with Phil Cunningham |
This is a newspaper article that was written by Jennifer Cunningham.
Phil Cunningham admits that three days ago he was hanging out of a window with his girlfriend at three in the morning.This is not a return by Scotlandâ(TM)s best-known accordionist to his legendary wild  days in the band Silly Wizard. At 50, he pursues the wildlife with a camera and his companions in the wee sma hours were a family of badgers. âoeTheyâ(TM)d decided to come in and raid our bird feeders and they were so keen on eating that we were within three feet of them,â he recalls, enthusiastically displaying the images on his iPhone. Heâ(TM)s a gadget collector and says heâ(TM)d be in the queue for the new version of the mobile phone if he hadnâ(TM)t agreed to this interview. This natural enthusiasm and an engaging curiosity have become the hallmarks of the musician and composerâ(TM)s new career as a television presenter. Itâ(TM)s a role that heâ(TM)s taken to like a duck to water. Heâ(TM)s currently filming an ambitious new series following the success of the Scotlandâ(TM)s Music series and Grace Notes on sacred music. We meet as heâ(TM)s about to rehearse with students at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, where heâ(TM)s been made professor of traditional music and his inaugural address is taking the form of a performance, involving fellow professor, John Undwerwood of the opera school. âoeItâ(TM)ll be great fun,â he says, grinning. There is another pressing task to fit into this whirlwind of activity. The reason for our meeting is to talk about his new composition to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Lady of the Lake, Walter Scottâ(TM)s dramatic narrative poem which made Loch Katrine and the Trossachs the top tourist destination of the early 19th century. When the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park approached him with the idea, Cunningham was a little cynical. âoeMy last involvement with Sir Walter Scott was when I was 12. I did a school project on Duddingston Kirk and Scott wrote some of his work in the manse gardens there and my granny took me to visit the Scott Monument.â His curiosity was piqued by the enthusiasm of Elspeth McLachlan, director of the Scottsland project to celebrate the writer and influence Scott had on popular culture. âoeMy original idea was to write a musical riposte but that has evolved into writing something about where the Lady of the Lake was set. Landscape is something I totally engage with as a composer. As a touring musician you spend your days travelling around the world and driving from A to B and the main thing is what you see out of the window.â During his long musical partnership with the Shetland fiddle player Aly Bain they found they both enjoyed âoea good lookâ at the countryside and have agreed a favourite road is from Dornoch to Ullapool â" by the southern route. âoeI lived at the north end of Skye for a long time where the landscape changes every time you look at it because of the shifting light and I was never more inspired in my life. Itâ(TM)s not so much the landscape itself that inspires you as that it puts you in a place where the troubles of the day will leave you for a minute,â he adds. Although he has a main theme for the Trossachs Suite, he plans to âoehang out for a few days in the Trossachs, myself, my girlfriend, the dog ... to see what comes upâ. The dog is Crombie, a Spinone, a breed of Italian terrier, mention of whom produces another photograph on the iPhone. Heâ(TM)s more bashful about the girlfriend, Annie Tuitt, his partner of six years, Their transatlantic relationship had got to the stage where he was considering leaving Scotland to join her in New York when she announced she was exchanging a high-powered career in advertising for life in the Scottish country-side outside Edinburgh. Itâ(TM)s a partnership cemented by shared interests in photography, dogs and wildlife and in which the traditional domestic roles are often happily reversed. âoeSheâ(TM)ll be mending the roof while Iâ(TM)m doing the cooking,â says the musician who cheerfully describes himself as a foodie. About to set off for Americaâ(TM)s southern states of Texas and Louisiana as well as Argentina and Brazil, heâ(TM)s already selected the restaurants where heâ(TM)s going to eat. âoeI love Tex-Mex and I love real Mexican food.â This itinerary is to film a documentary for the BBC on the way the accordion moved around the world. It involves a travelling schedule that he describes as mad, reeling off China, the Czech Republic, Romania, Russia, Spain and France as places heâ(TM)s been in the last couple of months. âoeWe are looking at the fact that the accordion really only appeared in the 19th century and in that short time itâ(TM)s managed to squeeze its way into every culture you can imagine. The eskimos play it, the Zulus play it. Throughout our travels the thing that keeps coming out is that itâ(TM)s the poor manâ(TM)s piano but it was on the shipâ(TM)s manifest of nearly every ship. It was used to alleviate tension on board.â This prompts the question of whether he was inspired by Accordion Crimes, the novel by Annie Proulx which tells the story of an accordion as it passes from one person to another. The first part of the answer is straightforward: âoeI loved that book and in a way it prompted the original notion of the series to use the accordion as a foil to get to people but it has now become more of a documentary.â The second part provokes a wry laugh. âoeI have heart disease and when I was in hospital having tests after a heart attack in 1997 I got 13 copies of it. Everyone thought: I know, Iâ(TM)ll send him that,â he says, Despite the multiple copies, itâ(TM)s on the phone, too. Now itâ(TM)s been joined by the Lady of the Lake. Getting to grips with the poem has been âoequite a taskâ but he now scrolls through to find passages describing the landscape. The multiple activities and the hectic travelling do not distract him from writing music. âoeI write on a daily basis. Anything that has a wee bit of stress attached to it, like waiting for a plane to take off or sitting in a doctorâ(TM)s surgery, I tend to write, so that I can pretend itâ(TM)s not happening. Thereâ(TM)s stuff I compose because itâ(TM)s inside me and I really have to get it out but thereâ(TM)s also writing to order.â Writing to order is a relatively new pleasure, particularly a commission for BBC Bristolâ(TM)s Natural World series filmed at the Beinn Eighe nature reserve. âoeI got the job of writing the score for the black-throated divers and eagles. It was wonderful because there was a real story of survival. My first love was zoology so it was a perfect match for me.â The Trossachs Suite, to be premiered at Celtic Connections in Glasgow in January, will be a crossover piece. âoeI live in the traditional world so I write that kind of music but deep down Iâ(TM)ve always aspired to be Ennio Morricone because he writes beautiful things. I am going to base it around a band of about eight people who will cover all the ground in terms of the traditional element and I will work with an orchestral string section of 12. It will be between 30 and 40 minutes and weâ(TM)ll combine it with some visuals.â Heâ(TM)s sufficiently happy with his main theme to have played the embryonic version over the phone to Elspeth McLachlan: something heâ(TM)s never done before. Cunningham is pretty content with life at the moment. âoeItâ(TM)s not just about performing and itâ(TM)s not just about writing. I love the television work. I love presenting because I am getting the chance to go out, meet people and be informed.â Along with the food, heâ(TM)s determined that his trip to Louisiana will include a sighting of a nutria, a beaver-like American rodent. No doubt it will join the badgers and the dog on his phone. He has a bigger ambition, too. âoeThe one thing I would like to do is a laymanâ(TM)s wildlife documentary, talking to people who really know the subject. Recently I was allowed to dabble in wildlife presenting by doing some three-minute inserts for Landward on toads, ravens and bats. Itâ(TM)s not surprising that he nominates David Attenborough, Willie Nelson and Bonnie Raitt as his perfect dinner guests. Heâ(TM)d cook, of course, and if the after-dinner concert didnâ(TM)t scare off the badgers it would be rounded off with a bit of wildlife watching.
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| Accordion Radio |
Did you know that we have an accordion radio station at www.accordionradio.co.uk ? This is broadcasting accordion music 24 hours a day. Please have a listen and also tell your accordion playing friends about it.
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| Accordion Festivals |
Our website www.accordionfestival.co.uk shows known forthcoming accordion festivals in the UK. If their is a festival that is not listed then the organiser has not sent us any information on it. If you know of a UK festival that should be listed, then please tell the organisers to send us details, we will gladly add their festival to the list.
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| Contact Details |
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Leyland Accordion Club is a club based in Leyland Lancashire England.
We have our concerts at
The Priory Club
Broadfield Drive
Leyland
Lancashire
England
PR25 1QN
Our postal address is
Leyland Accordion Club
39 Wray Crescent
Ulnes Walton
Leyland
Lancashire
England
PR26 8NH
All the best...
David Batty
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Leyland Accordion Club
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