“Well what a night that was! Walter Perrie and Tom Cowing provided us with some very entertaining music, Walter playing his Excelsior whilst Tom played electronic second accordion. As usual, it was up to the regulars to do the difficult bit and warm the crowd up. This task was accomplished by myself playing "Return to Sorrento", Tom Bennett demonstrating that I must get two right hands fitted and Agnes Maclaren showing us both how it should be done 'Agnes style'. We also had a newcomer by the name of Trudy who played a few tunes at the start of the second half before Walter and Tom returned. Walter and Tom played two halves with The old rustic bridge, Ballochyle, Mackenzie Hay, The Brolum, The Spey in a Speight, Jacqueline Waltz, Figaros Aria from The Barber of Seville, Rossini's La Danza, La vie en Rose, Under Paris Skies, Milord, and Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The second half of the evening settled down with myself, Tom, Agnes and Trudy playing a few numbers, followed by our guest artists playing us to the end with Frosini's Cocquette Polka, Frosini's Bel Viso, White Cockade, The Petronella, The Duke and Dutchess of Edinburgh, Statin Islands, The Marquis of Tullibardine, The Lass of Bon Accord. The Long Long Trail and the Marquis of Huntley's Farewell. I did take a few pictures of Walter and Tom playing but in most of them Walter was a blur, the lower one of these two was the only one where he stayed still long enough during his playing for me to catch him on film. I must thank Walter for his music and Tom Cowing for traveling all the way from Hexam in Northumberland just to play for us. Many thanks for those of you who have paid your membership fee, it keeps me in stamps for these newsletters. From now on the new rates of £1 for members and £1.50 for non members or £2 for members and £2.50 for non members on guest artist nights will be the norm on the door, any newcomers to the club will pay the lower fee and will then be able to decide if they wish to pay an annual £3 to become a member with all it's benefits. For those of you who have paid, you will find your membership number on your address label, the rest of you will have the words 'Membership: Unpaid'. In order to keep costs down, I have programmed my computer so that non members who do not attend the club will be removed from the mailing list automatically after 4 months of non attendance; members are not affected by this whether they attend or not. This will allow me to concentrate on providing a good club for those who do support it either by paying their membership fee, regular attendance or both. I would like to thank two people for their dedication to the accordion and for their help with the club. They are Steve Roxton and Walter Perrie who are to be honorary members, I have had a lot of advice and encouragement from these two people without which I might not have started the club, I feel that this is the best way to repay them (they might turn down my offer of a free accordion lesson!!). A few people have contacted me to say that they are attending the accordion festival in March. I am looking forward to this, I have had a lot of calls asking if a day ticket is available as local people do not want to book a chalet when they are only a few miles from home but the organisers only let those who book a chalet attend the festival, so it will be no use anyone else calling there, they will have to book a chalet if they wish to take part. The organisers are not allowing any video cameras in to the festival either so I will not be able to get hold of videos of it. You can however obtain a video of the Prestatyn festival which was held in September, this is 2.5 hours long and a bargain at £10 including postage, send cheques to Heather Smith, 80 Inglemire Avenue, Kingston Upon Hull, HU6 7TG or telephone 01482 803765 for more information. I was informed at the last club night that Gladys Lees was not at the club with her husband Ron in January due to some bad news regarding her health. I spoke to her on the phone this week and she said that she missed us and is hoping to be back at the club soon. I would like to wish her well on behalf of everyone at the club. We look forward to seeing you soon Gladys, give her a hug from us Ron.”