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While we are unable to meet we continue too look back at the start of the club. This is the write up from the Fifth meeting of the club on the 11th March 1998.
“Peter Whiteley and Adrienne Sharpe were our guest artists on 11th March, they played Tyrol Night, John McGregor, Mary Printy, Panis Angelicus, Corinne, Snow in Summer and Scala Chromatica in the first half, but first we were first warmed up by Basil Berry playing September in the Rain, Dancing in the Dark, The Nearness of You and
So in Love. Basil was one of the players at the recent MRI Scanner appeal accordion concert organised by Lytham St. Anne’s Art Society, the other players were Joanne Finnegan, Jean Southern and Andrew Figg. Each player played a 20 minute solo spot and a finger buffet was organised for the break. With the ticket admission and raffle money the event raised £450. Well done Basil and everyone else involved. Tom Bennett was next with his Theme from Love Story and Bridge over Troubled Water. I played
The Long Long Trail and my new improved (fewer mistakes) version of American Patrol on a borrowed accordion, mine being away at Allodi Accordions in London, I had sent it there for tuning and servicing. I have just got it back two days before the festival, after being without it for a month. I found it very difficult to play at first, this shows the importance of playing or practicing on a regular basis. Now I cannot blame my accordion for wrong notes or playing too fast, I will have to find a
new excuse in future. I was surprised to learn from the tuner that my accordion was older than I am, it was made in about 1960, I already knew that it was not a new accordion but I did not realise that it was that old! Rebecca Postlewhite gave her debut performance at Leyland Accordion Club with Twelfth Street Rag, Speranze Perdute, Roll the Barrel and Granada. Rebecca recently gained a Distinction in her Grade 5 practical, well-done Rebecca. Walter Perrie then enthralled us with Made in Paris,
“La Valse des As” and La Danza before handing the stage over to Peter Whiteley and Adrienne Sharpe for their final session, in which they organised a musical quiz where everyone had a pencil and paper and had to guess the persons name contained in each of 19 tunes played by Peter. There were two winners with 17 correct answers, so peter played a tiebreaker, for one of them to win a musical pencil (I never did find out what a musical pencil was). They also played Valse Lyrique, The Doreen Waltz,
Prelude for two accordions, Ozlo Waltz, Kingsbury March, Beautiful Days, Luci E Ombre and finally finishing with Alpine Breezes. Anyone who has still not paid their club membership will find that this is their last free newsletter, Membership of the club is by subscription to this newsletter at the bargain rate of £3 per year, this is the amount it costs per year just for the stamps to post it, a bargain at twice the price even though I say so myself. Anyone who has not paid their membership or
visited the club in the last three months will be missed out of the mailing in future, this is only fair to those of you who pay for your newsletter. By not sending out free newsletters, the savings in stamps, envelopes, paper and time will allow me to produce a bigger and better newsletter for the rest of you. At the moment the newsletter is going out to well over 100 people per month. Some people have told me that they actually read it! I am glad as it’s normally about 4am when I put the final
touches to it. Our next club night is only a few days away, On Wednesday 1st April, Steve Roxton will be playing for us before he returns to Jersey. I look forward to seeing you there.”
David Batty
Hopefully that was an interesting blast from the past, now to move up to date with some items to keep you entertained during the lockdown.
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Here are some photographs from the early days of the club. Those of you who have been at the club for a long time might recognise some faces.
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Cotati Virtual Accordion Festival
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Cotati normally hold an Accordion Festival over in America, with everything that is going on at the moment they have moved it to an online festival and there is no fee to watch either!
The Virtual Festival Runs from 7pm – 10:30pm (BST) Saturday 22nd August and on Sunday 23rd August 7pm – 10:30pm (BST).
Each performer has a 30 minute slot.. Scottish Accordionist Gary Blair has a slot at 9pm(BST) on Saturday.
A full schedule can be found on their website at https://cotatifest.com/schedule/ The Times are not given in BST, We have made the adjustment for
you, PDT is 8 Hours behind BST.
They will be doing the broadcast live on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIGQJD-cx7J25XYAr2PNdqg/ and
on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/cotati.accordionfestival
Do check their website for more information https://cotatifest.com
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Memory Lane Radio is a new online radio station, playing music from the last 6 decades, They also have comedy material to lighten your day, programmes that specialise in hearing your memories whether it be Local History, Family History or Anecdotal Stories from your past. The purpose behind setting up the Station is
for use in care homes to help prompt memory recall, calm symptoms of sundowning and challenging behaviour, as well as assist with activity programmes and promote social engagement. They also have Celebrity interviews. Whatever reasons they set it up, Memory Lane Radio plays some excellent music. If the taste in music doesn’t suit you one day, try a different time
You can stream the Radio from their website at www.memorylaneradio.co.uk, or if you have a Alexa device you can say “Alexa enable Memory Lane Radio”
It will ask if you want to enable it you say yes and from then on you can say “Alexa open Memory Lane Radio” when you want to listen.
If needed, Memory Lane radio will also help set up streaming equipment that plugs into Hi-Fi systems for Care Homes and Sheltered Accommodation.
The Radio station is run by a team of four who all have many years of experience in the Radio Industry.
Myself and Rebecca often listen to the station as it plays music you don’t hear elsewhere.
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Gwenda Wilkins isn’t an Accordionist I’d heard of before but her biography is an interesting one. Gwenda passed away in hospital in May this year due to complications after surgery. I came across her obituary and thought it might be an interesting read for some of you. Some of you will most likely have listened to her playing on the radio back in the
day.
She was an accordion player who entertained troops in the tropics, won a solo spot in Gracie Fields’ show and shared a stage with Vera Lynn.
Gwenda Wilkin was giving an accordion recital for British troops in a jungle clearing in postwar Burma when she noticed that the last row of the audience had their backs to her. Coming off the makeshift stage she inquired why. “They are keeping an eye out for snipers,” was the response. The war was over but insurgents were still a
threat.
For more than three decades Wilkin performed for military operations, at holiday camps, in music halls, with orchestras and on radio, television and records. She gave concerts in deserts, jungles and bombed-out buildings, and on impromptu stages made from wooden pallets. In the UK she was heard on morale-boosting shows on the Light Programme such as Have
a Go with Wilfred Pickles and Workers’
Gwenda Wilkin was one of Britain’s finest post-war accordion entertainers, and also one of the instrument’s real characters. Her career, which stretched from 1950 to the early 1980s, took her around the world, including many concerts tours for the armed forces in such places as Germany, Austria, Italy, Burma, Cyprus, and Egypt, where she was performing
when the 1956 Suez Crisis took place.
Educated at Sir George Monoux Grammar School in Walthamstow, London, Gwenda was expelled when her headmistress saw her on television performing in a music competition, and declared it to be “conduct unbecoming of a young lady”!
Gwenda studied the accordion in London with Adrian Dante, and also was a highly proficient pianist and violinist. In 1948 she became BAA British Junior Champion at the British Association of Accordionists Championships held at St Pancras Town Hall in London. At short notice, due to the sudden withdrawal of the British entry, she entered the 1949 CIA Coupe
Mondiale in Belgium, achieving sixth place. The following year Gwenda came third in the 1950 Couple Mondiale held in Milan, after which she turned professional. She performed on ‘Opportunity Knocks’ on Radio Luxembourg, on television, and many times on the BBC Light Programme, on such shows as ‘Workers Playtime’, ‘Accordion’, and ‘Music While You Work’. She worked frequently with the singers Gracie Fields and Vera Lynn, and many other stars of show business.
By the 1980s Gwenda had grown tired of performing, and had a career change when she studied animal husbandry and worked in a veterinary practice. In 1993 she obtained a pilot’s licence, and then learned to fly a helicopter.
Gwenda Wilkin was widowed, had a son and daughter, and passed away on May 6th in hospital following complications during surgery.
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How Do They Do It? - Accordion
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On How Do They Do It on Sunday the 30th August features a section about how they make accordions. This is on Discovery Shed channel at 05:30am. (Sky 197) , (Virgin Media 288)
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Lancashire Antiques Road Trip
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This programme starts in Southport as two people shop their way around Lancashire before travelling to Lincoln for an auction. Antiques Road Trip is on Sky 142, Freeview 17 and Virgin Media 128. The programme is on Friday 28th August at 05:00am.
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Hopefully the above links in this newsletter keep you entertained this month while you can’t get to the club.
David Batty
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