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Hi Everyone. I hope you are well and looking forward to the promised
warmer weather.
French Theme night The April clubnite is another theme night – French music. Again the challenge is for players to perform music within the theme. Do try to come along, and if you have not already had a look at the Goldenhill club, now’s your chance. I’m sure that it will be a fun night. There will also be the playing circle.
A reminder that there will also be brownie points for anyone who comes along decked out in French attire!!
March Clubnite Having had to leave the Holditch Miners’ Club, our home for the last 15 years or
so, the March clubnite took place in Goldenhill Workingmen’s Club near Kidsgrove for the first time. It was a first (and this time, hopefully a last) for another reason; only two players took to the stage throughout the night. The first was our chairman, Mike Richards, who gave us a selection of tunes from his wide repertoire as members came in and settled down. The attendance was a bit on the low side, at 35, but fears that the new venue was to blame were allayed when we later talked to the
regulars who didn’t make it this month and whose reasons for not making it did not include concerns about the venue or its location.
Our guest for the evening, Rosemary Wright, followed Mike. Rosemary was certainly on form and gave a wonderful performance switching, as she did, between her straight tuned Giulietti and her Brandoni musette accordion to suit the piece being played. As a tribute to accordionist, arranger and composer Gerald Crossman who was a great friend of her family, and who had died last December aged 94, Rosemary played two of his compositions, Marcha Espanola and Fiesta Rusticana. She followed these with
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TThhee NNoorr tthh SSttaaff ffss AAccccoorr ddiioonn CClluubb welcomes all accordion enthusiasts playing or non-playing.
We hold a ‘Clubnite’ at at 8 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month
where entertainment is provided by club members or guest artists. We have a band rehearsal all other Tuesdays
and a beginners’ class every Monday at 7.30 pm and a class for schoolchildren on Mondays 5 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Phone 01782 823668.
A t G o l d e n h i l l Wo r k i n g me n ’ s C l u b
Dvorak’s Humeresque, Spanish Waltz, Sierra de Gredos, Schubert’s Ave Maria and Malaguena by Lecuona.
Scottish accordionist supremo, Jimmy Shand, was also a friend of the family, and Rosemary played two pieces composed by him. The first was for her father’s 65th birthday, The Francis Wright Waltz, and the second was for her own 40th, Rosemary Wright’s Two Step Birthday. Taking us up to the break she then followed with the Italian Catari.
During the break a general discussion took place, with Mike Richards and Steve Hughes, for the committee, giving the club members present a report on the reasons for the change in venue and the places considered. Everyone present gave the Goldenhill WMC a ‘thumbs up’.
Rosemary then continued her playing till it was time to pack up, responding to requests and encores from the very appreciative audience. Her repertoire also included: La Vien Rose, a selection published in the Lawrence Wright Collection (Lawrence Wright being a publisher with no family connection), Side by Side, The Blue Danube, The Rose of Tralee, an Irish selection, Black Orpheus, Wallace and Grommet, Over the Sea to Skye and The Can Can Polka.
No sheet-music was used at any point during the impressive and long performance. Thank you, Rosemary.
Steve
A New Beginning? Goldenhill WMC, Kidsgrove Road. Goldenhill, ST6 5SH
It was the evening of 17 March and the time had come to set off for yet another ‘NSAC clubnite concert’; but this time with a difference! Rather than going to the Holditch Miners’ Welfare Club, we were off to Goldenhill Workingmen’s Club. Due to a change in circumstances, this for the foreseeable future is to be our new meeting place.
Although we had heard that ‘It was a nice room’, we had our reservations. However on arrival we found a large car parking area, with easy access to a warm spacious and well presented room. It was a room that was both large enough to stage charity events and Christmas parties, but conversely at the same time had a ‘cosy feel’, also suitable for quieter clubnites.
The room has a variety of lighting options to suit all occasions and a stage that can be seen easily from all areas. The seating is comfortable and has two raised seating areas on either side of the stage.
The ample bar area is located at the side of the room behind a screen that helps to block out background noise and at the same time also prevents any distraction to those performing on stage. Likewise the excellent toilet facilities are located in the corridor accessed from the back of the room.
This is a versatile room with an ample dance floor and surprisingly for such a large room, the acoustics are very good. In short the ideal venue!
Paul and Chris Hobbs.
Fourth year for the Band at the Festival Looking through the programme for the Newcastle-u-Lyme Festival for Music, Speech and Drama was enough to tell us, and all bar one of the other five competing bands, that we would not win. That honour would go to the Stafford Grammar School Big Band which year after
year wipes the floor in the ‘Open Band’ class of the festival, as does that school with almost all of the classes in which it competes. The school’s barbershop singers were adjudged to be ‘better than’ the barbershop singers who won a recent televised national competition, and the Big Band again turned up trumps in the class in which we competed.
Two of the bands did not turn up and we therefore became the last competitors to take the stage after another amazing performance by the Stafford Grammar School Big Band, an excellent performance by the Co-op Wind Band who ended up a close second, and a woodwind quartet, The Reed Warblers, who joined us in joint 3rd place, both of us with a mark of 85% (a convincing performance technically and artistically). For us, this was not quite as high as last year but was still a creditable performance.
The references to the other bands are not excuses but go to show what a lively and interesting event the festival is with a wealth of performing talent. We do not go there just to win but to take part, to show what our instrument can do, and to experience the performances of others, benefiting from the comments of the international standard adjudicators. Many of these adjudications turn out to be mini master-classes.
In his preamble to the adjudication of our band the adjudicator, Philip Dewhurst, said what a wonderful instrument the accordion is and how it is accepted by the Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College and is the choice of some exceptional players. This is what he wrote about our performance:
‘A great opening. Well directed. There was good ensemble throughout. If you can, bring out the melodic lines more. The transition between sections were well managed. Some effective dynamic contrast and shaping. A very enjoyable account which showed solid preparation and good ensemble awareness.’
Steve
How I Came to play the Drums. By Phil Hodges
Born in Shelton as the war came to an end I was as a young boy introduced to church music when I joined the local St. Judes church as a chorister in 1955. At 15 I started work at Staffordshire Public Works Co.
Ltd, Campbell Road in Stoke in the mechanical engineering department.
Coincidentally my interest at that time in music became somewhat concentrated on rock and roll when I first purchased my Dansette record player. The Beatles were my idols then along with many other bands and singers. For some reason unexplained I took an interest in band drummers and was always tapping out tunes on my
mother’s cake tins using her knitting needles before eventually asking my older brother in 1962 to sign a hire purchase contract for a new drum kit. My interest in music was reinforced when I worked in the same offices as Terry King of Terry King and the Saints and Barry Seargent, the drummer out of the Shondells
Mother, refusing my new drum kit’s entrance into the house, eventually gave in after it was delivered to my auntie’s in the next street, unplayed for two long weeks. The drum kit cost thirty two pounds and came from Chatfield’s on the corner of Hope Street in Hanley. It included bass drum and pedal, high hat pedal, floor tom, tom tom, ride cymbal and snare drum, plus all the stands
After my initial interest my ambitions to become a drummer faded as other things in my life including marriage and career took precedence. However some eight years ago I became a member of the Praise Band at St Lukes Methodist Church in Clayton and purchased a new Premier drum kit. This preceded my joining of the North Staffs Accordion Band
Then some three years ago, after meeting Mike Richards during a meeting at work, I brought my kit to a practice night and with very kind assistance from Geoff Millward, who was the conductor at the time, became a band member.
I have really enjoyed being a band member for a number of reasons including being associated with a very nice and friendly group of people and having the opportunity to be musically creative.
Since my retirement I have also become an artist painting in mainly acrylics. This is also another journey I am on which, not unlike music, is creative and fulfilling as work is in progress. (Phil is pictured working on a large painting of a scene from the Amalfi coast in Italy)
Members’ Life Support Training Pictured are club members on the Emergency Life Support training session at the Bradwell Workingmen’s Club on the 2nd April, held by John Corden, who has 12 years’ experience as an NHS First Responder volunteer, and who is also a club member (see article in March newsletter).
Two further training sessions for members are planned.
Accordions at the Castle Don’t forget that ‘Accordions at the Castle’ will take place again this year at the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool from the 10th to the 15th of May. There is still time to book for this fabulous festival and not too far away either.
As always the entertainment is top class in the evenings and during the day workshops and various group activities will be available or you can just relax and please yourself.
The organ trade show as well as the accordion trade area will be there again and Caroline Hunt will be exhibiting her fabulous vintage accordion collection some of which are pictured above.
The guests and artists will include Giancarlo Caporilli (Italy), Gennaro Rufollo (Italy), Jean Dauvin (France) (pictured left), (plus Madame
Therese Dauvin, who sings Edith Piaf and other French popular songs with great style), Steve Roxton, David Vernon (Scotland), Denise & Stefan Andrusyschyn, Rosemary Wright, Harry Hussey, Bert Santilly and Alan Young.
There will also be dancing and late night jazz. To book tel: 01780 782093
World Accordion Day event
Pearl Fawcett-Adriano Concert Pearl Fawcett-Adriano is the guest at Stockport Accordion Club for a concert on May 6th – a World Accordion Day event. Pearl intends to include a tribute to Adrian Dante, her late husband, who wrote and arranged a lot of music for the accordion, published by MAP Editions.
The venue is Woodley Methodist Church, Chapel Street/A560 Hyde Road, Woodley, Stockport, Cheshire SK6 1NF. Please note that the concert begins at 7.30pm, and admission is £5.
John Romero Comes to Goldenhill Our clubnite guest in May will be our new member, John Romero. If you were unfortunate in missing our clubnite last November I remind you of our account of it in the December newsletter:
‘At the end of the evening we were introduced to a visitor well known in the accordion world – John Romero. John is a well known entertainer
classically trained, and a prior winner of the British Accordion Championships. He has moved to Middlewich and had come to pay us a visit. He was persuaded by Chairman Mike to play a couple of pieces and he wowed us with Lolita and Bel Viso. He then finished the evening with a few members in a mass busk and got the whole audience singing’.
John is now a paid up member and we are confident that his knowledge and contacts will be of great benefit to this club.
Antique Mariano Dallape diatonic accordion Caroline Hunt , collector of antique accordions and owner of the Antique Accordion Museum of Scotland commented on our article in last month’s newsletter about the Mariano Dallape diatonic accordion saying, “There are a few of them around and I have a couple in my collection. If it is in good condition, all the notes working and in tune then you have a quality instrument. They were very well made. Anyone able to play a diatonic accordion, with the different note on the push and pull, should be able to play it. Unfortunately, here in Scotland a lot of the houses did not have central heating and the dampness caused problems with the accordions. It may have fared better in England.”
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Antique-Accordion-Museum-Scotland/118968591492498
John Plumb commenting on the title of last month’s article wrote,
‘ In the rush to publish, my ‘Acquisition’ is hardly accurate, since at all times the ownership of Granddad’s accordion remains with Lesley & her family!
Diary
Members’ Adverts
Accordion Tuition. Pauline Hardwick Tel 01782 397248 Accordion and/or piano Stefan Andrusyschyn Tel 07958261024 Accordion and/or piano Mike Gibson Tel 01782 660865 Piano John Romero Tel 01606 270148 Accordion
For Sale
Roland FR-18 Diatonic V-Accordion for sale £1000 tel. 01625 432530
Barcarole Dominante 96 bass, 11 treble, 3 bass couplers. Includes case and is in good working order - only needs seeing. £250 (no offers). Phone 01782 323046
Fratelli Alessandrini modern accordion. Blue. 96 bass, 4 voice, musette, 9 treble couplers, 3 bass couplers, Hohner gig bag, full decoration, miked for amplification. Modern keyboard – black notes are blue. £1800. Tel. Rob Borrett 07428 079752
President Brian Shufflebotham Chairman Mike Richards 01782 642101 Secretary Steve Hughes 01782 787935 Treasurer Mike Richards (acting) 01782 642101
Committee Tony Britton, Helen Brown, Graham Butler, Graham Hughes,
Lily Lynch and Greta Moseley.
Every Monday 5.00pm-6.00 pm Accordion classes for young players at Holditch Every Monday 7.30 p.m. Beginners’/Improvers’ night at Holditch Tuesdays other than 3rd 8.00pm Band rehearsal at Bradwell Workingmens Club Every 3rd Tuesday of month 8.00pm Clubnite at Goldenhill Workingmens Club 2nd Thursday of the month 12 noon
Chord Workshop followed at 1 p.m. by Solo Session, There will be no session in May
17th to 19th April NAO UK Championships, Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool 21st April Clubnite – French Night at Goldenhill WMC May Sun 10th-Fri 15th ‘Accordions at the Castle’. Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool
May 19th Clubnite - John Romero Nov 7th to 9th Midlands Accordion Festival, Dudley 2015 30th anniversary year of our club
