Hi Everyone, April already. I hope you are well and enjoying the spring weather with lighter nights, washing on the line etc. – and of course your music.
Next Guest Night - Tuesday 16th April Our guests on this occasion will be duet partners Steve Roxton from
Middlesborough and Jean Dauvin from Normandy. Jean, playing
the C system button accordion, has twice been world champion
accordion player and we can expect some remarkable French
musette playing. Although Steve Roxton (solo) has visited us
since, they last appeared together at our club in July, 2012, and
our account of that event included ‘anyone who could not make it
missed a treat’. We normally have a bonus through the singing
of Jean's wife, Therese. Multilingual Steve can be expected to
play music from around the world including a big dollop of
bierkeller songs.
May (Theme) Players' Night - Tuesday 21st On alternate players' nights we have an (optional) theme for music selection. The May club night is one
such night and the theme is WATER (or anything to do with it e.g. ocean, rain, river, lake, pond etc).
You are unlikely to have difficulty in finding something to fit the bill.
February Club Night with Richard Adey Usually, at this time of year, while Chairman Mike and Barbara are sunning themselves in Tenerife, we
bemoan the weather at home. But not this year, as we enjoyed the early spring sunshine, and not only that,
we had an excellent club night.
This month our guest artist was Richard Adey, from the Birmingham area.
Richard has over 30 years’ playing experience with many prestigious
performances, including two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company
(Stratford-Upon-Avon and on tour), and performances at the London Barbican
Centre, the Kennedy Centre Washington DC, the Brooklyn Academy of Music
New York; and at the Edinburgh Fringe in an acclaimed production of Pam
Gems’, Piaf (Troika Productions).
The club night followed the usual format of circle music, guest artist,
refreshment break, followed by guest artist. The circle playing was well
supported by players and this month lead by Steve.
Richard then wowed us with his playing. He is clearly influenced by jazz,
French music and other genres, and beautifully weaves them into an exquisite
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programme. His playing technique is fascinating, very fluid and full of wonderful jazz chords. Richard
was soon lost in his music and it showed as he closed his eyes and wove rhythmically around the floor.
The following gives a flavour of the music played:
Tico Tico, Douce Joie, Autumn Leaves, Ain’t Misbehavin’, St Louis Blues, Libertango, I Got Rhythm,
Sentimental Mood, La Javanaise, La Vie En Rose, Huages, Jeanette, Besame Mucho, La Cumparsita.
Many thanks to club members who gave raffle prizes and helped make the evening a success, including
Steve, Ken, Margaret, Lee, Helen, Betty and others. The ‘member attendance’ award was not won this
month, so next month the prize money will be £30.
Richard is also part of a 4 piece ‘Gypsy Jazz’ band, ‘Bon Accord’, inspired by the music of Django
Reinhardt and Stephan Grappelli’s Quintet of the Hot Club of France. Alongside his live performance
engagements, using his own recording facilities, Richard offers to production houses, composers and
original song writers the sound of the acoustic accordion on their musical projects. He is always keen to
hear from creative practitioners who may wish to use the sound of his instrument.
All of this experience resulted in a fantastic performance at our club. We thoroughly recommend him to
other clubs.
Tony Britton
March Players' Night We started our players’ night in our usual fashion by playing a selection of music from the playing circle
book. Although the attendance on the night was a bit lower than normal, 28 people,
there were lots of players in the circle, so for about 30 minutes we thoroughly
enjoyed ourselves.
Jeff Burndrett was the first person to do a solo spot and he
gave a lovely rendition of Sitting on Top of the World,
The Harry Lyme Theme, Who Were You with Last
Night, Lovely Bunch of Coconuts, Scotland the Brave and Chase Me Charlie.
Norman Brown (right) was up next and he played The
Fields of Athenry, Maggie, Highland Cathedral, Roll Out the Barrel and
Edelweiss. When he started to play The Fields of Athenry the audience began to
sing. Everyone seemed to be in a singing mood, so they thoroughly enjoyed
themselves by singing, or humming if they didn't know the words, throughout
his programme.
During the interval we had our usual raffle, with lots of prizes, and the draw for our attendant members’
award. As this hadn't been won in January or February of this year it had risen to the princely sum of £30.
Our ‘bingo machine’ is responsible for ejecting the lucky member's number, so I went to a central table so
that everyone could witness fair play. I started to turn the bingo machine handle
and the machine started to wobble and it was at this point that our dear friend
Norman said, "I'll hold that steady for you Mike", so I readily agreed. I turned
the handle carefully and eventually the bingo machine ejected ball number 25,
Norman Brown's unique membership number....mmm?.....My membership list
now says ‘Norman Brown, magician!’
During the second part of the evening our soloists' performances included the
following numbers:
Moira Hague (right) (Northumbrian pipes) - D ream
Angus; Misty Headland; Bobby Shafto.
Lee Slater (saxophone) and Mike Richards (accordion) - Blue Bossa; Georgia
(pictured previous page).
Derek Wilton (harmonica) - Swannee River; Camptown Races; Oh
Susannah; When the Saints; Isle of Capri; Que Sera Sera. Mike Richards
(accordion) - Moondance; Style Musette; Irish Washerwoman/Rakes of
Kildare.
One of our recent recruits, Adrian Schofield (left) (coming all the way from
Bolton), is also a player of the Northumbrian pipes, and is actually an adjudicator for competitions for the
instrument at festivals. He later, after some difficulty in tuning them to his liking, borrowed Moira's pipes
and gave a gymnastic folk music performance.
We had a most enjoyable evening and it was rounded off with the following songs played by our
Thursday ‘Playing for Pleasure’ Group (pictured below).
I'd like to Teach the World to Sing, Roll Out the Barrel, Bless This House, Bless Them All, Old
Rugged Cross, Show Me the Way to Go Home Best wishes, Mike.
NAO North West Area Festival 24th February 2019
The National Accordion Organisation of the United Kingdom runs several area festivals throughout the
year, giving opportunities for accordionists to compete or just enjoy the satisfaction of performing and
having an informed adjudication. The North West area festival has not been held since 2014, and so
organiser Anna Bodell (NAO Secretary) believed it was high time to awaken this phoenix from the ashes
and stir up local talent once again in 2019.
Cathryn and I went along to support this re-kindling, unsure of quite what to expect. Anticipating a
packed day of performances, we arrived at the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool around 10.30a.m., after
stuffing the last of our loose change into the ravenous parking machine! Anna was also just arriving, and
we had a pleasant pre-event chat with her to discover that start time would be 12.15, with two 40 minute
sessions and an intervening lunch break. The number of entries was not huge, with only 6 players
covering the whole day. Whilst the room was being set up we nipped down into the city for a Starbucks
and a bit of shopping.
Raymond Bodell (NAO Chairperson) was to be the adjudicator for the day, although with only one of the
thirteen sections having more than one entrant, he wasn’t going to face any challenges to his marking! He
welcomed the ‘huge’ audience of around 11 non-competitors, sharing his vision that word of mouth
would spread news of the event and encourage more participants in the coming years.
Credit must go to young Henry Moyns, who had come down from the Skipton area with his mum, as he
entered 5 of the sections and played with a great presence and technique in a variety of styles from
accordion classical through Mozart and polkas, to a final flourish of The Greatest Showman Medley in
the Junior Entertainment section. Henry and his mum both play with Harry Hinchcliffe’s Craven
Accordion Orchestra.
Annalize Bodell gave her usual polished performances in the Under 17 Solo and Tango Sections, using a
very smartly decorated Hohner button accordion. It must be tough to be adjudicated by your own father, a
former national champion, but Annalize did cast Raymond a whimsical smile on the couple of rare
occasions when she made a mistake, although we wouldn’t have noticed.
Many of us remember Betty Pollard’s enthusiastic work with the Tameside Junior Accordion Band back
in the 1990/2000’s, and it was heart-warming to hear former Tameside member Collette Stevenson (nee
Ainscow) playing ‘L’Arc En Ciel’ in the Returner’s section, having not played for over 15 years.
Raymond explained that this new section is targeted at the 20-plus age group who may have competed in
their youth but drifted away from accordion music to have careers, relationships, families and other such
distractions. This section was non-competitive, but was the only one with two entrants; Ann Parker also
played, with a delightful rendition of her own composition, ‘Woodland Fantasia’, for which she was
rightly praised.
The other mainstay of the day, Suzanne Gregson, played in four separate Late Starters sections, for those
coming to competition later in life (our own Steve Hughes entered one such section in the past). Although
she protested that colleagues had twisted her arm to enter, she clearly showed with her ‘Roses from the
South’ and ‘Suzette’ musette piece that even players past their teens can still render an enjoyable
performance. Suzanne also teamed up with Alicia Beautement to present the Higher Elementary Duet
‘Lloyd’s Llandler’, witnessed by the composer himself, Ken Farran, listening intently from the audience.
To round off an entertaining day Alexander Bodell, winner of several world prizes and NAO national
championships, enthralled us with a concert performance of six stunning pieces, including ‘Czardas’ and
‘Libertango’. His dexterity on his Hohner button accordion was mesmerising.
Following the awarding of prizes (to everyone!), Raymond encouraged us to support the forthcoming UK
National Championships from 26th
– 28th
April, also at the Adelphi in Liverpool, which will include
special celebration features to mark the NAO’s 70th
anniversary. Jean Hanger will be leading an open
vintage orchestra for anyone who wants to participate; you don’t have to be vintage yourself, but you are
welcome to join especially if you have a vintage instrument. Cathryn and I shall be there, and I know a
few others who plan to attend. Apart from being a competitive event, the emphasis is on everyone sharing
their music and, most of all, having fun playing and listening to it. Come and join the fun with us.
Steve & Cathryn Houghton
Charity Concert, Cheadle Methodist Church 2 March 2019
This event had been a mere 15 months in the planning. Following our recruitment drive and performance
of carols at Cheadle Guild Hall in November 2017, Barry Barnett, then president of Cheadle U3A and
leader of the ukulele band, invited us to share in their band’s charity concert at the Arts Festival in 2019,
each band performing for half the evening.
Our club was happy to accept. Time passed all too swiftly. Our MD Steve Houghton set the programme at
the end of 2018 to avoid duplication of songs with Uke3A. Ticket sales seemed slow at first and anxiety
about bad weather and dark nights began to worry us. Would accordions and ukuleles actually prove to
be a popular combination? However, ticket sales boomed in the last few days and we then worried about
providing hot drinks to 150 people as the boiler had broken down!
March 2th
eventually dawned and a stalwart gang appeared in the rain at the church at 2pm and set about
transforming the main hall into a concert area and borrowing a boiler.
At 6pm the doors opened and the two bands totalling 50+ started to arrive. The church proved to be an
excellent venue with plenty of separate rooms for both bands.
Pete was detailed to take charge of the raffle as he doesn’t need a microphone. He was busy receiving
numbers of raffle prizes and was seen to be secreting away bottles of alcohol into a fridge, having been
gently reminded that they were not permitted in the church!
By 7.30pm the church was packed with an audience of 100 plus the ukulele players. We opened our
programme with My Fair Lady. My attention was immediately captured by a lady and her friend in the
second row who enthusiastically started singing and beating time – the audience was hooked. It was
going to be a good night! Our performance continued with Whistle Down the Wind, Oklahoma, Liberty
Bell, the haunting Speak
Softly Love and other
favourites plus some new
additions including Largo
and A La James Last.
At 8.30pm as the
audience filed out to take
refreshments in the back
room, our band vacated
the ‘stage’ and rallied
round to help Phil the
drummer load up! Tea and biscuits and a hasty removal of 23 raffle prizes, several wine bottles included
and the second half scene was set for us to be royally entertained by Uke3A (above).
What a treat to relax with song books and enjoy singing lustily to a range of popular songs. We all
enjoyed it and the charm of the evening was the contrast between the two bands - North Staffs Accordion
Band with its formal uniform, skilful arrangements, style and musical expertise and Uke3A members with
their colourful outfits, wide ranging skills in vocal and instrumental performance and fun loving delight in
their music and instruments.
A great night was summed up when takings were counted and the grand total of £700 had been raised, to
be shared equally between our respective charities, Cheadle Homelink and Retina UK. What a good
effort, I have a feeling the bands may meet again!
Viv Cowie
Newcastle under Lyme Music Festival appearance and Black Country Concert Another year gone and on Saturday, 23
rd March the club band competed once more at the Newcastle
under Lyme Festival for Music, Speech and Drama this time playing an arrangement of the Whitney
Houston song, One Moment in Time. It is a beautiful arrangement by Helmut Dewell of the Albert
Hammond composition. We put on a strong performance prompting MD Steve Houghton to send out the
following message to the band
members:
“Your performance at the festival
today was outstanding, and I couldn't
feel happier about the quality of our
playing as a band and our
representation of the club. We
achieved a mark of 84 (Merit), and
finished in a very strong 3rd place”.
Two days later the band members
travelled by coach to the Black
Country Accordion Club, Rowley
Regis near Dudley, where we were welcomed with a cup of tea/coffee. It was a cracking night and,
though we had one or two hiccups we enjoyed the playing and felt that the audience did as well.
The journey back was somewhat eventful with the M5 junction closed for repair work. After an urban
detour we joined the M6 at the Walsall junction only to be informed that the motorway was closed
between Stafford and Stoke. Following this second detour we arrived back at the Holditch car park at one
minute past midnight.
Stalwart member, Graham Butler dies aged 94 It was with great sadness that we had to announce the sudden death of one of our stalwart members,
Graham Butler, at the ripe old age of 94. He recently suffered a stroke which initially deprived him of his
speech but he was working hard to regain it, making good progress. Graham, otherwise known as
'memory man' for his ability to play accordion classics from memory, had been a member of the club
band for 29 years, until the age of 92. For several years he was on the committee of the club prior to
which he assisted Doreen Gething in running an early version of the
'beginners group'.
He was regarded as the club accordion 'doctor' and would help any
member who had a fault develop in their accordion or if it needed
tuning and I used to enjoy working alongside him on many of these
jobs. During these sessions he would recount stories of his working
days in the mines and how he received taunts from his workmates for
using a face mask. He outlived them all.
Graham could also repair clocks and would work out the function of
every cog and spring. A box he invented containing the mechanics to operate a blade for the craftwork his
wife, Joyce, undertook, was a masterpiece. The blade made regular cuts half-way through paper tape by
operating like scissors, mechanics moved the tape along at the same time and at a regular speed. The end
product could be coiled, creating flower petals for cards or pictures. He ended up having to make one for
each of Joyce’s friends. I often wondered what heights his abilities would have achieved had he been born
in the age of the computer.
Graham wrote a couple of articles for the club newsletter. One gave details of his work in renovating a
Frontanelli accordion (he is pictured with it below), and the other, reprinted below, giving an interesting
history of how he came to play the accordion.
You will be sorely missed, Graham. RIP
Steve Hughes
How I Came To Play the Accordion By Graham Butler I suppose my interest in the ‘squeezebox’ began when I was about seven, on a
Sunday, when I was visiting Auntie Nelly and Uncle Fred. Every Sunday I had
to attend chapel, (Free Church in Chesterton), morning and afternoon sessions,
and in-between I was urged to visit my various relatives in turn, under threat of
death if I got my clothes dirty. Uncle Fred had a concertina and to get me from
underfoot, I reckon, Auntie Nelly used to put me in the parlour and let me play
with it, ‘if I was careful’, because Uncle Fred did not know about it. I soon
learned ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’, etc. and tried to
get to their house often, but still had to honour four or five other aunts with my
presence, so progress was slow.
Still, it started me on music, and when I grew out of the visits I learned the
mouth organ, which I became good at. I could always earn a few extra pennies
at Christmas accompanying carol singers, and we had singalongs when we
were walking to work at Parkhouse Pit. I started work there on Monday January 9th
1939, the day after
my fourteenth birthday. It was a job I was destined to stay in for the next twenty-seven years. When my
sixteenth birthday arrived I was put onto shift work, days and nights, and as several of my workmates
lived close by, we would call on each other and proceed to cross the wasteland from Chesterton to
Parkhouse, which is now Parkhouse and Rosevale Industrial Estate. The problem was that it was wartime,
pitch black and blackout, so picking our way safely by the light of a candle in a jam jar on a piece of
string was difficult, especially if we heard the bombers droning overhead and had to blow it out. We
eventually found it better to walk down the railway lines, getting used to walking on the sleepers, learning
at cost where the crossover lines, junctions and levers were, (the levers were at an awkward height), and if
we heard the occasional grunt of pain, someone had found one. This is where the old mouth organ came
in. Singing brought comfort against anything that lurked in the darkness.
It was on the way home from work after a day shift that my interest in music got a boost one day. A local
lad, John Stockton, asked me if I wanted to buy his Hohner 24 bass for £6. That excited me because I had
always admired his ability on the box. He was a bit older than me,
but he had played as long as I had known him, and I would follow
him around where he played, usually to small parties and halls
where a Mr. Parsons would organise little occasions to create an
interest among younger people. An added interest was the
inclusion of tea and two biscuits, a luxury in the days of rationing,
and always nice and warm in winter. We had some good times
thanks to Mr. Parsons’ parties. I often expressed interest to John,
although I couldn’t play. Anyway, on getting home I told Mum of
the offer. I only had pocket money, as I had by now a brother and
sister, so I had to hand in my wages, about £2.75 (£2 15s) for a six
day week. Bless her, she agreed. So I took a ten minute bike ride to his home and brought back the box
over my shoulder. Dad knew a man on the pit bank whose son, Tom Pessol, self-taught, but brilliant, gave
lessons at one shilling and sixpence (seven and a half pence). He lived a few miles away, so every week
Mum would give me two shillings, one and six for the lesson and two pence bus fare each way and two
pennies change, which I had to give back.
I lasted for about nine months with my 24 bass, but got a 120 bass for Christmas. It was the best present
I’ve ever had. I knew nothing about it until it turned up. Mum and Mr. Pessol must have got their heads
together without me. I came on well after that. Most of the music I was taught was classics and marches
and most of it belonged to Tom, which I would take home, learning in the living room and giving it back
when I had learned to play it by heart, or memory. I could never really get into those dots and lines and
squiggly bits, so I memorised them because I was too idle to study. Most of what I do is what I learned in
the five years I was with Tom, who would keep on until I was note perfect, but became resigned to how I
learned to play.
During my time being taught, when I became good enough, I went with Tom and two of his friends who
played at ‘dos’ on various occasions at clubs and private functions. Most of the private ones were at
Whitmore, when the farmers with relatives in the forces celebrated their homecoming with a dance. In
those days even a portable record player was rare, so we were invited along for about £2 each – a fortune.
Our method of transport was my motorbike on which I would fix my box to the carrier on the back and
pick up Tom with his Cooperativa L’Armonica in-between me and him - a bit of a tight squeeze
Nevertheless, I would have played at the farmers’ ‘dos’ for free if only for the food they put on. There
was no shortage of meat, fruit or vegetables there. You wouldn’t have thought there was a war on and
they let us join in and at nineteen I could eat a horse anytime. I went to several places by myself; to
various clubs and institutions, and what I earned I split with my mum to
go towards the box.
At one period I had a weekly date at the Miner’s Arms, which was
situated on the corner, fifty yards above our Holditch clubhouse, so it
was handy to get to from the other end of the village. Harry Reilly, the
publican, would give me 12/6d to play in the bar, snug and lounge and
allow me to go round with the hat or sometimes one of the regulars
would go for me. On a good night I’d make about thirty shillings
(£1.50). The snag with riding a motor bike to ‘gigs’ was that, in spite of
gloves, my fingers were nearly always rigid when I arrived and I found
that ‘Sharpshooters’ and ‘Double Eagle’ were the easiest pieces to open
with when you had stiff cold fingers and I had about forty five minutes
after to warm up
I was with Mr. Pessol (I always called him mister) for about four and a half years when he said he had
taken me as far as he could. I played on for about a year and then I lost interest. I later married and tried
again, but by then my two lads had learned to sing ‘Davy Crocket’ and wouldn’t let me play anything
else, so I packed it in and got rid of the box. I tried again after several years with an accordion given to
me by my cousin who had had a few lessons and then had gone into the army. I had it until 1979 when,
after a plea over the radio by Mel Scholes on behalf of a man who went round old folk’s homes in the
area. He wanted the loan of a light 120 bass and I phoned his number as I wasn’t using mine. I left it for
him at Fenton Old Folk’s Home on the understanding that I wanted it back eventually and fixed my phone
number etc to the inside of the case. I never saw it again. So, if there is a red Mariotti with a funny F
diminished button out there, (it only went down a fraction as the screw on the endplate stopped it), its
mine.
Around 1990 I heard about an accordion group who met at the Hempstalls pub at Crossheath and I went
out of curiosity. I was greeted by a much younger Steve Hughes, who invited me to ‘have a go’ on his
box. I declined, telling him that I used to play once, but doubted that I could get up and down a scale now.
But it got me going again and I bought an old one out of The Sentinel for £40, relying on my memory to
replay all my old numbers. I got most of them back and play them. I joined Peter Burton’s group, later to
become Doreen’s Ensemble, to learn more about music, the stuff I should have paid more attention to in
my early days. I think that I’ve made progress, especially since I joined the band, and I keep my eyes and
ears open. However there is still plenty of room for improvement.
(Pictured above, Graham in his workshop and blowing out his 90th
birthday candles).
Diary
Accordion Tuition. Pauline Hardwick Tel 01782 397298 accordion and/piano
Stefan Andrusyschyn Tel 07958261024 accordion and piano
John Romero Tel 01606 270148 accordion and keyboard
Club Management President Steve Houghton 01270 768178
Committee Chairman Mike Richards 01782 642101
Secretary Steve Hughes 01782 787935
Treasurer Mike Richards (acting) 01782 642101
Safeguarding Mike Richards 01782 642101
Tony Britton, Helen Brown, Ken Hall,
Paul Hobbs, Margaret and Lee Slater.
Web address - www.northstaffsaccordionclub.co.uk
Newsletter Editor Lily Lynch email - [email protected]
REGISTERED CHARTITY No 1180528
Holditch Working Men’s Club
Mondays except day before clubnite 6.00 - 7.00pm Band music practice
7.15 – 8.30pm Beginners’ class Bradwell Workingmen’s Club:
Tuesdays other than 3rd
7.00-7.30 'Fun' session
7.30-8.00 Pre-rehearsal session
8.00-10.00 Band Rehearsal 2nd Thursday 1.00 –3.30p.m. Solo and group session Goldenhill Workingmen’s Club
3rd Tuesday of month 7.30pm Club night April 16th Steve Roxton & Jean Douvin May 21st Players' Theme Night June 18th Julie Best July 16th Players' Night August 20th Players' Theme Night September 17th AGM and Players' Night October 15
th Players' Night
November 19th Walter Perrie and Helen Rich December 17th Xmas Party – Celtic Fettlers Band Appearances
April 6th St Werburgh's Church, Knightley June 22nd Medical Centre, Hartshill