Hi Everyone We extend a big welcome to another new member, Adrian Schofield, who travels down to our weekly Monday Sessions all the way from Bolton. Adrian is a folk player on the Northumbrian pipes who is now taking up the accordion.

Christmas Party Arrangements Hi Everyone, Let’s Have A Christmas Party!

Arrangements are well underway for our Christmas party and it will take place on

Tuesday the 18th December at Goldenhill Club. We'll

be starting the evening at 7.30 pm in our usual fashion

with some carol singing, so please bring your

accordions and singing voices to join in. We're having

an excellent buffet, as usual, and fun and music from

our guest, comedian and singer, Chris Ray. He

appeared at our club last year and was very well

received and I’m sure that he will help to make this

Christmas party a night to remember.

Our accommodation at Goldenhill is very spacious, so please invite your families and friends along to

join in the festivities. If you haven't obtained your tickets yet, please get them from Steve. We need to

firm up the numbers soon so that we can advise our caterers accordingly.

Steve's contact details are as follows:

Tel: 01782 787935 mobile: 07939 362294 email: steveg0@gmail.com

Hopefully, we'll see you at our Christmas party but if not, I'd like to take this opportunity of wishing you

a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Mike Richards.

Celtic Fettlers concert Clubnite Tuesday 16th October We were privileged to have the Celtic Fettlers as the guest

artists at our club night in October. Michael (accordion and

vocals), Bryn (lead guitar) and Keith (rhythm guitar and

vocals) had travelled down from the ‘Black Pudding Belt’-

Bolton in Lancashire. I enjoy a bit of black pudding with my

full English, so I was hoping that I’d enjoy their music as

much. And I wasn’t disappointed, they were excellent!

At the beginning of the evening some of our players ‘set the scene’ by playing a few numbers from our

playing circle book. This went on for about 15 minutes then the Celtic Fettlers started their first spot with

Last Thing on my Mind, sung by Keith. It was a lovely way to start the evening and their first spot,

Richard

Adey

In

February

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which went on for about 45 minutes, included a whole variety of very popular numbers such as

Matchstick Men, Blackpool Bell, Clare Island, Wild Rover, Country Roads and Black Pud Stud.

During our interval we had our ever popular raffle, with an abundance of prizes, and our attendant

members’ award, which was won by Gordon Hunter - congratulations Gordon.

The Celtic Fettlers’ second spot was just as entertaining as their first and it included another selection of

very popular songs, including Those Were the Days, Dirty Old Town, Bluebell Polka, What in the

World’s Come Over You, Side by Side, Wagon Wheel and Galway Girl.

We had a great night - a whole variety of different songs, wonderful musicianship and excellent vocals. I

managed to record most of their performance on my iPad and I’ve already uploaded two of their songs

onto Accordion TV - North Staffs (our YouTube channel), so take a look. Mike.

Players' Night Tuesday 20th November November 20th was a cold and wet night and as a consequence the attendance was a little bit lower than

normal - 30 people. However, I think that those who were there thoroughly enjoyed themselves and over

the evening we heard accordions, a harmonica, the Northumbrian pipes and some delightful singing.

Our ‘Monday Nighters’(above) , led by Steve Hughes, started the evening by giving a very creditable

rendition of the Marines Hymn (the official hymn of the United States Marine Corps), Echo Waltz and

Vive L’Amour

The youngest member of our ‘Monday Nighters’, Emily Bedwell

(right), was our first soloist of the evening. She sang Sweet

Rosalie and she accompanied herself with her accordion. Well

done Emily, your singing is great and I like your accordion

accompaniment.

Moira Hague (left) was next on, with her Northumbrian pipes -

what a pleasant surprise - and she gave a very nice rendition of Yellow Bird, Braeda

Village, When the Battle’s Over and Heights of Dorgan. Well done Moira and it was

interesting to learn, later on in the evening, that Adrian Schofield, one of our new

‘Monday Nighters’, is a very accomplished Northumbrian pipe player.

During the interval we had our usual raffle, and the draw for our attendant members’

award - member not present so next month the award will be £20.

Our playing circle was first on after the interval and we worked our

way through numbers from the playing circle book. Anyone can join

in and it’s an ideal opportunity for club members to play for about

30 minutes with their friends and, of course, the rest of the audience can sing along.

Two of our guests, Graham and Linda Cossins, had travelled up from

Church Stretton. They’d learned about our club from Paul and Chris

Hobbs and it was great to meet them. During the second half Linda

(above) gave a lovely rendition of Begin the Beguine, If You Love Me and another piece,

which she’d composed herself, with ‘no name’. Linda’s a very good player and hopefully

she’ll be back entertaining us soon.

Our theme for this club night was ‘Latin’, so most of the tunes played came from Spanish

and Portuguese speaking areas of the world, including the following: Steve Hughes - April in Portugal,

Amapola, Betty Nixon - La Paloma, La Cucaracha, Ken Hall (right) - Spanish Eyes, Derek Wilton -

Coffee in Brazil, Brazil, Tony Britton – Sway, Mike Richards - La Cumparsita, Black Orpheus, Spanish

Gypsy Dance, Morinita Do Brazil Mike.

ACCORDION TV - NORTH STAFFS You've probably noticed that I've been using my iPad to video our guest artists while they've been

performing at our club nights. This started as an experiment after I'd produced some home videos of

myself and Paul Hobbs playing and successfully uploaded them onto YouTube (‘Michael Richards

Accordion’).

My first attempt at videoing our guest artists took place in July, when the Kyiv Duo and Stefan

Andrusyschyn gave me permission to video their playing. Their playing was superb, as you know, and the

video quality was acceptable. Furthermore, when I uploaded these videos onto Facebook the response

from viewers was very favourable, so I decided to persevere.

I broached the subject of having our own YouTube channel at one of our club committee meetings and it

was agreed that I'd attempt to do it and that we'd call this channel ‘Accordion TV - North Staffs’. This

channel is now ‘up and running’. It currently contains videos of the Kyiv Duo, Stefan Andrusyschyn and

the Celtic Fettlers and I'll be uploading other videos in the future, so please take a look.

Kind regards, Mike.

Midland Festival 2018 On a sunny Saturday 3

rd November Ken Hall and I (right) went for a day

visit to the Midland Accordion Festival organised by Barry Smith and

the Black Country Accordion Club at Dudley. As a newish member of

our club it was the first visit by Ken to such an event and he was very

much looking forward to the day.

We got to the Quality Hotel at 9.30 am just in time to join in the ‘Folk

Orchestra’ run by Tracey Middleton and David Garwood of the

'Amaryllis' duo. Following this we had a walk round visiting the trade

displays and listening to Alan Young and others trying out some of the displayed instruments. I think that

Ken was amazed at the high prices of some of the instruments and got inducted into terms such as

cassotto and double cassotto. We met many 'festival friends' of mine, and Ken started on the journey of

making new ones. It was nice to see Harry and Pat Hussey, Harry having made amazing progress from his

recent illness.

To a good audience Helen Rich and Malachy Cairns provided the lunchtime entertainment with Malachy

including vocals to the accordion duet. After another walkabout we went in to see the 'Play your Party

Piece' where players of varying standards took to the stage, some of them playing as small groups having

met up at the festival. This was good fun with the humour and banter adding to the enjoyable music.

After dinner a concert was scheduled at 7.30pm, the first on the bill

being The Kennet Accordion Orchestra. Knowing their reputation I

had been looking forward to this. In they trooped, eleven players,

the men with identical uniform to the North Staffs Band, the ladies

differing with blue blouses. After a pause for effect, MD Nigel

Pasby appeared dressed flamboyantly as Freddie Mercury (see left).

The audience erupted in laughter. After this entrance the band

started off predictably with 'Queen' music, a medley including

Bohemian Rhapsody and Barcelona. The performance was

outstanding and Nigel, aka Freddie, hilarious. It wasn't until his

moustache came off that Ken realised it wasn't a ridiculous reality!

The full band programme was:

A Little Bit of Queen, Every Breath you Take – The Police, Telephone – Lady Gaga, I Want to Know

What Love Is – Foreigner, Bee Gees Medley, China in Your Hand - T'Pau, The Stripper – David Rose,

Grease - Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, Music – John Miles, with all of the music arranged by Nigel.

The leader of the orchestra is David Hall, a brilliant player adding some razor-sharp embellishments. It

has 1st, 2

nd, 3rd players and one 4th accordion (Helen Newton who also performs in duet mode with Nigel

and to whom I have to thank for this information) an electronic keyboard bass player and Helen's son,

Matthew, as percussionist.

Following this we had lovely performances by Rosemary Wright, the Amaryllis duo and the Lukins

family, David and Angie joined by son, Andrew, on guitar. David concluded with some spectacular

solos. By then it was after 10 pm and time for us to head off home, so we unfortunately missed The Kyiv

duo, Jovan Rynjak and Alan Young, ending up a bit envious of those staying for the weekend.

Steve Hughes

Moira the Piper Hundreds of pipers around the world played a tribute to mark the centenary of the end of the Great War

by playing the retreat march, 'When the Battle’s O’er', on Remembrance Sunday. One of these was

member Moira Hague playing her other instrument, the Northumbrian pipes. The tribute was planned to

start at 6 a.m. (the time that the Armistice of Compiègne was signed on the 11th

November, 1918) and at

that time Moira and one bagpipe player did their bit in the darkness at the Macclesfield cenotaph. Luckily

the rain kept away for the occasion. Well done Moira.

Our club becomes a Registered Charity We have for years been recognised by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs as having tax exemptions but

following an increase in our annual revenue we have had to apply for listed charity status through the

Charity Commission. This has been approved and the Charity Commission have now listed this club as

registered charity No 1180528, a number that you will see in future on our publicity material. HMRC

have acknowledged this and confirmed our tax status as that of a charity. It also means that we could

claim gift aid on donations made to the club by a tax payer.

Reminder of Stockport Fundraiser Stockport Accordion Club’s big annual charity fund raising concert, organised by club member John

Jones MBE, takes place on Friday December 7th, 7.45pm, at the Broken Cross Club, Macclesfield,

SK11 8TU.

This year’s line-up includes the Stockport Accordion Band, Walter Perrie, Helen Rich, the club’s

Accordion Spice and Scottish Quartet, and the amazing and inimitable Pearl Fawcett-Adriano. All

proceeds are in aid of the East Cheshire Hospice.

Tickets are £8, and available from John Jones on 07871 767708. All are welcome.

It’s that time of year when we bring a little Christmas cheer

to our local care homes.

Here we are ready to entertain the old folk at the

Ravenswood Care Home in Kidsgrove. Betty chose a nice

selection of medleys, including a few war time songs, and

some favourites from our circle music. As it was the middle

of November, we avoided carols as we didn’t want to

confuse the lovely residents, some of whom enjoyed a good

old sing-a-long. We’ll be back at this home on the 21st of

December when I’m sure carols will be a major feature.

(photo left to right : Tony Briton, Ann Millward, Betty Nixon, Steve Hughes)

Tony Britton

BBaanndd GGiiggss TThhiiss mmoonntthh tthhee bbaanndd hhaass bbeeeenn bbuussyy wwiitthh ppeerrffoorrmmaanncceess aatt CChheeaaddllee GGuuiilldd HHaallll ffoorr tthhee CChheeaaddllee ppeennssiioonneerrss,,

BBaaggnnaallll HHeeiigghhttss aanndd tthhee MMiinnttoonn CCeennttrree’’ss CChhrriissttmmaass FFaayyrree,, bbrraavveellyy ffaacciinngg tthhee eelleemmeennttss oouuttssiiddee aatt tthhee

llaatttteerr.. On 15th

December We will be playing Christmas music at Affinity Outlets (ex Freeport), Talke.

Another Great January Jazz Night Make the 22nd of January 2019 (4

th Tuesday in January) a special night for your calendar and help us see

out the Christmas season with what seems to be becoming an annual event – a great night of music and

merriment with Harry Hussey and Lily’s Weepers – again at the larger venue of Goldenhill

Workingmen’s Club.

There will be lots of well known jazz and show tunes and

plenty of fun (not to mention the fantastic Christmas cake,

mince pies and sherry). Harry takes on the clarinet role again

on the front row as he did last year, revelling in being part of

the band. There will also be guests joining the band and of

course Terry’s wacky jazz quiz. We are offering all this still

at the wonderful bargain price of £5.00!

Tickets are out now and are available from Steve Hughes on

01782 787935 or 07939 362294 or they can be purchased at the Christmas party.

February Clubnite We are in for a treat at the February clubnite. Richard Adey returns as our

guest, this time to Goldenhill, on 19th

February. He has been on several

occasions, has always had a good reception from the audience and has a

lovely, gentle, easy listening style with something for everybody. He began

playing as a youngster and studied with Ingrid Gould for a while. As well as

at accordion clubs he plays in restaurants, hotels and possibly most

pedestrian streets in the country. Not to be missed.

SSttuuaarrtt’’ss EExxccuusseess FFiinnaallllyy,, wwiitthh pphhoottooggrraapphhiicc eevviiddeennccee,, aafftteerr oonnccee cchheewwiinngg hhiiss mmuussiicc

pprreevveennttiinngg hhiimm ffrroomm ppllaayyiinngg aatt aa bbaanndd pprraaccttiiccee,, SSttuuaarrtt SSiimmppkkiinn’’ss

lloovveellyy ddoogg ZZiiggggyy hhaass ffoouunndd aannootthheerr wwaayy ttoo kkeeeepp hhiimm aawwaayy ffrroomm tthhee

bbaanndd..

** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** **

I would like to thank all contributors to this newsletter, both with articles and

pictures. All offerings are always most welcome. Lily

MMeerrrryy CChhrriissttmmaass aanndd aa HHaappppyy NNeeww YYeeaarr

DDiiaarryy

Holditch Working Men’s Club

Mondays except day before

clubnite

6.00 - 7.00pm Band music practice

7.00 – 8.30pm Beginners’ class

Bradwell Workingmen’s Club:

Tuesdays other than 3rd

7.30pm i) Pre-rehearsal session and

ii) Use of bass. (alternate weeks)

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

December 18th Xmas party with comedian Chris Ray

January 22nd

(n.b. 4th Tuesday) Jazz with Harry Hussey and Lily's

Weepers

February 19th Richard Adey

March 19th Players' Night

April 16th Steve Roxton & Jean Douvin

May 21st Players' Night

June 18th Julie Best

Band Appearances

Sat 15th December 1.00 pm Carols at the Affinity Outlets (ex Freeport),

Talke

Sat 2nd

March 7.30 p.m. Cheadle Methodist Church

Saturday 23rd

March Newcastle Music Festival (to be

confirmed)

Monday 25th March 7.30 pm Black Country Accordion Club

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 - accordions@northstaffsaccordionclub.co.uk

REGISTERED CHARITY No 1180528