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Next Meeting

Wednesday March 5th.

 
Take a look at
The Creative Barnsley Project covering all styles of the arts in the Barnsley area which we are pleased to be associated with.

Barnsley Accordion Club
Accordion Players of all standards from total beginner to expert are invited to join us at any of our meetings. Even if you just like the sound of the Accordion and want to sit and listen we shall be delighted to meet you.  All are welcome.

The club meets at about 8pm on the first Wednesday of each month at Barnsley Trades and Labour Club, Racecommon Road, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

 The Newsletter March 2003

Previous Newsletter January 03 click here
Want to see the Xmas party report? click here
or for the party photos click here
Read The February 03 Newsletter click here
(includes tribute to Douglas Fellowes)

Accordion Newsletter March 2003 from Alex

Hello Everybody

Last months newsletter was only shown on the web and not sent out, because I was away, and also because Douglas had already gone from us and only he had the names and addresses for the newsletter. I have since got a provisional list from Terry, our treasurer.

I have therefore included a link above to last month`s newsletter as it includes a few words of tribute to our great friend and chairman which appeared in the web newsletter. (In case anyone is still in any doubt about our club`s website address, by the way, it is simply www.accordionclub.org.uk).

At the last moment it appeared that we were not only without a chairman, but without a venue as well, as we were told only five days before that no rooms were available because the bar was being renovated.

In actual fact there was a charity concert booked in for that night in the concert room which made us think that they were out to get rid of us, but as we shall see later that turned out not to be the case.

Our Early Arrival

John Kenyon phoned me about this and we decided that all we could do was go to the club early anyway and inform members who turned up, and possibly send them on to another venue he arranged as a backup.

We both arrived at the Trades Club early therefore, but as it turned out everyone was able to wait downstairs in the lounge area until the little room upstairs was available.

 Members gradually arrived and we had a good chance to exchange ideas and chat before the main meeting though some had difficulty parking because the charity concert had attracted a very large crowd this time. I had already had apologies from Geoff Wright by e-mail for being absent as he had to sing that night for Ash Wednesday (the religious festival, not a football team!)

The Actual Meeting

Eventually we got access to the room and I said a few words, repeating some of what I had said in the web newsletter and passed the floor over to John Kenyon who explained that it was actually Terry our hard-working treasurer who had organised something.

Terry then, after announcing a respectful minutes silence in memory of Douglas and also of member Arthur Hurst who coincidentally passed away on the same day, explained that he had come in to meet the Trades Club secretary, who was a very nice guy who said they definitely did not want to lose our association, that there was a new steward who had great difficulty getting in touch with us at all and did not know that Douglas had died.

Double Membership

Previously of course only Douglas was a member of the club and our only link to the club. As a  footnote I might mention that he would be the only one who was legally entitled to buy drinks at the bar (perhaps fortunate that we did not discover this earlier - it could have been very expensive for him!)  Therefore Terry explained that he had arranged for us all to become members and would do the paperwork himself and fund the £2 per head membership (£1 for lady members) from accordion club funds with our approval which was totally agreed.

I  had already pointed out that we had to have a chairman who could take over Doug`s firm but fair and often humorous styled control of meetings, so that everybody`s musical interests could be covered however diverse and everyone given a fair chance to play and Terry proposed long term member and former pupil of Douglas, Peter Hinchliffe, which was seconded by several of us and agreed unanimously in a vote, so Peter is our new chairman. He is doubly useful to me also, as he has e-mail access so we can communicate.

The variety Band

Ray took the opportunity of a break in the proceedings to tell everyone about his new Variety Band concept which has now had two meetings, (the second a playing session which was quite a success) and at which any members are welcome, with accordion or other instruments.

Birthday Celebration

Someone brought along an incredibly chocolatey chocolate birthday cake for John Kenyon`s 80th birthday which he passed around for everyone to submerge themselves in - my chocolate ration was used up for the next three months.

Members playing

We later had several goes around the room for an extensive playing "round-robin" and Peter gradually got into the swing of things as the chairman to keep things going nicely and I am sure will prove as big an asset in this position as he has been all these years as a member. I seem to recall that he is a founder-member from our earliest days.

Our Next Concert

Our next concert has been provisionally re-scheduled by Geoff Wright for May with a guest artist Sam Pirt Subject to confirmation.

The Barnsley Accordion Club Broadcast

I have recently written to Andrea Farley Moore at Radio Sheffield who came to our last meeting to make a programme about us. There was a great deal of contribution from Douglas in this, he told of the history of the accordion and even gave her an accordion lesson for the benefit of listeners, and as it has not yet been broadcast I thought I should acquaint her with the sad news about Doug, possibly so she could add it as a footnote at the end of the programme.

I got a reply saying that she would want to go on with scheduling the programme once we had the approval of his family so we shall need to check it with them and I will let her know. I would think they would be very pleased for this to happen, but we shall of course abide by their wishes

See you  next meeting  - Alex

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