International Accordion Festival 26th - 30th March 1998

This was held on 26th - 30th March 1998 at Blackpool Holiday Centre, Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, England

This is a brief review of the attractions at the festival, this should help you put a few faces to names you hear about.

Steve Roxton from Jersey Steve is President of 'Les Amis D' L'accordeon De Jersey' Accordion Club and Leader of the Jersey Accordion Band. Steve entertained us as he played a variety of music from classical accordion pieces like Monti's Czardas, Under the Double Eagle, La Danza, Bel Fiore and The Pedlars to popular tunes like Macnamaras Band and The Entertainer. Steve also showed some sparkling Musette Waltz technique in Reine de Musette and Sous les ciel de Paris. Steve also entertained at the beginning of the Masterclass and at the Trade stalls as a demonstrator.
Gary Blair (Scotland) Every evening after the acts had finished there was dancing to Gary Blair and his ceilidh dance band, Richard Wong played second accordion, the drummer was Stevie Mills. I do not dance but I stayed to listen to Garys's playing which was a popular part of the evenings entertainment. Gary's last night was interrupted about two minutes in to his spot when the fire alarm went off. Harry Hussey and friends were still playing as I passed the pub on the way out. It was a false alarm and Gary continued once everyone was allowed back in to the show. Gary played well I thought and I am not a fan of Scottish dance music so he must have done well. What amazed me was the strict tempo that Gary was able to keep to in the dance tunes and they let themselves go when it came to the Ceilidh music, I have no idea how he managed it for so long.
Roberto Enzo (Italy) Roberto who now lives in Scotland entertained us firstly on his Accordion and then on the EVK or Electronic Vertical Keyboard, this is similar to an accordion but without any bellows, it is purely a midi instrument, Roberto's act was well received and he proved very popular.
Alexander Korbakov(Russia) Alexander is an accordion soloist with the Russian State Concert Orchestra, he has been touring Europe since 1994. Alexander plays a traditional Bayan, a Saratov Concertina, and a three row button accordion. Alexander played Flight of the Bumblebee, Wheels, Capriccio, Fantasia & Fugue, Kalinushka and many more.
The Alexander Brothers I was brought up on Alexander Brothers records, this was the first time I had seen them live though and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I have booked Tom Alexander to play at Leyland Accordion Club on 9th September 1998.
Barbara Ann Martindale(Canada) Barbara played a good selection of classical pieces including Allegro Deciso, Babuschka, Valse Arabesque and Dance of the Hours. Barbara was one of those presenting the Masterclass and in it she said she was pleased that a friend of hers had found her on the Internet, on this the Leyland Accordion Club site. Someone in the audience shouted out 'he's over there' and pointed me out as the creator of this site, it was nice to know that this site reached a player in Canada before they came to the festival.
Jan Zukowski Jan manages to get his fingers around many complicated classical pieces on the accordion, on Thursday night he treated us to Intro and Rondo by Mendelsson, Air from suite in D minor otherwise known as Air on a G String, Mosaico Espangnol by Fugazza, Italian Fantasy by Frosini and Variations on Dark Eyes by Wurthner. I have spoken to Jan and asked him if he will be guest artist at Leyland Accordion Club on 13th January 1999.
Sapphire Sound This was a Heather Smith and Marion Burch who practiced at their respective homes before getting together for a couple of rehersals prior to their performance, this practice arrangement paid off and they played various pieces including Luci E Ombre.
Harry Hussey Harry Hussey was usually to be found in the bar, playing that is, this coincided with the evenings entertainment, this meant that people could either listen to Harry and friends in the bar or whatever artist was on in the main hall.
George Hicks George ran the Buskers workshop, to start with everyone sat in a circle and in a clockwise direction we were asked to choose a tune and lead the rest playing that tune, this was a good warm up before George organised everyone to select the correct couplers and practice a handful of tunes that everyone could practice before giving a performance on the Sunday. This seemed a popular class and the performance went down well. tunes that they would play on the last day to the assembled crowd.
Johnny Lee Leslie I did not see Johnny's performance and therefore cannot write about him or show you a picture, but I was listening to Gary Blair saying that his performance was terrific.	Johnny Duncan Johnny played well on the concert and he also entertained us in the free and easy, the trouble was he made it look easy when he was playing the hard pieces. Johnny plays the button accordion linked to a midi expander. I do not seem to have a picture of Johnny Duncan, I know I took one but cannot find it, maybe it's on another film. One will hopefully appear asap.

The festival had a great variety of accordion entertainment spread over four days including:

Trade Exhibition Stands were there from Watkins Electronic Music selling music - accordions - midi gear - and accordion cases, Trevani had a large stall full of music, Accordions of London were selling accordions and midi equipment as were Geoff Holter Accordions and Rolston Accordions. I ended up spending a fortune on sheet music and one of our club members found a bargain accordion, expander and new speaker for £1100 UKP.

Accordion Auction Many people brought their old accordions for the auction, the accordions were all lined up at one end of the room for the viewing before the auction one of the accordion which was sold by George Hicks was 156 years old.

Orchestras There were various orchestras that you could take part in, an intermediate level orchestra, Elementary Level, Childrens, Vintage, and the Buskers group. The idea behind the orchestra section is that you join an orchestra that suits your ability, you are given about three pieces to play, the idea is usually that you meet once per day for a group practice, you then go back to your chalet with your music and practice on your own until the next day, after three days of this type of practice you give a performance on the last day. You may have never met the other people before but at the end of the three days the orchestra usually sounds quite good. You have gained some valuable experience, tried playing in time with other people and you have learned a few tunes at the same time.

Free and easy This was hosted by Adrienne Sharpe and proved very popular, the idea is that you turn up, give your name in and you are called up and you do your turn, this was so popular that adrienne told me that she was having to put a limit on the number of pieces people could play, the day I spoke to her she had 27 players with their name down to play in that session.

Line Dancing This was held in the concert room during the day.

Sunday Service. Peter Whiteley hosted this as he usually does at Caister festival. Not being a church person I did not attend and cannot let you know what happened until I speak to Peter.

I am looking forward to my next accordion festival, if you have never been to one then I would certainly recommend it. Being around so many people with the same interest as yourself gives you a good boost to your playing and practicing, I am now waiting for the next International Accordion Festival and the next Caister Festival both in England.

David Batty.....