Book Acknowledgements
An A to Z of the Accordion and related instruments - Volume 4
by Rob Howard |
This book has taken a great deal of patient and painstaking research to put together, and I am forever grateful to all those kind people who have helped in different ways — especially those who contributed the superb feature articles on specialist topics.
The author is indebted to the following, without whose contributions this A to Z would never have seen the light of day. These include Pearl Adriano, Ken Astin, Andy Banks, Hugh Barwell, David Batty, Dave Berry, Gary Blair, Sylvia Bishop, Anna Bodell, Larysa Bodell, Ray Bodell, Gina Brannelli, Renaldo Capaldi, Johnny Coleclough, Tony Compton, Sue Coppard, Al Crompton, Barry Crossland, Gerald Crossman, Adrian Dante, Pamela Deakin, Alice Dells, Tom Duncan, Jim Easton, Jack Emblow, Ken Farran, the late Malcolm Gee, Gordon Glenn, John Higham, Ron Hodgson, Marj, Jane & Helen Howard, Brian Hulme, Eddie Iddon, Brian Jenkins, John Jones, David Kemp, Les Leveson, Angela Lukins, the late Charles Magnante, Dave Mallinson, Pat Mancini, Jennifer Maxwell, Jerry Mayes, Peter McCoy, John Nixon, Eamonn O’Neal, David Phillips, Ingrid Prince, Anthony Rea, Philomena R the late Graham Romani, Robert Rolston, Loretta Roiston, Tommy Scruton, Jimmy Shand Jr, Eric Smith, Heather Smith, Karen Street, John Sworack, George Syrett, Douglas Tate, Trevani, Dr Sandy Tulloch, Alan Venn, Charlie Watkins, Peter Whiteley, Rosemary Wright, Tony Wynroe and Janusz Zukowski. My sincere thanks to each of them for their time and trouble. Tony Wynroe, Chairman of Stockport Accordion Club, deserves special thanks for his unstinting time and expertise with computerised images in producing many of the photographs.
There are some articles included that have been specially written, and i am especially grateful to Club Accord’s Andy Banks for his excellent résumé of the Shand Morino, to Johnny Coleclough for his article Perjbnning in Public — a subject he has specialised in for much of his life, to Charlie Watldns — Britain’s No I ampli fication expert for his illuminating summary of that topic, and to Peter Whiteley for presenting a clear definition of MID There are also excellent articles that have previously appeared elsewhere, written by people such as Tony Compton, Gerald Crossman, Adrian Dante, Ken Farran, the late Percy Holland, the late Charles Magnante, John Nixon, Joseph Scoff, Douglas Tate, Trevani and Rosemary Wright. My sincem thanks go to all concerned for permission to include their material for the benefit of present and friture generations of accordion players and enthusiasts.
My thanks also must go to Adrian Dante (World Accordion Review), David Keen (Accordion World), Loretta Rolston (Accordion Times & News), Heather Smith and Tom Duncan (Accordion Profile), Charlie Watkins (Accordion Today) for their assistance in facilitating the production of this book. Gary Blair, Heather Smith and Tom Duncan are thanked for their bountiful supply of photographs, and also for their encouraging comments. Ken Astin, Heather Smith and Janusz Zukowski are similarly thanked for their generous loans of old Accordion Times and Accordion Review magazines. Sylvia Bishop
— the widow of Chiz Bishop — loaned me the great man’s scrapbooks, and was incredibly helpful in discussing accordion matters from previous eras. Pearl Adriano (who now uses her married name Adriano in preference to Fawcett) was similarly exceptionally helpful in researching and providing data plus photographs in connection with the British Association of Accordionists.
One criticism that is likely to be made of this book is that some famous names are missing. My answer is that it has proved impossible to include all the accordionists who have become well known — there are just too many — and I have opted to write about a cross section of people who represent different genres and eras. It has also proved virtually impossible to contact everyone whose name appears or who might have been included — there are not enough hours in the day.
Special thanks go to Jack Emblow for his kind words of encouragement in the Foreword. It is an honour to have such a distinguished musician’s endorsement.
The onerous task of proof reading the script fell on my wife Marj and daughter Jane, the ‘Dynamic Duo’. They are the best team a man could wish for. Salute!
Book Introduction
An A to Z of the Accordion and related instruments - Volume 4
by Rob Howard |
Until the publication of An A to Z of the Accordion & Related Instruments, there has never previously been a work of reference written about the British accordion scene. The accordion movement in this country is really quite diverse and its history is rich with interesting characters, and the task of research and writing it all down coherently was at first daunting. Nonetheless, I have ‘taken the bull by the horns’ and attempted to present a broad general survey of the accordion in its various forms, its development over the years, and a representative sample of players and personalities past and present. The book is largely concerned with solo accordionists rather than bands and orchestras, and this is entirely due to considerations of space and size of the topic. Although the majority of entries refer to Great Britain, a number of overseas players have been included due to their connections with this country. A glance through the pages of this book will show that the content also includes many articles of practical use to the accordion player — especially those who are newcomers to the instrument and would like to broaden their knowledge of its capabilities.
This unique book, AnA to ZoftheAccordion & Related Instruments, has taken six months to write, but has actually been in preparation over the course of many years — ever since I first became interested in, and a part of, the wonderful and fascinating world of the accordion. This process began back way back in 1968 when I was a student at Christ’s College in Liverpool, doing teacher training. My next-door neighbour in the Hall of Residence where I lived at that time, one Alfred J. Weston, returned from a visit home with his piano accordion. Alf would each day go to his room ‘for a blast”, and I would listen with growing interest to his renditions of Rot McCorley Maggie May In The Mood, etc. Eventually I acquired my own accordion — a pre—war Hohner Tango IV — and started to teach myself. When Alf told me that he did not think I had any chance of learning to play — especially by teaching myself — I decided there and then to prove him wrong. By the time I left college in 1970, I had attained a basic idea of how to play.
Over the next few years I had lessons on and off at the Manchester School of Music, first from Kevin Munster and later from Ken Farran. A change of schools forced on me by a major reorganisation of Catholic secondary education in Manchester in 1977 resulted in me joining the staff of St Pius High School, an inner city comprehensive that served a large Irish community. Soon after starting there I was approached by three boys — John O’Grady, Gerard Mannion and Billy Jordan who all played accordion and had heard that I could play. They asked me if I would teach them, and before long we were playing a repertoire of mainly Irish music as a band. Thus was born the St Pius RC High Schoo Band, which eventually grew in size to 25 members, including a drummer. We also featured one outstanding solo accordionist, Peter Durcan, whose fantastic technique on Irish musicwas already formed by the time he was thirteen years old. The headmaster, Mr Kevin Madden, came up with the idea of sending the accordion band out, together with the school brass band (led by music teacher, Mike Walsh, then later, Damian Collins), performing concerts in each of the seven local junior schools as a marketing exercise. These concerts were the teal start of my education as an accordion entertainer. Putting on a fast—moving show to entertain large numbers of young children, most of whom had a fairly short attention—span, made me learn to think on my feet — literally! The series of concerts was, however, a great success everywhere we went and became an annual event in the school calendar for the next few years. When St.Pius reorganised yet again and changed its name and iden- tity to St.Vincent de Paul RC High School in 1985, the accordion band continued to play regular concerts, and I then formed an Irish dancing team that became a part of our ‘touring concert party’. We had an all—girls daneing team, and I was their solo accompanist for the reels, jigs, hornpipes and set dances that formed their repertoire. On many of our band’s performances we also featured the exceptional talents of Dezi Donnelly, World & All-Ireland Fiddle Champion by the time he was thirteen. Des Donnelly was then a pupil at St Vincent de Paul, and has since gone on to win the BBC.
Young Tradition Award on the way to a successful career in the worlds of Irish and folk music. Happy days! Mrs Rita Johnson, the Head of St Vincent de Paul, gave enthusiastic and unstinting support to all of our activities, and these years were indeed the best of times in my career. Although I was playing regularly with my school band, and alsoperforming in my local folk club, I was still blissfully unaware that there was any such thing as an accordion movement in existence in this country. All that changed forever when, in early 1979, my teacher, Ken Farran, casually mentioned that the NAO North West Accordion Championships were soon to take place at the Champness Hall in Rochdale. Although I had played the accordion for about ten years and had played many times in concerts at schools where I had taught, I had absolutely no idea that there was any such thing as competitive festivals. Like a lot of players who begin by themselves, 1 tended to think that I was probably the only person in the Gledhill, incidentally, has since become an internationally renowned Wurlitzer theatre organ star. During the 1980s I played in ceilidh bands, and also as an accompa nist for Irish dancing. I began this decade as a member of a folk group that rejoiced in the name of the Nicaraguan Over Eighties Nudist Leapfrog Troupe, playing every Friday night as residents at a folk club in Wythenshawe. This was followed by a period as an accompanist playing for a Polish dance team known as Young Polonaise, the highlights of which were guest appearances at the 1981 Fylde Folk Festival and in a concert at Wembley Conference Centre. I had unwittingly become a global traveller, becoming involved in Irish, Polish and Nicaraguan music (okay, the last one is definitely stretching the truth, but it sounds good if said quickly enough!).
In 1983 Ijoined the recently formed Weaver Valley Accordion Band, teaming up once again with Ken Farran. One memorable performance with the WVAB was at a country fair somewhere in Cheshire when we alternated with the Bootle Concertina Band, a 42 strong band of Liverpool—based Orangemen. I learned from them that there was also in existence the rival Bootle & District Concertina Band with no less than 46 players — another group of Orangemen, and all from the Liverpool area. 1987 saw the revival of the Clifford Wood Accordion Orchestra, which eventually reinvented itself as the Stockport Accordion Club Band & Orchestra. The CWAO developed rapidly, and my wife Mar] and I became members at the band’s inception. The following year Cliff Wood entered the CWAO in the UK Championships (achieving place in the Entertainment Section), and also assumed responsibility for organising the 1988 NAO North West Championships at Stockport Town Hall. Becoming a member of the NAO and helping to organise the first of a series of very successful local festivals initiated me fully into the competitive accordion scene.
Clifford Wood, working on the basis that, as a teacher, I must be at least semi—literate, appointed me newsletter editor for CWAO/SAC. Soon after this I became Concert Secretary (organiser & compère) for the Club’s guest nights. This was a development that pleased me enormously. For a long time I had met and listened to people talking about great players such as Tora Tollefsen, Martin Lukins, Charles Camilleri, and their like. The sad part was that the comments were always strictly in the past tense, and it was as if something precious had been lost from their lives. I decided that it was time our area staged some accordion concerts, to at least try to bring back the good times, as it were. This was the start of Stockport Accordion Club as a highly successful concert venue, and has since led me into direct contact with many fine players from this country and abroad.
In recent years, my playing has been varied and a source of great pleasure. Since 1992 I have played regularly with local ceilidh band Fiddlesticks (along with Alan Forster — fiddle, Len Hirst — bass guitar/keyboard, Stewart Ramsden — bass guitar and John Hyland, caller/banjo/guitar). I have also played many times as part of the Baron Wolfgang Bavarian Band, appearing in Bierkellers around the country. This was an unmissable experience. Baron Wolfgang, now sadly no longer with us, was a real character who taught me a lot about entertaining and about show business. Baron Wolfgang, real name Stan Walker, had led a colourful life, and his experiences included service in the Royal Navy aboard the battle cruiser HMS Prince of Wales — taking part in the action that sank the German battleship Bismarck in 1941, and surviving his ship’s sinking by the Japanese the following year. He had also at various times been a vocalist with the Geraldo orchestra, played bass with Jimmy Shand, and been a professional boxer, wrestler, and Rugby League player with Salford and Swinton. I soon discovered that to play in the Baron’s band, you had to be adaptable and quick thinking. He never had a set programme, never used sheet music, and was likely to suddenly introduce a new song into a medley that he had “written just the other day”. He also had the habit of finishing a song, then announcing to the audience that “Our accordionist will now play a couple of polkas “, or something similar. That, by the way, would be the first I knew about this! Yes, you had to be able to improvise in a gig with the Baron, More recently I have been playing as a duo with John Jones, doing French themed nights, and playing occasional gigs in Stockport Air Raid Shelters where we sing and play all the old wartime songs at the end of organised tours. These mainly take place around Christmas, commemorating the Manchester Blitz, which began on December 22 1940. The Air Raid Shelters, by the way, are a fascinating place to explore, and really do take the visitor back in time to those dark times of 1940/41. Writing newsletters and club reports for the accordion magazines, plus the organising of what we call ‘Club Night’ concerts, has led me personally further and deeper into the accordion world. A consequence of this is that, over the years, people far and wide have contacted me asking about all kinds of accordion—related matters — everything from “Where can I find a teacher for the Anglo concertina?”to “I play in a rock band, and we need an accordion player for our next recording session. Can you help?” Trying to assist people with their enquiries and realising that there are very few sources of information available has led to the production of this book. Over the years I have had piano and guitar lessons, but my real interest and passion (some would even call it an addiction) is the piano accordion. An A to Z of the Accordion & Related Jnstruments has most certainly not been written for financial gain. If! had wanted to make money I would have tried to emulate JK Rowling and write a Harry Potter type novel, with children in mind, or write a seamy Jeffrey Archer—type story for adults, testing the old adage that “sex sells “. It is more the case that I have spent so long haunted by stuff about accordions and the people who play them that I have decided to try to exorcise some ghosts that exist within me. I hope you enjoy exploring the pages of this book, and that it provides an illuminating picture of the British accordion scene past and present, and at least provides a few answers to the questions people ask about this most fascinating and under—valued family of instruments,
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