Future Classic Accordions

[Walker]

@McSqueeze, I think you are right. All the accordions you named - Classique, Ranco & Hohner are already classics.

John Huband, well, he was brilliant...

 

[McSqueeze]

@McSqueeze, I think you are right. All the accordions you named - Classique, Ranco & Hohner are already classics.

John Huband, well, he was brilliant...

G'day Walker,
East Meets West is a great album. I've managed to download 4 tracks from it on Youtube but would love to get hold of the other tracks.
Do by any chance have the album?

I went to school with John Huband and Arthur Spink, both of whom were a great influence on my accordion playing. John was couple of years ahead of me so we were never mates but Arthur and I were pals for a while, picking berries together in the holidays, delivering newspapers for the same newsagent but most of all spending half our lives in the local snooker hall.

On one of my trips back to Scotland in 1979 I visited John who coincidentally had just received the first batch of 12 Elka Classiques from Italy so I was there for the unpacking. They were all great boxes but all slightly different and ironically John preferred some of the others to the one with his name on it, but of course he was stuck with the one with his name. When Calum Maclean heard them he wanted a 5 row version and John ordered 3 of them. The 2nd one went to Alec Kerr from Dundee but living in Adelaide and the 3rd came to me, also in Australia.

Arthur eventually came to live in Australia but living so far apart we only connected occasionally.

Both are gone now, Arthur just a couple of years ago but John back in 2000 at the age of only 58.

One strong memory of John playing was in about 1963 when he had a residency in a coffee shop in Dundee just round the corner from where I lived. The Temperence Seven were playing in the Caird Hall and for some reason after their show they all turned up at this coffee shop. John encouraged them to bring their instruments in and I experienced one of the most brilliant ad hoc sessions of mostly jazz and standards.

 

[Walker]

Morning @McSqueeze.

Thank you for the stories about your early days in Dundee - sounds like it was a terrific time and place for the accordion back then. My old accordion teacher was also from Dundee, his name is Peter Farnan, and he's a great box player too.

I'm sorry but I don't have a copy of East Meets West. However, I checked the website discogs and there is an LP of it for a reasonable price. That said, it's only of use if you have a record player...