Alan Small ... certainly big on entertainment

Those that didn’t come missed a very good night of music, however, with great entertainment from virtuoso guest artiste Alan Small.

As usual, the evening started with local musicians, namely David Corner on concertina, followed by Phil Gillie, Bill Elliot, Fiona Mitchell and Robert Cleland, all on accordion.

Charlie McIntee finished off the locals’ spot with an old favourite, the 6-20 Two-Step, and he’s now on the “guest artiste list” himself for January.

Alan Small then took to the stage.

The current Scottish champion soon had the audience in the palm of his hand with some great Scottish sets, mixed with French tune “Bourrasqe”, a quickstep set of “Lady Is A Tramp”, “Sweet Georgia Brown” and the Italian tune “Bel Viso.

After the break, the locals’ spots were taken up by Ronnie Easton, Gordon Clark and Alex Ross on accordion, with a tune on the fiddle also from Ian Woods.

House band for the night were, on piano, Brian Forrest; drums, George Darling, Tam Rankine and Tom Riddell; and on second box, Charlie McIntee and Robert Cleland.

Alan Small then finished off the night with another great programme of music, with Irish jigs, a march, a Strathspey and reel set, plus some show pieces which included “Dantesque”, “Trieste Sourrire” and “Cho Cho Bambino”.

This was excellent stuff from one of the top players around and a great variation of music.

This month’s meeting on October 30 has guest artiste Martin Donaldson with his trio at Kelso Rugby Club, Poynder Park, with a 7pm start. All welcome.