Englishman’s Love of Scottish Music
By Jimmy Clinkscale
Ron Hodgson may not be one of the more familiar names on the Scottish accordion scene, but he is up there with the best of them in his love for the music, its traditions and its future.
Being an Englishman, Ron has lived in what, he says, is almost a backwater for the instrument. “There is just not the same tradition surrounding the accordion south of the Border as there is further north of Gretna Green.”
Lone Furrow
He has never left his native Carlisle, where he has run an Accordion School since 1957. Ron has ploughed a lone furrow in that area for the past 24 years. So barren is the tract between Glasgow and Manchester that pupils come to him from as far afield as Preston, Jarrow, Dumfries and Whitehaven.
“Musically, there is a stone wall between England and Scotland” he says. “The accordion stops at Gretna Green. There are a few Clubs in England, but they are few and far between.”
Ron admits, wryly, that as a musician he wishes he had not been born a Sassenach. He loves the tradition of the Scottish Clubs and speaks of the accordion and Scotland in the same breath.
“It is the national instrument of Scotland” he says. “Nothing can approach the accordion playing of the Scottish boys, even today.”
As the recently appointed Chairman of the National Accordion Organisation of Great Britain, Ron, at 53 years old and with a lifetimes love of accordion music behind him, sees it as his solemn duty to break down barriers, widen the horizons of the instrument, go where no man has gone before.
He is immensely proud of his three-year appointment and sees it as his business to spread the gospel as far and as wide as possible within that period.
He says “The accordion is still looked down on in some circles because it was once a pub instrument. Admittedly there have been some steps forward – you can take the ‘O’ Grades in it now for example – but I want to see it accepted as a major musical instrument.”
Ron strongly believes it is about time the Music Colleges in the United Kingdom accepted the accordion on its merits. “The UK is now the only country in the world where this is not the case” he says.
By working actively on its behalf, Ron hopes to see the membership of the NAO blossom from its present total of around 4,000.
“I want to put the accordion on the map in Great Britain” he says. “It is a great shame, to my mind, that some of the great ambassadors of the accordion, such as Jimmy Shand and Toralf Tolleffson, have never been heard outside the accordion world.”
Great Hero
Tolleffson, in fact, is one of Ron’s great heroes. Ron met him backstage once at a concert in Dumfries, and calls him “The Gentleman of the Accordion World.”
The great Norwegian player was only one of Ron’s influences in those early days. The others, co-incidentally, were all Continental as well.
It was in his early teens that he developed an interest in the accordion. Born of a working class family in Carlisle – where his father was a train driver – Ron’s earliest ambition was to play the trumpet. Just like Harry James!
Understandably, mother Hodgson was somewhat aghast at the thought of her young son practising in the house, so she encouraged him to opt for a bike instead.
However, it was on his way with his mother to purchase that very commodity when Ron spied a shop with a ‘lovely accordion’ in the window.
He had never even heard the instrument before but knew he wanted it and the young Hodgson got his way. It was a small Midella.
But Ron was horrified when he realised he could not just put it on and play immediately. That meant lessons, and as there were no accordion instructors in Carlisle at the time, that meant lessons with an organist.
To cut a long story short, he did find another instructor – Billy Stewart – but His Majesty George VI intervened, and Ron was called up to serve in the Royal Army Service Corps.
It was during tours of duty in Northern Germany and Holland that Ron really became hooked on the accordion.
“It was there that I heard the accordion being played as it should be” he says. A visit to a restaurant in the Hook of Holland introduced him to the sounds of Art Van Damm – “a fantastic jazz player” – and it was from that point on that Ron knew his future lay in accordion music.
He passed an audition for the Combined Services Entertainmant Corps in 1949, but did nott have enough service left to warrant a transfer, so he was demobbed the same year.
After coming fourth in the British Championships, Ron joined the Northern Variety Orchestra in Manchester under the leadership of Alyn Ainsworth.
Although that was Ron’s first taste of professional work, he has never considered turning ‘pro’ full time. Now a Stores Officer with the Air Ministry in Carlisle, Ron’s range of work over the years has been impressive, including such glamorous positions as apprentice cobbler, plumber’s mate and assistant groundsman at the local cricket club!
Famous Protege
By 1957 Ron had started his own Accordion School and with his own Dance Band was playing all over the North of England. He and his Moffat-born wife Margaret used to play duets together before they were married in 1952, and Margaret still helps out with the administrative side of things at the school.
Although Ron has taught many aspiring young accordionists over the years, perhaps his most famous protégé is Max Houliston, who now runs ‘The Hole in the Wa’ Club’ in Dumfries.
In fact, Ron made a record with Max. It was called ‘On the Piazza’ with music arranged by Gordon Langford. Despite the fact that he appears on it, Ron, unabashed, regards the record, one of his rare appearances on vinyl, as “one of the finest Continental LPs ever made.” Ron also recorded a track on ‘Accordion Bonanza No 2’ live from the Tait Hall in Kelso, on the Stebelin label No C1003.
But these days there are two major apples of his eye. One is son Ivor (23) who recently appeared at the Proms playing bass with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the other is his Accordion Orchestra – winners of the All-British championship on no less than two occasions.
“It is just like one big family” enthuses Ron, a barely perceptible glisten appearing in his eye.
“They are an Orchestra, not a band, and I write for them with this in mind. I like to try and get away from the old, hackneyed style of writing.”
His major ambition now is to see the Orchestra play in Carlisle’s twin town of Flensberg in Germany. “As soon as they are ready musically, they will go” he says. It is almost as if he hopes to give something back to the country which inspired him so many years ago.
For Ron has a tremendous respect for the musical achievement of other countries.
He recalls a trip to Russia for the World Youth Festival in 1957. Ron won the Silver Medal and was one of a three-member team representing Great Britain.
“A 22-year-old Russian won the competition” he says. “He played his own arrangement of Bach’s ‘Toccato in Fugue in D Minor’!
But he wasn’t just an accordion player. He could conduct, compose and he was a Professor of Music. Yet he was just one of hundreds over there. Hundreds just like him.”
And he concludes, “If people could only hear the type of players which are being produced over there, they wouldn’t believe it. I would like to see every accordion player in this country like that Russian. As Chairman of the NAO I am in an ideal position to do just that!”
Since our interview during the summer, Ron has been recommended by the Board of Administration, and its President, Mr Ivor J. Benyon, to the Governing Council of the British College of Accordionists for membership of the Board of Examiners of that august body.
Box and Fiddle
December 1982
Being an Englishman, Ron has lived in what, he says, is almost a backwater for the instrument. “There is just not the same tradition surrounding the accordion south of the Border as there is further north of Gretna Green.”
Lone Furrow
He has never left his native Carlisle, where he has run an Accordion School since 1957. Ron has ploughed a lone furrow in that area for the past 24 years. So barren is the tract between Glasgow and Manchester that pupils come to him from as far afield as Preston, Jarrow, Dumfries and Whitehaven.
“Musically, there is a stone wall between England and Scotland” he says. “The accordion stops at Gretna Green. There are a few Clubs in England, but they are few and far between.”
Ron admits, wryly, that as a musician he wishes he had not been born a Sassenach. He loves the tradition of the Scottish Clubs and speaks of the accordion and Scotland in the same breath.
“It is the national instrument of Scotland” he says. “Nothing can approach the accordion playing of the Scottish boys, even today.”
As the recently appointed Chairman of the National Accordion Organisation of Great Britain, Ron, at 53 years old and with a lifetimes love of accordion music behind him, sees it as his solemn duty to break down barriers, widen the horizons of the instrument, go where no man has gone before.
He is immensely proud of his three-year appointment and sees it as his business to spread the gospel as far and as wide as possible within that period.
He says “The accordion is still looked down on in some circles because it was once a pub instrument. Admittedly there have been some steps forward – you can take the ‘O’ Grades in it now for example – but I want to see it accepted as a major musical instrument.”
Ron strongly believes it is about time the Music Colleges in the United Kingdom accepted the accordion on its merits. “The UK is now the only country in the world where this is not the case” he says.
By working actively on its behalf, Ron hopes to see the membership of the NAO blossom from its present total of around 4,000.
“I want to put the accordion on the map in Great Britain” he says. “It is a great shame, to my mind, that some of the great ambassadors of the accordion, such as Jimmy Shand and Toralf Tolleffson, have never been heard outside the accordion world.”
Great Hero
Tolleffson, in fact, is one of Ron’s great heroes. Ron met him backstage once at a concert in Dumfries, and calls him “The Gentleman of the Accordion World.”
The great Norwegian player was only one of Ron’s influences in those early days. The others, co-incidentally, were all Continental as well.
It was in his early teens that he developed an interest in the accordion. Born of a working class family in Carlisle – where his father was a train driver – Ron’s earliest ambition was to play the trumpet. Just like Harry James!
Understandably, mother Hodgson was somewhat aghast at the thought of her young son practising in the house, so she encouraged him to opt for a bike instead.
However, it was on his way with his mother to purchase that very commodity when Ron spied a shop with a ‘lovely accordion’ in the window.
He had never even heard the instrument before but knew he wanted it and the young Hodgson got his way. It was a small Midella.
But Ron was horrified when he realised he could not just put it on and play immediately. That meant lessons, and as there were no accordion instructors in Carlisle at the time, that meant lessons with an organist.
To cut a long story short, he did find another instructor – Billy Stewart – but His Majesty George VI intervened, and Ron was called up to serve in the Royal Army Service Corps.
It was during tours of duty in Northern Germany and Holland that Ron really became hooked on the accordion.
“It was there that I heard the accordion being played as it should be” he says. A visit to a restaurant in the Hook of Holland introduced him to the sounds of Art Van Damm – “a fantastic jazz player” – and it was from that point on that Ron knew his future lay in accordion music.
He passed an audition for the Combined Services Entertainmant Corps in 1949, but did nott have enough service left to warrant a transfer, so he was demobbed the same year.
After coming fourth in the British Championships, Ron joined the Northern Variety Orchestra in Manchester under the leadership of Alyn Ainsworth.
Although that was Ron’s first taste of professional work, he has never considered turning ‘pro’ full time. Now a Stores Officer with the Air Ministry in Carlisle, Ron’s range of work over the years has been impressive, including such glamorous positions as apprentice cobbler, plumber’s mate and assistant groundsman at the local cricket club!
Famous Protege
By 1957 Ron had started his own Accordion School and with his own Dance Band was playing all over the North of England. He and his Moffat-born wife Margaret used to play duets together before they were married in 1952, and Margaret still helps out with the administrative side of things at the school.
Although Ron has taught many aspiring young accordionists over the years, perhaps his most famous protégé is Max Houliston, who now runs ‘The Hole in the Wa’ Club’ in Dumfries.
In fact, Ron made a record with Max. It was called ‘On the Piazza’ with music arranged by Gordon Langford. Despite the fact that he appears on it, Ron, unabashed, regards the record, one of his rare appearances on vinyl, as “one of the finest Continental LPs ever made.” Ron also recorded a track on ‘Accordion Bonanza No 2’ live from the Tait Hall in Kelso, on the Stebelin label No C1003.
But these days there are two major apples of his eye. One is son Ivor (23) who recently appeared at the Proms playing bass with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the other is his Accordion Orchestra – winners of the All-British championship on no less than two occasions.
“It is just like one big family” enthuses Ron, a barely perceptible glisten appearing in his eye.
“They are an Orchestra, not a band, and I write for them with this in mind. I like to try and get away from the old, hackneyed style of writing.”
His major ambition now is to see the Orchestra play in Carlisle’s twin town of Flensberg in Germany. “As soon as they are ready musically, they will go” he says. It is almost as if he hopes to give something back to the country which inspired him so many years ago.
For Ron has a tremendous respect for the musical achievement of other countries.
He recalls a trip to Russia for the World Youth Festival in 1957. Ron won the Silver Medal and was one of a three-member team representing Great Britain.
“A 22-year-old Russian won the competition” he says. “He played his own arrangement of Bach’s ‘Toccato in Fugue in D Minor’!
But he wasn’t just an accordion player. He could conduct, compose and he was a Professor of Music. Yet he was just one of hundreds over there. Hundreds just like him.”
And he concludes, “If people could only hear the type of players which are being produced over there, they wouldn’t believe it. I would like to see every accordion player in this country like that Russian. As Chairman of the NAO I am in an ideal position to do just that!”
Since our interview during the summer, Ron has been recommended by the Board of Administration, and its President, Mr Ivor J. Benyon, to the Governing Council of the British College of Accordionists for membership of the Board of Examiners of that august body.
Box and Fiddle
December 1982