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http://accordions.com/news.aspx?d=11-Dec-2020&lang=en&s=17114
http://accordions.com/news.aspx?d=11-Dec-2020&lang=en&s=17114
11-Dec-2020
Worlds First Accordionist to Get Covid Vaccine is John Jones MBE - UKby Rob Howard |
 On day 1 of the covid vaccine rollout in the UK, John Jones MBE became the first accordionist in the world to receive the Pfizer anti-Covid vaccine. Macclesfield General Hospital in Cheshire has offered the vaccine to all staff and volunteers, and because of his many years of fund raising playing the accordion in the hospital, John is listed as a volunteer. John’s non-stop fund raising has made him a local legend in Macclesfield!Since John retired from his career as a structural bridge engineer in 1992 he has devoted much of his time to fund raising for various charities, and in 2012 was awarded the MBE for his efforts in raising over £250,000. The ceremony took place in Buckingham Palace, carried out by HRH Princess Anne. Before taking up the accordion in the 1980s John was a pianist who entertained in pubs, and since switching to the accordion he has played at all sorts of functions and has a very large repertoire of all kinds of music. He is a member of both Stockport Accordion Club and North Staffs Accordion Club, and is the organizer of the annual charity concert at the Broken Cross Club in Macclesfield in aid of the East Cheshire Hospice. He and Rob Howard have performed war songs in the Stockport Air Raid Shelters each December since 1999. Like everybody else, John has this year been sidelined from playing gigs indoors because of the Covid lockdowns and restrictions, but undeterred has gone out into the streets and parks busking. About one such occasion he writes: “On September 11th I was busking in Teggs Nose Country Park, raising money for the Intensive Care Unit in Macclesfield Hospital in memory of my wife June who passed away on March 9th, when suddenly there was a very loud “vroom, vroom” as a convoy of Super Cars arrived in the car park. These cars were on a rally known as ‘The Cannon Run’. One of the group saw my collecting box, and put a £20 donation in it. The box was then passed round and a total of £158 was raised for the hospital charity. A member of the group then asked me to play the accordion, which he recorded. I was then told that I had just been videoed with a famous rapper called ‘Mist’ (picture left), who has a worldwide fan base of millions, and the video was then posted on his Instagram page. Imagine my surprise when my grandson, Marcus, rang me up later in the evening to tell me he had seen the video and couldn’t believe that his grandad played the accordion for Mist. It seemed to me it was as if I’d been seen with Elvis!”. Picture below: John Jones is also popular with the birds who love the acccordion!! |
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