I have received the following email from Katy Andrews. I suggested a message on Mudcat, and she suggested that I could post one:

Hi -
HELP!
We urgently need an accordion player.
Paid gig this Monday!

The duo that had been booked by a local pub, to play French music on Monday lunchtime during the Tour de France race through Leyton, pulled out when they learned that Lea Bridge Road would be closed until 6pm. They had a gig to get to in Kent in the evening, so it just wasn't logistically feasible for them. They weren't prepared to carry PA equipment 250 yards from across the road, nor to have anyone help them to do it (despite the fact that security will be incredibly tight and the place will be crawling with cops!).

However, the local paper had already gone to press when this happened and there is a half-page spread for the pub promising accordion music and a French atmosphere, with stuff going on all day.

I have been trying to find someone to take the gig on at short notice, and have managed to find a hurdy-gurdy player, but the landlady has now asked if I can find an accordionist specifically, as this is what the advert said.

I have failed to find any accordionists who play French music that are available on Monday lunchtime, the 7th July, so in desperation I am trying to get any accordionist who can play anything that would not be recognisably English or Morris. This isn't a concert for a folkie audience, it's just music to add background ambience in a pub during a bike race. So it doesn't have to be tip-top super or authentic, just good quality and not obviously English. And played on an accordion or melodeon (the pub clientele probably won't know the difference).

The pub are paying good but reasonable money, and there's a free lunch and a ring-side view of the event from the verandah to be had as well.
It's at the Hare & Hounds pub on Lea Bridge Road, Leyton E10.

Please let me know urgently if you can help out!
It's from roughly 1.00-3.30pm (to give the hurdy-gurdy player a short break at 1.30 or thereabouts and then play for a bit longer after he's finished - though you may want to come to some arrangement among yourselves. He's called Mark).

The only things you really need to know are that the pub is nowhere near the rail or tube network, public transport (buses 48,55,56 stop outside, buses 58 and 158 go fairly near by) will be tailing off from 9.30am, and the road is closed altogether from 10am-6pm. There is a free private car-park beside the pub, but once in it, you'll be stuck in it until 6pm. It is too late now for me to try to arrange alternative parking nearby, as the Police needed full details of the vehicle and registration number by noon on Friday. The best thing to do is probably go to a nearby station (Blackhorse Road tube and overground, St. James Street BR overground, Leyton tube) and take a minicab (about £5-7) to drop you off, if you are not driving there. If you do drive, try to arrive by quarter to ten. The pub is officially opening at 10.00am on the day.

The pub has no PA system, but I am taking my own Marshall speaker and leads tomorrow to be used if required. So we can mike you up if necessary. Any instruments, PA or other equipment can be securely stored to be taken away later if you don't want to spend the whole afternoon there. There is an official marshalled pedestrian crossing point 50 yards along the road so you are not trapped there all day (but any vehicles in the carpark will be).

Please let me know if you can do it.
I am on 0790 415 9398.

Many thanks,
KATY.