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The Cornish Quickstep / The Pleasure Gardens Polka

[John Kirkpatrick]

Brass Monkey played these tunes in 2001 on their fourth album Going and Staying. The album’s sleeve notes commented:

Whilst working on music for a dramatisation of Hans Andersons’s The Tinderbox, John came up with a little tune arranged for three chiming trumpets, as there were three trumpet players in the cast. Unfortunately, now of them actually had their own trumpet, and the theatre was only able to borrow one. So, The Pleasure Gardens Polka ended up on a piano accordion - an instrument that people are not only prepared to lend but, in fact, to give away to anyone who shows the slightest interest. Before the heat of the moment had passed, a similar arrangement had emerged for the traditional Cornish Quickstep.