Walking down the road the other day with Luscious Lola we came across three men playing accordians... it was Bach and we stood among a handful of people transfixed by these impassioned young men with these extraordinary squeezeboxes. It was cloudy and looked as if it might rain. Several people strolled by with a sideways glance.
After a few nervous glances heavenward they drew their concert to a close and started to pack their precious instruments away. The small number of people who had been watching walked away without leaving an appreciative coin. We congratulated them, put a note in their empty box, bought the cd's and invited them for coffee at my place 100 yards away. I repeated my road and flat number as I left them thinking they would not turn up but they surprised us a little while later.
They were the Ukrainian Accordian Quartet although the fourth had had trouble with his visa and had been unable to join them on this occasion. They came with flowers for Lola, polite and charming, they drank tea and we played Jenga. They agreed to come again later after their second 'concert' that evening. Apparently they were invited to play as part of a street festival but no-one seemed to know anything about it.
And what a fun evening it was! I picked them up in Esmeralda whom they loved although it was a trifle cramped and we headed over to Lola's place. We drank vodka and talked about the Ukraine, Poland, and Mozart. They didn't like Poland, and although the Poles were not generous it was possible to make more here than in the Ukraine where all are at the mercy of the mafia. Lola cooked and we laughed a lot. They had spent the whole weekend in Lodz but received little reward for their efforts. If they had been breakdancing or doing karaoke they would have had an audience of hundreds, but as it was no-one was interested in them. I often have to remind myself that the intelligentsia of Poland were wiped out by the Nazis and then the Soviets and consequently there is a distinct lack of culture or manners in this country.
