Free with my copy of 'The Guardian' newspaper this morning was a free DVD of the 'cult' movie The Wicker man set on a west Scottish island. Lo and behold during the pub sing-song there is a fiddle and concertina accompanyment. Raised metal ends, hand straps, was it a Jeffries ? sounded honky enough, two musicians make the credits but I have left my reading glasses at a party last night somewhere. Anyone else seen this ?
Pete.

See this Topic.

It identifies the player... not the instrument, though.

I got a copy of the film with the Guardian too, I'll have to have a look. I seem to spend a lot of my evenings on the computer, browsing this website. It is strangely addictive. I'll try to tear myself away, persuade my wife that she doesn't want to watch Casualty and watch the film.

Thank you Jim for the link to the old thread, seems like it's not only new members that are digging up old stuff. The Wicker man was/is a cheesy old film with lots of squirmy songs and stuff, not to mention the 'naughty bits'. True enough Michael Cole played concertina, harmonica and bassoon. Turns out he is bassoonist with the philharmonic. I have posted a thread on the philharmonic forum asking him what system and make the instrument was. Could turn out it was a Jeffries prop that was thrown off the cliff at the end of filming who knows.

Just came back from an outing with the family to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Arrgh me hearties, there be an anglo concertina with bellows papers playin' along with a stout group a' musicians at the Port Tortuga. Fisher's Hornpipe the tune, and it starts out at a hornpipe tempo until the fight breaks out.

Now what on earth I thinks ta' meself would a concertina be doin' in the Caribbean in the 1770's? Who cares with Davy Jones runnin' about half man half squid? It was fun. No idea as to the instrument acutally being played on set. It is however on the sound track. The most disturbing thing is that my daughter is attracted to Captin Jack Sparrow ! Oh Goth princess, say it ain't so....

"Pirates of the Caribbean - The Curse of the Black Pearl" was on TV here in Australia on Sunday night, and I missed it.

Your story reminds me of a movie of a Shakespeare play (can't remember which one) where there was a piano accordion (or is it accordian) being played. Another anachronism.

Tee hee- she'd better stand in line! My daughter's in love with him, too! She gleefully came home to tell me about the concertina scene.

She also told me about a bizarre-sounding animated movie called Mirrormask which she thoroughly enjoyed. She carefully wrote down a quote for me (the contex is that the character Valentine is describing what they could do if they were rich).

"We could bathe in fish! Eat all the little chocolate buttons we want! Learn to play the concertina!"

Were there some sea shanties in the movie ? I read an article in Mojo magazine a few months ago that there was an all star cast ( including Lou Reed I think ? !) that were recording shanties to go along with the movie. Maybe they are waiting for next years though.

One daughter likes Captain Jack, and the other likes Will Turner.

I didn't notice the bellows papers. I thought it looked like a Morse, but I guess not.

Jeff Myers

P.S.--Terrible movie, by the way. Lacks all the charm of the first episode.

Oh goodness, I think our daughters might get along very well indeed.


Jeff, guess it is a quasi-terrible movie but a fun little entertainment for my daughter and the third one will be fun as well if only to see Keith Richards as Capitan Jack's old man .

I know I saw the bellows papers and further think it was a 20 button.

Sadly I haven't seen this yet but will make sure to pay special attention to that scene when I do. I did, however see Hook the other day on TV (where Robin Williams plays a grown-up Peter Pan) - one of the pirates in the crowd on the docks early on is holding a concertina in one hand. Doesn't play and is only on screen for a second. Very sad. And since it was on TV, I couldn't rewind and figure out exactly what it was.

I think Cap'n Jack is admired by a number of the ladies. Personally, I just wanted to grow out my beard with those two little braids. Pity I work at a bank.

That may be on the way amongst the younger set for sure. We went to the 10 a.m. showing to beat the crowd. The next group as we went out had a number of young swains already dressed the part. Rocky Horror Picture Show here we come!

As to the beard braids, I had a student a number of years ago who sported six inch ones with tatoos on his oaken arms, and a ripped up tee-shirt with SlipKnot written on it. Made me nervous until I called on him...very smart cookie he was. Broke my heart when he trimmed the beard and started looking corporate as graduation approached .

I was quite sad when I had to cut my shoulder-length hair before an interview (for a summer internship with Kerry that I didn't even get). Of course, though I kept the goatee, my friends stopped making fun of me for having a "Jesus" look going (no offense or intent to look like Jesus intended).

in the new pirates of the caribbean movie there is a bar fight scene where one of the musicians has a concertina. did any one catch what type it was? it looked like an anglo to me.

Assuming my attempt at adding an image works, here's the concertina from a quick screencap of The Wickerman.

While I'm at it, here's a screen cap of presumably Alf Edwards playing "Maid From Amsterdam" from Moby Dick

Maybe this link has appeared before but I found this site amusing - and a good reference to accordions and concertinas in movies www.mediarare.com/MRFilmSq.html

Alex

Here’s one I don’t believe has been reported previously on this forum or the squeezeboxes on the silver screen (http://www.mediarare.com/MRFilmSq.html) database. That is probably because if you multiply the small number of people who saw this film with the probability of an interest in concertinas, the result would be…me.

The movie is All the Pretty Horses, directed by Billy Bob Thornton and based on the novel by Cormac McCarthy, better known for No Country for Old Men, currently in theaters, and the relentlessly depressing Pulitzer novel The Road.

In the movie, set in 1949, a 16 year old boy, played by Matt Damon, leaves his Texas ranch to go work in Mexico. He finds work at a ranch based on his skill with horses. He tells his bosses he will break 16 wild horses in 48 hours, a wager of Cool Hand Luke proportions. As he proceeds, the number of interested onlookers gradually increases from a half dozen to the point families are arriving with picnic baskets and eventually a party breaks out, complete with musicians (see below), all while he’s breaking horses. The scene with the musicians lasts only a few seconds, but the concertina is clearly revealed as a 20 button Anglo in the brief sequence. There are no references to this snippet of music or these musicians in the credits.

Click to view attachment

I saw a concertina being played in "The Wind That Shakes The Barley", ceili scene at the announcement of the truce. Overall the film not very soundtrack oriented. Martín de Cógáin singing Óró Sé Dó as the character Seán in prison scene was the other musical moment.

My apologies if this one has already been mentioned, but there is a rather nice club scene in the film "Summer and Smoke" with a concertina. Mike

Desi Arnaz in the 1956 romantic comedy Forever, Darling, playing what appears to be an early Bastari.

You sure that's not a Mayfair?

The bellows don't look like Bastari to me.

Jim,

I had some similar confusion over the Wizard Anglos when Flip Delport asked about them, misleadingly stating "The anatomy is clearly English": Anglo Wizard, Who made them ? In the end I had to go so far as to buy an example off eBay to find out what they were about

Stephen, it seems I invoked "View New Posts" between the appearance of your post to which I replied here and your new post about the "Anglo Wizard", which I've now seen.

I'm still not sure about either Desi's or the Wizard, though. In the Wizard thread shipcmo said, "The bellows are identical to early Bastari (and later Stagi)...." I've handled far more Wheatstones and Lachenals than Bastaris or Stagis in my time, but I don't recall ever seeing a Bastari or Stagi with such deep bellows folds... or with decorative trapezoidal "papers" such as I see on Desi's instrument. On the other hand, his bellows folds seem thinner -- flimsier cardboard? -- than what I associate with Wheatstone. I'm not sure about the Mayfair.

I seem to have missed some of the past discussion of the Anglo Wizard, though, so I think I'll now go add some thoughts in that thread.

was anybody ever able to determine what kind of box Mike Cole was playing? When I saw it (again through my concertina eyes, first time I saw the movie was over 20 years ago) I thought it might be an anglo, due to the strap and I thought I saw three rows of buttons, however that was from seeing a low res scan. It was mentioned on another thread it may be a Jeffries Duet, or even a prop.

Hooves

Shortly after starting this thread I posted the question to the man himself on the Philharmonia orchestra site, as that is the band for which he plays bassoon, no feedback as yet.

http://forum.philharmonia.co.uk/viewforum....ad20ccd39b3a353

Pete.

well, seeing as that was asked 2 years ago, and he said he would reply with details "soon", I'm going to guess he won't. He may not own the box anymore, and may not remember the details of the concertina.

It's been a while since I saw it, but a concertina appears in the 1943 Val Lewton produced film The Ghost Ship. There is a mysterious and somewhat sinister old sailor playing the concertina on the docks before the hero sets forth and when he gets back to land. This one isn't listed on the http://www.mediarare.com/MRFilmSq.html site either. The sailor and the concertina were the best part of the film -I saw the film before I developed my interest in the concertina!