Lovely photograph from the 1981 Willie week. Looks like it was taken a
million years ago in some ways, it is hard to believe I was actually there
that night.
Anyway, a few additional names: on the left is the late Tony Crehan (son of
Junior), then next to Noel Hill: Junior Crehan, Gerald Haugh, John Kelly
and after that I get lost. There used to be a woman called Mrs King playing
at these concerts but I have no recollection of her so I am not sure she is
in there. It would be fun to track a few of the names of the girls, they
are probably today's well known women players.
Noel Hill usually gets a group of his most advanced students to play on
stage during the concertina recital. I have some photographs of the latest
instalments of that, it's a nice way to give them some exposure. That there
were nearly twenty girls on stage with him last summer says something about
the popularity of concertina playing as well.
Tony Crehan was a very fine and well known concertina player, he died some
years ago. Junior Crehan was his father, like John Kelly he was maybe more
well known as a fiddle player, a lot of old people could play the
concertina as well though. I remember one night when Junior (then 89) put
down his fiddle, maybe a bit fed up with the session that was going a bit
quick, He listened for a while, gave me a fat wink picked up Kitty Hayes'
concertina that was sitting on the floor next to him, played the tune along
with the rest of the session once and put the concertina down again. He
played it very well. Although not well known as a player, I have seen
Junior's other son pick up a concertina occasionally and play it well and
one of Junior's daughters, Angela is a more active and locally known
concertina player (she is married to flute-player PJ Crotty).
John Kelly was originally from Rehy, Kilbaha, Co Clare. Fiddleplayer
extra-ordinaire, he moved to Dublin where he had a little shop, The Horse's
Shoe in Capel street. Both his sons James and John are very well respected
fiddle players, John Jr's daughters are by now fine players as well.
