GrahamBradshaw

There is an ad currently showing on British TV for a company called Phones4U. There is a bloke wandering about in the background playing a concertina. He seems to be really playing it - unlike most of these things where it is a 'stage' fake concertina. I still can't work out what it is actually doing there. It seems completely unconnected with the rest of the ad. Presumably some ad exec somewhere thought it meant something?! Has anybody else seen it? Does anybody know who it is playing?

This year, the featured instrument at Warwick Folk Festival is the concertina, with emphasis on the Anglo. There is a full programme of events which can be found here and you can find further details of the festival here. As you will see, the featured artists are Alan Day, Jody Kruskal, John Kirkpatrick, Brian Peters, Chris Sherburn, all of whom are featuring anglo to tie in with the 3CD collection Anglo International, and also Alistair Anderson who obviously plays English and will be doing a workshop on that instrument. As well as a main concert and workshops, there will also be the chance for players to get involved in the Big Squeeze which will be running on the Saturday afternoon. Warwick Festival runs on the weekend of 21/22/23 July 2006

Of course, George Harrison was better known for being a closet-ukelele player, and in fact was main sponsor for the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain for many years. They are now quite cool - well they've been on Later with Jools and appeared on quite a few big festivals. Getting back on topic, what if one of the current crop of pop musicians were to champion the concertina? Then we could have a Concertina Orchestra of Great Britain. OK, I know there used to be many concertina bands/orchestras - we have been listening to some of them for possible inclusion in the forthcoming English International and Duet International CD collections. Now that would be really cool at next year's Glastonbury! Graham

Warwick Folk Festival are featuring Concertinas this year, with the emphasis on Anglos. There will be workshops, concerts and sessions featuring concertina players. A mini-festival within a festival. Go to the link for further details http://warwickfolkfestival.co.uk/convention.shtml. I'll post here with further details as things develop. Graham

We are currently trying to organise a trip to the UK for Jody in July 2006. THis will form part of the Concertina Convention at Warwick Folk Festival on the weekend of 21/22/23 July. However, in order to make it viable for him to come over, we really need to organise some more gigs. These can be other festivals, concerts, workshops, master classes or whatever. Jody is planning on being in the UK between 13 and 25 July. If anybody has any ideas/suggestions, I or he would be glad to hear from you. Graham

Check the non-Forum "Music" section of Concertina.net. Also Morgana's web site. Yes, Morgana's website is a great start, and of course it includes Anglo International which is a 3 CD set of Anglo players. If you don't already know, we are in the process of compiling a similar collection of English players and Duet players - due out later this year. Hopefully! Graham

We have been looking at doing an anglo concertina feature at several festivals next Summer, as part of the Anglo International project. This would obviously include some Jeffries players, and could serve both purposes. The general format we are looking at is to use some of the players from the Anglo International CD set, who may or may not be already booked at the festival in one of their other guises. There has been some interest in this, but we would welcome any suggestions members might have. Don't forget the website: Anglo International Graham Hi Graham, Four months on from your last posting on this topic, is there any updated news? Regards, Peter. Hello Peter, Yes, I think I posted something on another thread. However, here is the latest state of play. We have 3 festivals in the frame. One has definitely committed to it, and the other 2 still to confirm. It will definitely be happening at Warwick Folk Festival on the weekend of 21/22/23 July 2006 and booked so far are John Kirkpatrick, Brian Peters and Chris Sherburn of Last Nights Fun. We are currently negotiating with others to add to this. They will all perform in a special Concertina Concert on the Saturday night in the Bridgehouse Theatre, and will also be doing workshops over the weekend. Saturday is the main concertina day, but there will be workshops on the Sunday as well. The festival have also booked Alistair Anderson, who will obviously be doing an English workshop plus a concert spot. The workshop programme has not been published yet, but I'll post it on here when it is. And I'll keep you up to date on any developments elsewhere. Regards, Graham

Screaming fit over - I'm back! Seriously though, if there was sufficient interesting material available, I MAY consider a second collection of Anglo. But not yet. Meanwhile, we are busy researching English and Duet (or rather Alan is, bless him). There have been some excellent suggestions so far, which we will eventually get round to following up. However, we would still be grateful for more. The question we want answered is: "Who are the must be included names for these projects?" They can be current players or archive players, and they don't have to be the obvious BIG NAMES. We are also looking for interesting examples of playing that may be not so well known. Particularly, in order to keep the INTERNATIONAL flavour going, how about any players who are from countries other than the British Isles or North America. Any suggestions, post here, or contact Alan direct. Inevitably, we will end up with far too much stuff to use all of it. That's when we have to argue about who stays in to make a cohesive collection. But that's what made Anglo International so rewarding a project to be involved with, when people said, largely, that we had 'got it right'. Apart from those who said, "Wot no Chris Droney" and "Wot no William Kimber" and "Wot no.....". Maybe, we should do Anglo International 2 after all. Aaaargh screaming into the sunset. Graham

Whilst Alan Day is plotting away in the background on English International and Duet International, I have been busy marketing and promoting Anglo International. Sales are going well, helped along by very respectable sales by Button Box in N.America, mainly to the concertina fraternity (thanks to everybody on this forum). Things are now rolling out to the wider folk world at large, and we have a review in the next (March) edition of Living Tradition magazine, together with an interesting article from Roger Edwards, talking about his concertina experiences and inspired by AI. There have been several radio plays, including Alistair Anderson's BBC Newcastle show and Radio Kidnappers in New Zealand! Coming up this Saturday (11th Feb) Colum Sands will be featuring it on his excellent Folk Club prog on BBC Radio Ulster, which goes out between 10.00 and midnight. If you want to listen again afterwards, it can be found on BBC Ulster. Any guesses what tracks he'll play? Graham

Well, as it happens, Alan and I have been recently talking about just such a project. After the Anglo International project, we said we'd take a break and see what happened. The response, and the sales so far, have been superb, and exceeded our expectations. Alan has got the bit between his teeth again, and we are about to embark on the period of research for these two projects. We are not quite sure what form they will take, but it will take shape over the coming months. Watch this space for further news. Graham

Chris's Wheatstone is a Steve Dickinson 3 row C/G, and has FOUR fold bellows! Honest. A brilliant player, and if you want a taster, can be found on Anglo International. Regards, Graham

Thanks Paul, and everybody else who have made such lovely comments. It makes all the effort worthwhile. An update for all those interested. WE have shipped about 500 copies so far, and that is without any major promotion, except to you concertina fans. So, I'm pretty pleased with that. The promo roll-out is now starting to happen, with radio plays and magazine reviews starting to emerge. Living Tradition magazine are doing an article/feature in their next edition, which is very exciting. Alan and I always hoped this collection would appeal to a more general folk audience as well as the concertina fraternity, so our fingers are crossed waiting to see what the reviewers have to say. Warwick Folk Festival will be doing an Anglo Concertina convention as part of the festival this year. There will be a showcase concert on the Saturday night, and workshops all weekend. Booked so far are John Kirkpatrick, Chris Sherburn (Last Nights Fun), Brian Peters and Alan Day. More are under negotiation. Finally, our host, Paul Schwarz, has agreed to do a banner for this site at what I think is a very reasonable rate, just as a gentle reminder you understand. The Anglo International website now has online ordering through PayPal for those who have been wavering, or in North America use Button Box, Camsco or Paul Groff. Sorry if this seems like blatant advertising, but a number of people have asked how to get it. Also, we need to sell about 1000 copies to recoup the considerable costs - after that the musicians start to get some money! So, I need to keep pushing it. Once the banner is up and running, I won't mention it again. Promise!! Graham

Hi Groovy, If you are in the UK during July 2006, Warwick Folk Festival will be holding an Anglo convention, featuring various people from the Anglo International 3CD set. There will be concerts, workshops etc and full details will be on the festival site when it has all been firmed up. Graham

See also the Anglo International 3 CD collection, which has an article from Harry Scurfield, some Squash box playing, and also from young white South African player, Regardt de Bruin. The music on here is a good intro to whet your appetite, and the 48 page booklet can be downloaded from the site for those that want to find out more. www.angloconcertina.co.uk Merry Christmas all. Graham

I also found a strange rock in the 1950s whilst playing in a friend's garden. W would have been about 9 or 10 at the time. This object was like a golf ball - about 5cm in diameter - and had a distinctly metallic feel to it. It was spherical (but not perfectly) and smooth. For some reason, I decided to see if it would break, so smashed it down onto the concrete floor, when it shattered. Which probably means it was rock. Inside, it was hollow, with a white crystalline substance sticking to the outer shell which was about 1 cm thick. There also seemed to be a small amount of white liquid inside. Ever since I have tried to find out what this object was, and this is the first time anybody has described anything remotely similar. As you can tell from the detailed description I am able to give after the passing of nearly 50 years, this event had a profound effect on me, and I always thought there was something faintly mystical about this object. I must go and google Moki Marble. Graham Have just googled, and I am pretty sure that the object was a Moki Marble. A bit strange though, considering it was found in a back garden in Surrey, England!

You could do worse than get a copy of Anglo International, which includes most of the anglo players mentioned. Available from Button Box in the USA or from the dedicated website www.angloconcertina.co.uk

Hi Lars, As producer of Anglo International, I also run a mail order operation in the UK. If you like to email me on rootsrecs@btclick.com I'll let you have ordering details. We stock all Chris Sherburn's stuff, as well as just about any folk and traditional CD that is currently available. Graham

This was intentional - it would have been all too easy to put one of the star names first, but that wasn't the point of the project. (Although, of course, those star names DO help to make it a saleable product. On the other hand, many people want it for the more obscure stuff.) I decided to put Alan first. It was his idea after all. I must say that he was not at all happy with this, as he didn't think he was good enough to be put in front of all those great players. I said, "Think of it like this Alan - if you go first, it can only get better!" For a list of ALL the names on the CDs, go to the website:Anglo International Graham

We have been looking at doing an anglo concertina feature at several festivals next Summer, as part of the Anglo International project. This would obviously include some Jeffries players, and could serve both purposes. The general format we are looking at is to use some of the players from the Anglo International CD set, who may or may not be already booked at the festival in one of their other guises. There has been some interest in this, but we would welcome any suggestions members might have. Don't forget the website: Anglo International Graham

Thanks Henk. Hope you liked it. Chris Timson managed to sell 7 copies at Arran - thanks Chris - and even better was able to donate £5 from each one to the festival funds. So £35 to help it run again next year. Well done Chris. For those who missed it, go to the website: www.angloconcertina.co.uk Graham

Thanks for your encouraging comments. We're getting good responses so far. The website now has ordering details, and for those that want to know more, you can download the entire booklet as a pdf file. URL is www.angloconcertina.co.uk Graham EDited - I didn't mean to quote all of Spectacled Warblers missive. I'll get the hang of this eventually!

EDited by Graham who couldn't understand Alan Day's instructions as to how to use this forum. As usual. it's all his fault.