Dave Higham

"I'm not sure that could have Colin needed that much pestering, since the franglo, if you see Colin in sessions, is his instrument of preference (along with the serpent)." Well, not to make a meal of it, but it was Colin who told me that when Manu first approached him with the idea he wasn't exactly enthused, but after being pestered for a while he thought it might be quite interesting to try and give it a go.

Stephen, you're quite right of course, which is why, when I explain to French musicians that no it's not a bandoneon and that it's like their 'diato' but sort of 'inside-out'. Which is probably why Emanuelle Pariselle pestered Colin Dipper for so long until he finally gave in and made him the first 'Franglo'. But I digress,.... I feel another thread coming on...

Give me the full rich tones of a G/D box and a nice steady session any day. Ah, a man after my own heart! But then, I'm a Yorkshireman too. Being the proud owner of a Jeffries G/D and a C/G. And even though I don't play either of them as much as I should, I'm not about to give either of them up because some young upstart thinks that I should, so that he could play (totally inappropriate) Irish diddly-diddly stuff on them! (Nudge-nudge, wink-wink). I acquired the G/D a long time ago (from Chris Algar) because I was fed up with trying to play in sessions and for Sword/Morris (with HTSD) and having to play squeaky G and then stop playing when they (the melodeons and fiddles) went into D. Yes, I know that on a 30 button Anglo you can dodge about all over the place and play in D, but that's not what Anglos are all about (unless you're JK or JW or JS etc.) (or Irish) So, imagine my surprise, when I came to France, and found that (almost) all melodeons are in C/G!! Le bonheur!!! (bliss!) so , this Friday evening at a 'scène-ouverte' ('open-stage' anybody remember the Hefts 'n' Blades in Sheffield?) when a bloke started playing bourrées on a vielle-à-roue (hurdy-gurdy) and everyone else said "oy, what key's he in?", I said "Doh!", got out the other box, and joined in!

Thanks for your suggestion Dave. We have made a policy of not including tracks from existing CDs unless they are out of print. Is Nigel's record available on CD? I've got the original on vinyl which I can't play any more. I've looked for it on CD but haven't been able to find it.

Al. have you thought about including a track or 2 from Nigel Pickles's record of the 'reconstituted' Mexborough Concertina Band?

Something I've learned from making instruments and encountering the problem of some finishes (notably polyurethanes) not hardening on rosewood, is that shellac (French polish) is the one thing that will stick to and harden on just about anything. Many instrument makers apply a wash-coat of shellac to seal the surface before applying other finishes. Your guy would appear to know what he's talking about and can probably do you a satin finish or the sort of gloss they used to put on pianos. Oh, and shellac is probably what was put on your Lachenal when it was made.

I wonder if DPMCCABE would be willing to let a jury of his peers listen to his playing and decide what sort of concertina he desrves.

Hmm, I see that Morris and Clog draws bigger crowds than ever! <g>

I once listened to a very repected Irish musician explaining some basics to a beginner on whistle playing. Perhaps he was referring to a particular style, but he told the beginner to take a deep breath and play the tune breathing out for as long as he could without any 'tongueing' or 'tutting' giving a very smooth sound to what was a lively jig. So why on earth did they choose the Anglo instead of the English to play the same music? Was it, perhaps, that they could accept an Anglo-German instrument but never an English? <g> (Tongue firmly in cheek but ducking-and-running anyway!)

Jim, I'll certainly try. There are video-cassettes and DVD's of his shows available but he only used the concertina for a very small part of his performance. Having said that, when I got home from work I asked my (French) wife if she knew that he had died. She said "oh, yes, it was the news headline on every channel, and on one of them, at the end of the item they showed him playing the concertina and fading into the darkness offstage". Tonight I watched the news hoping to see it, but they didn't show the same footage. But, at the very end of the programme, they tacked on a little clip of him playing "Parlez-moi d'amour" on a miniature English. I suppose that here, if people do recognise a concertina, it's as the instrument that clowns play, and Devos was one of the 'great' clowns.

Raymond Devos, the French comedian and entertainer died today at the age of 83. I imagine he was hardly known at all other than in France and, perhaps, Canada but here he was something of a national institution. He was a big man in every sense and larger than life. He was one of the last in the great tradition of music hall entertainers who could do a bit of everything and put it all into his one-man shows. Like a lot of big men he was very nimble and in his younger days performed acrobatics. He was also an expert juggler but everything had a comic slant. His monologues were full of plays on words, ‘double-entendres’ and atrocious puns to the extent that in 2003 the French Ministry of Culture recognised his virtuosity by creating the Raymond Devos Prize for works of excellence in the French language. He was a multi-instrumentalist playing, among other things, piano, trumpet, guitar and yes, you guessed it,…English concertina. At some point in his act he would pick it up and, after a certain amount of comic ‘business’ with it he would play a beautiful musette waltz accompanied by his pianist, not on the piano, but also on concertina. A moment of magic. I think he must be one of the last, if not [/i]the last of this sort of entertainer playing concertina on stage to packed theatres until just a year or two before his death.

Actually Jim, t'colonials I thought might be confused by 'broad Sheffild' were our cousins across t'big pond. Most of my present countrymen are confused by any sort of English. Ah thort if wi di'nt gi'oer talkin' like that, they wun't know wot wi wer on abaht. I think there's a lot of truth in what you say Dick. But the malaise is creeping in here as well. The last time we ordered new plastic moulded components from our French suppliers we found they'd had the moulds made in China. And I doubt if many of those Peugot/Citroen jobs lost by the British will be coming to France. I seem to have digressed from screwdrivers....I'd better shut up.

Na'then, steady on mi' owd, tha'll confuse t'colonials!

Dave, I know just what you mean! As someone who spent the first 30 years of my working life in Sheffield and the following 19 years of it in France, it still goes against the grain to admit that Facom tools are as good as any you'll find. The firm I work for uses nothing else. What's more, they're guarranteed for life. You break a Facom screwdriver,- they replace it! By the way, as I read through this thread, I intended to add the 'tube over the s'driver blade' trick and the found you'd already done it. I did the same thing some 30-odd years ago for my own little concertina maintenance kit.

A Swan Arcade double album "Round Again" is available from Musicinscotland (Google it) in Europe and from Elderly Instruments in the US. It's a reissue of "Together Forever" and "Diving for Pearls" and contains many of the songs Roger mentions.

Sad news Al. Swan Arcade was one of my favourite groups of the 70's and 80's. For those who don't know, Dave with his wife Heather and Jim Boyes formed one of the best acapella groups on the British folk scene. He had a stentorian voice and was also a very funny man in between songs. He was a one-handed concertina player, having lost an arm in a motorcycle accident. He held one end of the instrument between his knees and played the other. Although he hasn't been active on the folk scene for some years I'm sure he'll be sadly missed

The way I heard it he was a drummer, fed up with all the dumb drummer jokes. He couldn't decide between the accordion and the saxophone. The assistant said that, at a pinch, he could sell him the fire extinguisher but the radiator would be difficult to get off the wall!

OK, I know I'm a boring old fart, but I'm suspicious of publicity blurb written by someone who can't spell 'profess', 'their' or 'infinite'

I was going to offer my two pennorth but it's all been said. i.e. thin coats, flatting with 'wet and dry', buffing out, etc. I've used it on several instruments, concertinas, guitars etc, and several British luthiers use it. A couple of tips when using 'wet & dry'. 1. Use a small, flat, HARD sanding block, especially on the fretwork. If you use a soft sanding block or your fingers, you'll go straight through the finish on the corners, and a concertina's got a helluva lot of corners! 2. Instead of water for lubrication, use white spirit. This means that if you do go through the finish (but try not to) the white spirit will not swell the wood, as water does, lifting the grain AND the finish. DAMHIKT (don't ask me how I know that). The only problem I have with Rustin's is that you can't get it where I live.

Geoff, I'm intrigued as to how you can listen to the programme this morning in the car. Perhaps you just recorded it. I can only listen at home via the Internet.

Makes me feel quite nostalgic as an ex-patriot Sheffielder and ex- Handsworth Traditional Sword Dancer of some 20 years standing. It was attending my first Ring Meeting with Handsworth that set me off playing the Anglo. Hope the weather's kind - it can get a bit bleak up at Bradfield.

Never forget that Google is your friend! Try Googling 'melodeon' but click on Images. It throws up all sorts of things including several of these harmonium-type instruments.

LOFFET Bernard 15, rue de la Libération 56850 CAUDAN France Tél. : 02 97 05 68 92 Fax : 02 97 05 62 53 E-mail : diato@wanadoo.fr WWW : http://www.come.to/diato Accordéons diatoniques. SERAFINI Marc 12, rue des Chamois 31200 TOULOUSE France Tél. : 05 62 72 15 06 Fax : 05 62 72 15 06 Accordéons diatoniques, mélodéons VAN DER AA Frans Heezerenbosch 3 5591 TA HEEZE Pays -Bas Tél. : 0031 402264408 Fax : 0031 402264408 Accordéons diatoniques. MARTIN Eric (Cajun) L'Hermitage 35380 MAXENT France Tél. : 02 99 06 73 60 Accordéons diatoniques, mélodéon, 2 rangs... A friend who plays melodeon with me has had melodeons by Salterelle, Baffetti, Castagnari, Bruno Priez, Gaillard, Serafini, Van der Aa and others! (He's not short of a bob or two!) He seems to have stuck now on an Italian Midi-melodeon and a Colin Dipper Franglo. Of all the melodeons he rated Van der Aa as the best. But they are all different and its a matter of personal taste. If you can wait, your best bet is to go to the festival at St Chartier (14 July). They'll all be there.

In France, a 2-row or 3-row box is called an 'accordéon diatonique' but a 1-row is called a 'melodeon' and is thought of as being a Cajun instrument.

No, it wasn't you Gavin. Although he didn't rise to the bait, the culprit was Alan Day himself!