Alan Day

Jan Elliott has agreed to us posting up further tracks of her recordings for English International on the Historical recordings site. You will be informed when they are posted Al

I have a double CD of that talk with demonstrations of his playing. Excellent chord playing. In fact I thought he was a Duet player not an English System player..

I have in my possession a CD of The Reverent Alex Richards ,he is giving a talk on concertina playing and I have just been listening to it. An outstanding player, but I would be grateful if anybody can tell me a few more details about him. What system did he play .Is this CD available or have I got the only copy (Which I can make available. Thanks Al

Next up Harry Boyd. Al

It is not such a crazy idea ,I understand bagpipe bellows get treated with some sort of adhesive .Left to dry for sealing air holes in the construction. Al

I have always used Evostick for pads it is flexible and does not age harden. In the past I remember somebody using Evostick to repair an air hole in his bellows ,from the inside, neat. Leaving it overnight to dry. I have never done it but it worked for him. Al

I once played for a barn Dance in a Farmers Barn. As soon as the dancers started dancing a dust cloud appeared and at least three of my notes jammed up. It turned out to be particles of straw in the reeds. In passing a rare jam up was caused by the leather valve being drawn up the hole and jamming the reed but it only happened once in all the years I have been playing. Al

A new tune of mine put down before I forgot it Played in C on One row on a CG Jeffries Anglo

Thanks for your comments. The first is" Al's Tune" (one of my compositions) the second is" Constant Billy" A well known Morris Tune. My apologies. Al

As the Historical recordings page is closed for comments and only open for recordings, Any comments you have on the posted recordings can be put here. Al

Many thanks to Goran Raam for donating these recordings and agreeing for me to post them up. Thanks to Peter Rowistone for cleaning them up an amazing bit of work. It is now up to you all to look through your old recordings and see what you can find. We have a team of people to help to make them acceptable for posting. Finally thanks to Ken Coles for his help. Al

I have passed the recorded details of Raphael to Ken Coles ,there may however be a bit of a delay in posting due to personal problems. We have some more recordings in the pipeline. News on that if they are ok. Although the new section reads "Historical" there are many players in the 30's to 60's that would be worth including ,that many of you new members may not have heard of. eg Roger Digby, ,Webbs Wonders, Pump and Pluck who would worthy of inclusion. Your views would be appreciated. Al

Visiting Manningtree Suffolk yesterday we called into the Antique Shop on the Industrial Estate.(The Imporiam) There was an old Lachenal there in a bit of a state but I will go through it with you. The bellows looked original and in wonderful condition , many screws were missing but even with only two on one side it seemed airtight and played really well. Hand straps need replacing, some buttons (bone) need sorting as they were sticking. Rosewood ends in good condition. Probably in old concert pitch. Marked up at £200 but after I spoke to the dealer I think you would get it for as little as £75. A nice project for renovation. Al

I promised an update on the progress of the" Raphael "recordings and the project in general. "Symon" received the tape recording after a big scare with the Post Office. After much work "Symon" has managed to do a remarkable job cleaning up the recording taking out scratches and recording noises and it is now ready for publishing here on Cnet. The recordings will put into a new section" Historical recordings (Anglo English) " These recordings are imminent so what better timing than near to Concertina Day. For future recordings and discussions on the ones posted up, will be explained. Al