Robin Madge

Well it has made me think again about what instrument I am likely to be buying in the future. Being a awkward cuss and a bit of a tinkerer, my question would be how much capacity is there for the user to program the buttons, thumb joysticks etc. to do what the user wants. Could I reprogam it as an anglo if I wanted (yes I know i'd have to let it know if I was pushing or pulling)? Robin Madge

I don't think I shall ever find the perfect instrument until there is a very flexible Midi instrument with many subtly different voices. I even keep two Bb/F anglos because my wife tells me that their sounds are too different and suit different songs! Robin Madge

I use the drone quite a bit for song accompaniment, both on my C/G and G/D boxes. I just prefer it that way for some songs and I don't know why! It can even be used to raise the "tension" of what would usually be called a dischord in passing, playing Richard Thompson's "house of cards" for example where the fingering has moved to the D row from the G row. I also use it for some tunes, adding it in after the first ime through etc. On some I will provide a "two button drone" of another note for one time through and the key-note drone on the next. Robin Madge

I don't know how long a track will fit on a 45rpm single but the Beatles had "Hey Jude" at over 7 minutes and I have some steam loco 45s that are about 12 minutes long each side. Robin Madge

I think that Gerry Mogg plays guitar rather than concertina when he performs "When the Bishop's Lydeard jug band hit the charts" but otherwise it seems very appropriate. It includes lines about the cows joining in every chorus, and "then next week we quite uniquely topped the charts in the Farmer's Weekly". Robin Madge

When I started playing I put my concertina somewhere where I had to walk past it several times a day. The rule was that every time I went past it I had to pick it up and play something. It makes sure that you don't forget to practice and also stops you from get a feeling of "having to be in the mood" to play and restricting your practice. Incidentaly there is an similar thing mentioned in David Shepherd the artist's first autobiography about when he was an apprentice artist. His teacher rounded on him for saying he "wasn't in the right mood" to paint, saying that that attitude wasn't going to pay the rent. Robin Madge

In Lester's first photo of the Bacup musicians there is actually a fourth English palying Morris musician. The lady in the large sun bonnet is my wife Anne, in Wrigley Head kit. I'm hiding behind her and the Gentleman in front in the blue shirt is Johnny Haslett, who has just published a comprehensive book about Morris traditions in the North West. Robin Madge

When I go from a hot to cold place with the concertina I always hold down the air button and work the bellows a few times to change the air inside the bellows. When air is cooled it looses its ability to hold as much moisture and so you get condensation, so change it for some air that is colder but drier to stop it condensing inside the bellows. When coming back into the warm I do the same thing to help warm the instrument up evenly and to reduce the tendancy of the warm air loosing its moisture contents inside the bellows as it hits a cold instrument. It is a quicker process that way than just playing the concertina and hoping that the air is moving fast enough! I agree that a gradual change of temperature is better, but that's not usually possible so try to get the whole instrument to change temperature without getting condensation inside or outside. Robin Madge

I'm here in Lancaster Wes! Let me know if you get anywhere with your investigations and I'll help if I can. Robin Madge

Quote "It was a rivetted action, but apparently the button had been used so much and so heavily that the rivet had eaten a hole almost twice its diameter in the lever where it passed through." I've had a lever actually break because the hole has eaten its way right through to the edge! I made a quick fix replacement from a spectacle side arm. I'm not fond of rivets myself as i dont like something that cannot be taken apart without having a replacement rivet ready to reaasemble it. I have used rods with washers soldered on as a rivet replacement but would probably use a brass nut and bolt with a hardwearing tube around the thread if I had to do it again. Robin Madge

Our late cat, Pixie, used to climb into my lap between me and the concertina when I was playing. She would happily settle down as long as I kept playing. If I stopped she looked up at me and mewed until I started up again. Some day I shall find and scan in a photo. Robin Madge

Of course, once you can play standing up someone will want you toplay in a procession and then you have to play whilst walking. Then you have to work out whether you can walk in time to the music or not. Sometimes you have to catch up with the dancers (depending on the figures involved) and accelerate whilst keeping the rhythm. When out in front of the Saddleworth Rushcart you sometimes have to run to get out of the way! It weighs 2-3 tons and has up to 100 Morris men pulling it so they're not going to stop for you when they are attacking a hill. Also the route is measured in miles and you're playing from about 10:00 am until 5:00pm with dance spots on the way. Eventually you develop the muscles to cope with it all! Robin Madge

Given enough notice we could perhaps arrange to fit it in with a visit to one of the offspring down in Southampton. As long as it doesn't clash with Horwich 22/4/2006 or Easter or.... Robin Madge

There was a visitor to our Thursday night session in Lancaster last night. He spoke with a Canadian accent and his eyes lit up when he saw my concertinas. He looked slightly familiar and said his name was Calvin but it was only when he mentioned that he had a Jeffries that I recognised him as having come to sessions in Somerset when I was starting out on concertina, 23 years ago. So, apart from this being another of those Folk coincidences that seem to happen so often, do you recognise people by their concertina? Several times recently I've caught myself thinking "the lady witht the Mayfair" or "the bloke with a Jerries duet", and that has been my main reference in my internal filing system. Robin Madge (the one with two 40 button Wheatstones and sings with the drones on)

I think that the number of concertinas per player is likely to be similar to that mythical average family number of kids, about 2.4! Just basing this on the players in my area. There are quite a few with just one, and only a few of us with more that three each. Robin Madge

One way to get the post to grip in the hole is to use a pair of wire cutters across the diagonal corners of the post, gently squeezing them until you create a small indentation. The displaced metal will have formed some burrs which will make the post a tighter fit in the hole. Be very careful not to overdo it though. And if you question the validity of this method ask Steve Dickinson, because that's what he did to one of mine, and I did the same when another one loosened up! Also I would have thought this is one of those few places where the "unholy" adhesive superglue could be considered. Robin Madge

I'm now using the AKG C1000S, with good results so far, having tried quite a few over the years. My problem was not the concertina but my voice. For a single mike set-up for voice and concertina I tend to play standing in front of a boom mike-stand with the mike pointing somewhat upwards and holding the concertina low. I think that there are a lot of cheaper microphones out there that just can't handle my bass voice. I don't know why but suspect it is something to do with odd harmonics at low pitch coupled with the high pitch concertina harmonics. Robin Madge

There's a whole raft of concertinas offered for sale on ebay from the same chinese seller at the moment, all with pictures that match exactly with other ebay items from other sellers, some of them still current. I have reported this to ebay. Robin Madge

It's a bit difficult to decide what is a concertina album as opposed to one that just has some concertina on it, so I'll just give you a list of what I have and let you do all the hard work of eliminating the ones that don't fit, if that's all right! Some of these are solo artists, quite a few duos and trios and some bands. Some I have as CDs, some as LPs and some as Cassettes. There will be several other albums not listed here from some of these artists. All Tide Up 3 sheets to the wind Plain capers Albion band Concertina workshop Alisatair Anderson On Cheviot hills Alistair Anderson Nautical but nice Anchormen Rough and wrigley Bernard Wrigley The King and Us Blind Panic Blind Panic:Panic measures Blind Panic Brass Monkey Brass Monkey A Gower garland Calennig Songs and tunes from wales Calennig You can take a white horse anywhere Calennig Boil the breakfast early Chieftains Four Chieftains Eyes closed and rocking Cock & Bull band Blass me Damien Barber Portrait of a concertina Dave Townsend The first cut Dr Faustus From the North Gary and Vera Aspey Magic pear tree Graham & Eileen Pratt A really good band John & Sue Kirkpatrick Massurka Berserker John Kirkpatrick Me 'umble lot Keith Kendrick Home ground Keith Kendrick The crab wars Kippers Crab wars Kippers Over the years Macanaba A mon like Harry Mark Dowding The Manchester Ballads Mark Dowding Out on the Ocean New Scorpion Band The New Scorpion Band New Scorpion Band Nigel Chippendale Out takes Nigel Chippendale Mean Old Scene Pete Coe It's a mean old scene Pete Coe Pete Trimming Pete Trimming Dawn Chorus Robin Madge The Harbour Wall Robin Madge Caterpillar wrestling Robin Madge High Tide Robin Madge Traditional dance music from central France Rosbif Bouree a six Rosbif Tomorrow's tide Salt of the earth I never played to many posh dances Scan Tester Outstack Steve Turner Eculogue Steve Turner Jigging one now Steve Turner Fine Colours Tim Laycock Poor fellows Tony rose Song of the chanter Vallelys Boxing clever Various Lancaster Maritime 2004 Various Pontardawe 1982 Various Concertinas at Witney Various Tall Ships Whigamaleeries Robin Madge

It's not a Sam Smith's pub by any chance? Robin Madge

If you want to change a Maccan to a Crane reversibly(or an Aglo or an English), how about a second pair of reed pans? Robin Madge

Rivets can wear out and also the hole in the lever can wear to the point where the lever breaks. I have a temporary lever made from a spectacle side-arm in one of my concertinas at the moment! Perhaps with new materials there would not be so much wear. Has anyone used PTFE for bearings etc.? It is used in the model railway fraternity and is available in tube form and also as a spray. Robin Madge

Well most of my "clatter" seems to be coming from displaced felt bushing in the lever holes of my 1950s plastic with metal caps Wheatstone buttons. However, I would think that the greatest cause of shock in the linkage, when it is set up with the proper tolerances, would come from the mass of the pad being brought to rest suddenly as it closes. As to how the material will last, well this is always the question when you use a new material for the first time. It appears to have been around for about 10 years so far. Robin Madge

Speaking as someone who claims not to read music, it always seems to me that "the dots" don't tell you enough anyway. The giveaway is that if they did, any group of sufficiently competent musicians could perform without a rehearsal! Robin Madge

Two things have come together to prompt a thought. Last night I was being recorded at a friends and on play back found that I was hearing more clatter from the keys than I expected. I suddenly thought about the day before when Anne needed some new insoles for her hiking boots. We went into a shop in Kettlewell in the Yorkshire Dales and selected a pair of insoles but they looked rather thin for the purpose - only 2mm thick and yet they claim to absorb over 98% of micro-shocks. The shopkeeper the gave a demonstration of how good they were by dropping a heavy ball-bearing onto them from a height of about 2 feet. When he dropped it onto a normal insole the ball-bearing bounced 2-3 inches. On these special ones it hardly lost contact with the surface. The insoles go by the name of NOENE and if you google for it you will find a web site. Apparently this material is now used on formula one racing cars under all the electronic packages and under on-board cameras. It occurred to me that a layer of this material in a pad would help reduce the shocks and so reduce the clatter. Does anyone have any opinions/experience of this sort of dampening? Robin Madge