Steve Gardham

Hope you get it, Richard. Looks like a nice box. Wouldn't mind a squeeze. SteveG

Someone asked about Michael Jary. He's still playing and tutoring occasionally, living near York, but heavily involved in music technology and computers. He uploaded the latest batch of songs on the Yorkshire Garland website www.yorkshirefolksong.net which incidentally has some songs anglo accompanied. Still in Yorkshire: No-one mentioned yet Chris Sherburn amongst the younger players. Whilst Irish-style predominantly he has been pushing the boundaries of song accompaniment for several years. Gav Dav is also putting in some interesting stuff with anglo and there's a young lad from Selby, Joe Richardson, we should keep an eye on.

Here's a few for starters, 'A Week's Matrimony' followed by 'Miss Doxy' and 'There's Bound to be a Row'. Then 'The Fowler' Then 'The Black Velvet Arm Band' followed by 'Adieu to Old England'.

Geoff has confirmed everything I was thinking. The displaced extra notes and the unusual endplates are the give away. The only thing that puts me off it being a conversion of a basic WE 30 key is the quite high quality of the bellows. But these could also be from another box.

Okay, Memphis is certainly far enough from me in Yorkshire to be a non-starter. I wonder if there is anywhere a register of players/repairers/collectors who would be willing to give up an odd hour occasionally to help enthusiastic beginners. I would certainly be willing to take part. Teeny, I would have a good look on eBay at what's available and current prices and then come back to the forum with questions about what you have seen before making a purchase. That's if you don't feel able to take up Neil's reasonable offer.

I may be wrong here but I haven't seen many standard layout 48 Englishes with 6-fold bellows. They normally only have 4-fold or is my memory poor on this one? If that is the case it would be a useful identification point. I hope and presume Nancy is regularly in contact with LT Lost Property. There are a few rogues out there but the vast majority of people would see a very individual unusual item and someone's prized possession and hand it in. Also this is a good learning point for all other players. Don't just take photos, record the serial number and any other distinguishing points.

Concerteeny, If you tell us where you are there is just an offchance that we know a player not too far away who would take a look at your instrument and say whether it is repairable or not. If it's just a couple of pads, even on a cheap model, it's a doddle to repair.

This may have no significance whatsoever, but if you look at the 55key pluses there seems to be a definite trend rising from my 61 to 68, 72, 74 and then it starts to slide back down again 70, 64, 56. What do you reckon the 'mag' stands for, 'Magnum opus', 'magic', 'magnificent'?

Gav, I'll be seeing Vic in a couple of weeks at the next TSF meeting in Newcastle. I'll get the gen on his box then.

Right Gav, I'm going to look really stupid now. I somehow got it into my head that at least some of these boxes were in the keys of A&G including yours when I've actually seen the layout which is G/D? Now I realise AG stands for Anglo-German. It would be very interesting to find out what keys some of these enormous anglos have. At least mine is still the biggest actually identified so far. It would be interesting to see if the one I saw at Crabbs c1970 when I got mine is one of those you have listed.

Hi Neil Nice website. Some interesting boxes. Cheers, Steve

Hi, Having looked at Gav's note arrangement and puzzled over it, and a few others similar, I think it would be more accurate to call these beasts anglos with some duet features, mainly the inner row of same note on push and pull. I am intrigued. What sort of music would it be mainly used for, or was built for? Which style would benefit most from the arrangement? Irish? In 40-odd years involvement with the anglo why have I not come across it before? Indeed, who invented it? Here's a statistic question for Gav. How many were made according to the ledgers and did anyone else other than Wheatstone produce them?

Hi Howard, I suspect that the majority of names on your list do not earn more than half their income/living from specifically playing the concertina. Brilliant musicians are usually gifted and in more than one field and are often in demand from other spheres. Chris Sherburn, for instance, is a brilliant engineer and boat restorer and can turn his 'hands' to almost anything. He is also as much regarded in the folk world for his comedy as his concertina playing.

Hi Gav, Yes, thanks, I managed to find it after I'd posted. It looks a lot like yours. Wouldn't it be great to have a get together of the big-anglo club so we can try out each other's monsters? What does 'status' mean on the profile page? Married/unmarried? I'm not sure what a lot of the categories mean on there. Probably because I'm not American and only taught EnglishEnglish for 30-odd years.

Hi Neil, Where are you and can we please have details/pics of your 50er?

How far back are we going with Ron's 60+er? I told Gav offline that when I bought my 61er from Crabbs about 1970 he also had what appeared to be an even bigger box certainly with about 4 curved rows on each side. It had ebony ends and mb and was either aeola or edeophone. It could have been Jeffries duet as I didn't play it, only saw it on the shelf. It may have just been built or was in for repair.

Hi Gav, I'm just wondering now if the way I play Athole Highlanders and Cock of the North in A on my GD Baffetti bears any relationship to the way you play in A on your anglo. I couldn't explain how I do it. My fingers can't talk and they haven't figured out how to translate what they do on musical keyboards to what they do on computer keyboards. Steve

Sorry to cast aspertions on the antiquity of these very real concertinas, but they have obviously been hung in a petrifying well like that at Mother Shipton's Cave in Knaresborough, Yorkshire. Another possibility, they could be old seamen's concertinas that have gone down with sunken ships and become part of a coral reef and then raised up over thousands of years.

The black rectangles near the hand straps are my velcro pickup holders.

I have got the requested pics in 'My Pictures'. More to come.

Hi Chris, 8 inches across flats, 5 pounds exactly on my bathroom scales and the pans are normal radial. It doesn't seem heavy to me but I have the bass to compare it with. Will take pics of pan, action and ends ASAP. Bellows are 7-fold and starting to show a bit of wear now. It also could do with some new straps. I made the current ones myself. I fancy a pair of those big padded chemnitzer things. Cheers, Steve

Hi, Unfortunately I don't think I kept a copy of the original layout of the beast. I must have made one out at some point and it may be gathering dust in a corner somewhere. If I find it I'll post it. What I can remember is it had a regular 30 key Wheatstone layout in the middle with lots of extra notes which only seemed to me to be random. I know it could be considered a waste but I only used it at the time in G and C as I had an AD Wheatstone Mayfair as well, which is why I converted some of the extra rows to D and A. I'm not very technically minded and I don't have much in the way of musical knowledge but the layout is in my primitive notation:- LHS B2 D1 F#1 Eb1 Bb1 Eb2 A2 C#1 E1 A2 G#1 F3 G3 B2 D1 F1 A1 Bb2 E2 C2 G2 C1 E1 G1 Bb2 Bb3 D2 F#1 A1 C E F2 C2 B2 D1 G1 B1 D Bb1 F2 C#2 E2 G2 B2 D2 F3 B3 D2 F#2 A2 F2 A3 Eb1 G2 Eb1 G#3 RHS C1 G1 C# Eb G Bb F+1 F1 Eb1 G#1 Eb E1 G# C#+1 F#+1 F1 C#1 E1 G1 B1 D F A B Eb+1 D1 F#1 A1 C E G C+1 E+1 G# G#1 B1 D F# A C+1 E+1 F#+1 A1 C# E G B D+1 G+1 F# C G1 C#+1 G#+1 A+1 Bb+1 D+1 G+1 C1 F1 F+1 D+1 A C+2 B+1 Bb+1 If you can interpret this you will see where the CG rows are and the 'A' row LH is right down the bottom of the outer row, RH top 3 buttons on the second row from the handle. D row is LH bottom 4 buttons on the near row and RH top 3 buttons on the third row from the handle. This has the advantage of utilising top end buttons from the C and G rows. Photos, I will have a go at, but meanwhile I can be seen and heard playing it on our Yorkshire Garland website www.yorkshirefolksong.net and on our Myspace site. Just Google Yorkshire Garland. From our website there is a link to a Yorkshire Post video where I can be seen playing the beast accompanying 'Three Score and Ten'. Happy New Year, Steve G

You have a good memory, Ken. Yes, I'm still in Hull where anglo, nay tina, players are like rocking-horse s--t. Off hand the only other anglomaniacs in Hull currently are Geoff Lawes accompanying singing and Joe Richardson of Selby who has just started at Uni here who plays in sessions. There are others in Beverley just to the north of here. Then just to the west of Hull you have Martin Bull and his dad Frank. Martin plays his dad's rather smart GGD octagonal Wheatstone. I played in a ceilidh band for many years and have been accompanying traditional song for 40+ years. You can hear both Geoff and me accompanying our singing at www.yorkshirefolksong.net Click on tracks Wreck of the Industry, Hedon Road Gaol, My Sky Sailor, The Bonnie Scotch Lad, the Trip and probably others on there. Nothing fancy but pleasant I hope. My Wheatstone I take with me all over. The bass and mini I only take to workshops and use in schools to entertain the little blighters. I like playing Trumpet Hornpipe on the bass with that low run down of basically fart noises on the B music. The GD mini is surprisingly versatile with an octaves on each side in each key. I can easily play for instance Carolan's Concerto and most of the 2 octave hornpipes. Gav, how are your 3 keys arranged on the box, something like an ADG melodeon? I used to have a gorgeous ADG Guerrini with 5 couplers and the bass notes were out of this world but I couldn't handle its weight for long sessions so I traded it in for a DG Baffetti and learned to play in A on it. Mike, you can't be far from Gav. How many buttons on your Jones? What keys? I've never seen a Jones with anything more than a basic 30 key.

Hi, To my shame I'm new here and have been playing anglo for 40+ years. I have Wheatstone 28930 which for the first time, thanks to help from GavDav, I have investigated online. It is a 61-key anglo special made in 1921. What I'd like to know is, is it unique and were there ever any larger anglos ever made. I've seen some similar ones on eBay, but never quite this many keys. I've converted some of the rows so I have as well as the usual CG a D and an A row I also have a 30-key CG Lachenal bass anglo, and a miniature 12-key anglo, rosewood MB in DG. Thanks Steve Gardham