premo Posted December 8, 2003 Share Posted December 8, 2003 The British Pathe website, www.BritishPathe.com, has a newsreel item of a concertina factory in operation. The item is dated 1961 and the factory is in Islington. If you type 'concertina' in the search box you will also find a couple of other related newsreels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wes williams Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 This is the Wheatstone factory at Duncan Terrace, which closed down about 1961. The chap who plays the concertina is Harry Minting, who was the last manager at Wheatstone. best wishes ..wes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Reid Posted December 9, 2003 Share Posted December 9, 2003 That was delightful! I got a good chuckle out of this statement: "Only in America, it seems, is it still regarded as a serious instrument." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Chambers Posted January 4, 2004 Share Posted January 4, 2004 If you type 'concertina' in the search box you will also find a couple of other related newsreels. The footage that turns up of Percy Honri & his daughter Mary is absolutely wonderful ! You can see the experience of all those years of Music Hall in Percy's mannerisms, as well as mouthing the words, his face seems to be miming the old songs he plays at the end. I found it very moving to actually see, and hear, him perform after all these years of only seeing him in photos & on posters, and only having the few snippets on the "Working the Halls" flexidisc to listen to. Awesome ! Mary's voice was quite a revelation too, but then Percy was the "Champion Boy Tenor of the World" before he ever became a concertinist. There is more of her, & her piano accordion, on another newsreel if you search under "Honri". There is also some footage of the great, Edeophone-playing, mime & clown "Grock". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Dickey Posted January 9, 2004 Share Posted January 9, 2004 This is absolutely brilliant stuff and you did a great job bringing it to our attention. What a shame that the costs of obtaining a full related set of cpies of the various footages are so considerable as it would be nice to have them all on a DVD available to any members of the group who wanted them. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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