Alf Edwards Concertina At The George Inn

[Chris Drinkwater]

Stephen Chambers made an unexpected appearance at the London George Inn session on monday 7th Jan. He brought with him the late Alf Edwards' English Aeola he'd recently purchased and I got a chance to have a solo play on it public; only the third person to do so since Alf died and Stephen purchased it. And what a thrill and a priviledge it was, to play a concertina with such an illustrious past. Thank you Stephen. Though metal ended, it produces a really lovely sound and as Stephen himself later demonstrated when he played it, it can equally be played both very softly and very loudly with all the shades of volume in between very easily, which is not the case with all concertinas. Roots Records forthcoming concertina CD set, English International, hopefully available sometime later this year, features some tracks of Alf playing this very concertina, so it will be interesting to be able to listen to and hear Alf's playing on it. You're a very lucky person Stephen, to own this lovely piece of concertina history. Edited to correct a spilling mistuke.

 

Chris

Edited January 10, 2008 by Chris Drinkwater

[David Helmore]

I was there too on monday to get a copy of Alan's tutorial (thanks Alan - it's great!). I did see a couple of other concertina players there too - which would have been Chris and Stephen. Saw the concertina in question from a distance - looked lovely! When I get a bit better I'll bring my anglo and will have a go at joining in! Thanks for a great night of music!

[allan atlas]

DJPH72: many thanks for the kind words........Allan

[allan atlas]

FOLKS: i've been told that the reference to Alan and the "Tutorial" is most likely to Alan Day and his tutor for the Anglo concertina. . . . . .

 

ALAN: was not trying to steal any thunder, as we say.........Allan

[Alan Day]

It was great to see Stephen once again at The George and with him came Tony Green a real character and English System Concertina player.

It was a magical end to the evening first Stephen proudly displaying Alf Edwards Concertina which still has that wonderful sound that I have listened to on his recordings.First demonstrated by Stephen with playing wonderfully in Irish style followed by Chris . Normally Chris is the sort of player you dream of sitting next to, he keeps his head down and you would hardly know he was there ,unlike me. (Chris does however wince when I play a wrong note trying to remember tunes I have not played for a long while). Chris came out of his shell and turned on a brilliant bit of playing which between Stephen and Chris would have sent me home happy ,when Tony picked up the concertina for a go.Tony who I have never seen play before is a showman and swings the concertina around to get maximum effect on his full chord accompaniment to his singing. Tony I understand is working on a CD and I would make a note of his name ,it will worth the money if the example I heard was anything to go by.

Al

[Chris Drinkwater]

Chris came out of his shell and turned on a brilliant bit of playing which between Stephen and Chris would have sent me home happy.

Al

 

Awww, shucks, Alan. Thank you for the accolade. It is normally so noisy in The George, especially when there are a lot of non musician drinkers there talking, that it is difficult to make the playing of a relatively quiet instrument such as the concertina, heard solo above the din, thus making any attempt to start a tune often futile, so, I don't usually bother. On this occasion, however, there was relatively little background noise when Stephen passed Edwards' concertina to me to look at, so I seized the moment and struck up a tune which was loud enough for all to hear! Absolutely fabulous. No wonder it left you (and me) shell-shocked, Alan.

 

Chris