I have split things up by topic.
I play Anglo Concertina for the Morris and sometimes for the Sytchampton Folkdance Club, near Worcester, with my wife, Ann, who plays clarinet, and English Concertina. I now use a couple of modern Colin Dipper Anglos tuned in C/G and G/D for both the band and for Morris. I also sometimes get out a large Wheatstone baritone single-action English Concertina. Ann uses two 48-key Wheatstones, one an eight-sided Aeola model and one a metal-ended six-sided instument and a modern French C clarinet.
I also have, but cannot play, a Lachenal McCann Duet 61-key Concertina, tuned (and this is the strange bit) in B flat (ie. a tone lower than a normal Duet). It carries the number 2000 in a small metal inlay, so was probably a show instrument somewhere. I tried to sell this, once, and left it the concertina shop in Oundle, Northants for about three years, but no joy. If anybody is interested ...
We are members of the International Concertina Association and play Concertina band music at the meetings on the first Saturday afternoon of each month at the Plough Inn in Woollaston, near Stourbridge, and also at some other Concertina Band meetings. In the earlier years of the last century there were many concertina bands, mostly in the North, who largely played the Brass Band repertoire on a range of Concertinas from Sopranino to enormous Contrabass. We now play both the Baritone and a Wheatstone 56 key Bass for Concertina Band.
Nick Oliver's HomePage/olivern at waverider.co.uk/written August 1996
Last updated 2nd January 2014