Concertina World 484 Digital Version

Magazine of the International Concertina Association since 1952 CW 484 December 2020

Information/interviews/techniques/ events/music

Subscriptions run from 1 January each year

Failsworth Morris

Wrigley Head Musicians Concertina World Editor: 1 Index Peter Rowlstone 2 From the Editor 36, Morley Road, Southville, Bristol. BS3 1DT 3 From the Chairman Email: [email protected] 4 Internet Video Jukebox 26 8 The Gift Concertina World Correspondent: 12 Ruth Bryan Owen Paul Walker Email: [email protected] 22 Virtual Folk Club 6 26 Music Supplement Membership Secretary: 27 CW Interview: Martin Bluer, Pt 1 Martin Henshaw, tel. 01767 627 566 45 New Members Oak End, 23A Bedford Road Northill, Biggleswade, Beds, SG18 9AH 47 Subscriptions for 2021 Email: [email protected]

Treasurer and Committee Chairman: Paul McCann Contributors: Martin Bluer; Steve Email: [email protected] Goodyear; Nigel Harbron; Martin Henshaw; Paul McCann; Eric Matusewitch; Randy Librarian/Archivist: Stein; Paul Walker; Eddie Worrall Jeremy Hague Email: [email protected] Music supplement separately folded in Secretary: centre. Roger Gawley Email: [email protected] Front cover: photograph of Wrigley Head Morris Dancers by John Cunniffe Webmaster: Inside Cover: photographs by John Colin Whyles Cunniffe; Royton Gala provided by Martin Email: [email protected] Bluer

Other committee members: The views expressed in “Concertina World” Graham Heffernan; Gill Noppen-Spacie; are solely those of the author and do not Tracy Tye; Daniel Hersh. necessarily bear any relationship to the editor or committee of the International Subscriptions run from Concertina Association. 1 January to 31 December. Membership subscriptions are due on 1 January of each year. No effort has been spared to trace the Membership UK 20 GBP, holders of possible copyright in any of the Europe 23 GBP, USA 26 GBP. items contained here, and the publisher For more information see website trusts that any inadvertent infringement will www.concertina.org, be overlooked. They express their also Paypal payments for non UK members. readiness, however to make any necessary corrections in subsequent editions. ICA bank details for subscribers: Account holder: International Concertina Association CW is indexed and fully included in Barclays Bank, Saffron Walden Business rilmAbstracts Centre, Market Place, Saffron Walden, Essex CB10 1HR Sort code 20-74-05 Account no. 10514489 IBAN GB 13 BARC 2074 0510 5144 89 SWIFTBIC BARC GB22

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 1 From the Editor

Dear Readers,

I’m really pleased to bring you this issue of Concertina World. In it you will find a wonderful and inspiring story from Randy Stein, setting out his contribution to a major music icon’s last record. And, the first part of a fascinating interview with Martin Bluer. This draws our attention to the importance of music in our folk dancing traditions and, I’m happy to say, the starring role concertina players have had in creating and maintaining that critical element.

I have enjoyed editing Concertina World over this difficult year. I hope you have enjoyed reading it, too. I wish you all a safe and happy end to 2020. I’m looking forward to what will hopefully be a much better 2021.

As always, I encourage you to contribute to Concertina World if you would like to. You can do so by contacting me at [email protected]

I hope this issue finds you safe and well.

Have fun

Peter

Next Deadline: 15th February 2021

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 2 From the Chairman

Paul McCann

The ICA is continuing to develop its offer to members. I hope that by now many of you have enjoyed the concert by Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne that we supported, and the excellent workshop that he prepared just for us. It came to my notice that at least one member shared the workshop link with non- members! Please do not do this, as it devalues the benefits of the membership for which you have paid! We plan over time to have more such benefits for our members. In this regard, it is important that we have your up-to-date email address, and that you register at the member login on the website, so that you can enjoy the full benefit of your subscription. We will only email you with relevant informative material and will not share your details with anyone.

I would like to thank you for your continued membership during this most challenging of years, encourage you to renew in January, and wish you a safe, healthy and happy winter and holiday season. You can also stay in touch via our social media presence, which we are continually working to improve. Your feedback, comments and suggestions are always welcome, and you can email me directly at [email protected]

With best wishes,

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 3 INTERNET VIDEO JUKEBOX 26

Curated by: Paul Walker

For speedy access: Go to the ICA web site where Colin Whyles, our new Webmaster, has turned the hyperlinks into a stunning TV-like slideshow. Excellent work, Colin.

Full marks to James Dangarfield, ICA reader in Australia, who alerted me to the Homebaked Concertina series of concerts. Here’s number 2 – catch Lee Knight playing the Klezmer tune “A night in the Garden of Eden”: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0QDk0zqydho&t=5s

Steve Taggart has been sleuthing the web for your delectation, readers, and has uncovered many Duet concertina performances. He comments:

“Jim Bayliss – ‘The Breeze & I’ (Originally called ‘Andalucia’ with music by Ernesto Lecuona) played on a Wheatstone 82 button Hayden duet concertina: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=nU_tWZbCenI

‘Folk blues of the easily misunderstood – RAH: Were you born under a star of misfortune? Have you suffered through failure because people constantly misunderstand you? Here’s 2 original songs for you. Let’s change our stars. I’m finally playing this 100 year old Lachenal! Plow through the resistance bros.’ ‘A Short Stroll’ and ‘The Refugee’ written by RAH: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErdxOe5EyBw

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 4 ‘Godfather Waltz/Nino Rota’ on Hayden Duet, by Duet Concertina Garmoshka, from Lithuania, I’m guessing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzjdi0raCJA

Raymond Devos (and friend) - Quelle merveille! – ‘La marine (concertina)’: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=AnmMS_3_En8 l didn't know of the latter, until l saw him described as ‘the new Gorck’. l think they must have meant Grock.

A really lovely bit of playing here by Thomas Restoin. l believe the film Modern Times also included the song "Smile" composed by Charlie Chaplin, but this piece is right up there with it, in my opinion. l hesitate to put ‘on Duet concertina’ as does the caption, remembering as l do that several of these boys play on some most unusual one-off ‘specials’. ‘Matins d’Automne’ by Claude Thomain:” https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=exM0Ezbmy_U&feature=emb_rel_end

This is reader Stephan Spohner, writing from Germany (in response to last issue’s Jukebox). “Steve T wished he spoke German, so I will translate the words from the Concertina from Hell video.

In his Video Stefan said: ‘Die Konzertina ist ein vielseitiges Instrument, man kann traditionelle Sachen drauf spielen, aber auch Rock. Mein Instrument ist 100 Jahre alt. Ursprünglich wurde da andere Musik drauf gespielt. Ich benutze viele Gitarreneffekte, das macht die Sache etwas interessanter und

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 5 machmal ist es überraschend - sogar für mich - was da rauskommt. Ich spiele alleine, ich bin eine one-man-band und damit die Sache etwas interessanter wird, habe ich mir eine Stopnbox gebaut, die bringt ein bißchen mehr Schmackes. Und dann benutze ich noch einen Looper, aber hauptsächlich nur, um Rhythmus zu machen.’

Translation: ‘The concertina is a versatile instrument, you can play traditional stuff on it, but also rock. My instrument is 100 years old. Originally it was used for another type of music. I like to use tons of guitar effects, which makes it more interesting and sometimes the results are surprising - even for me. I play alone, I am a one man band. To make things more interesting I built me a stompbox, which provides more power. On top I use a looper, mainly for providing rhythm.’

Stefan Böhmer is a really nice guy. He played for us in our small village for about 30 people and it was more kind of a party than a concert.” Concertina from Hell part 2! – ‘Dust my Broom.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Asf1a7VEE

Steve Taggart continues: “Paul, just a bit of fun and nowt to do with concertinas this one l'm afraid, but l've always liked this tune ever since l heard Phil Hopkinson play it on McCann at a meeting of the Midlands Group. Reminded of it by the current crop of CW ‘goodies’. l had a bit of a trawl and came up with this gem. It actually does seem quite a bit of an effort to operate the thing as he does appear to be working very hard. It also interested me as l am (still) in the process of building a little hand-cranked street organ that l started rather too many years

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 6 ago. ‘Hong Kong’ a jazz one-step (1916) Joe Rinaudo at the American Fotoplayer: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=u8G07CoUBas

Something completely different No. 2. A Town With An Ocean View From ‘Kiki's Delivery Service’; Composed by Joe Hisaishi – played by: コンサーティーナ周辺を巡る旅 - gene: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHT3wp5Gdeg

Dirk (Cornelius) Laas (1923 - 1995) was a concertina player who played with some of South Africa's most prominent boeremusiek figures, including Hansie van Loggenberg, Duffy Ravenscroft, and Collie Burger. Dirk Laas loved boeremusiek and died from a heart attack while playing the concertina. Unlike most boeremusiek players, he also loved Jazz. Unfortunately, it does not appear as if any of his Jazz numbers were recorded - so here is the next best thing: his ‘Concertina Boogie’, which he composed with Neels Steyn. This recording, in which he was backed by Duffy Ravenscroft's band, was also the tune which put him on the map. Dirk Laas – ‘Concertina Boogie’:” https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVQnDvIqtqw

Many thanks to Steve Taggart for all his hard work researching clips.

Steve Taggart – a short bio: Steve, a qualified craft teacher, spent much of his life as a musical instrument repairer, working in and around the beautiful Georgian market-town of Stamford, in Lincolnshire. He acquired his first playable concertina, Wheatstone No. 1428, from an open-air market stall, back in the

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 7 1960s. Steve's main musical interest these days is in making, and trying to play, his own arrangements for the 48-key English concertina, of light-classical pieces, jazz standards, songs and folk tunes. He would describe himself as a "non-performing soloist". By Jeremy Hague ICA Librarian

Readers: please share your YouTube links of concertina players, of any genre, with the editor. Remember, this is your jukebox!

The Gift: 40 years ago, I recorded with John and Yoko on Double Fantasy

Randy Stein

This is the 40th anniversary of the release of John Lennon’s last LP, Double Fantasy. I played on this album. In the past many people would ask me about my experience and expect some profound detailed explanation. I even heard a story that John saw me street performing and asked me into the studio. But the truth is, as a member of the local 802 Musicians Union, I was often contacted for shows and studio recordings and this situation was really not that different. Except that it was. I was a professional musician who played the English Concertina and was hired to play and record the music of the former Beatle, John Lennon. It was, as a close friend called it, a gift.

It was a mid-September evening when I received a call from Stan Vincent, a music contractor, asking if I was available for an

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 8 overdub (the process of laying new audio material in, over, or with existing material. Generally this applies to adding parts to a multitrack recording) at the recording studio, Fantasy Factory. He then filled me in on who and what the gig involved. Needless to say, I was a bit sceptical and inwardly exploding at the same time. Stan requested that I keep this very quiet and not tell a lot of people. The next morning, I was met at the studio by Jack Douglas and John Lennon.

This could not have come at a better time in my life. A year prior, having saved some money, I left NYC and went to LA to try my hand at the opportunities I expected to be there. They weren’t. In fact, many of the recording and performance opportunities offered to me were for little or no pay because, I was told, it was “a great opportunity”. When it did pay, because I didn’t own a car (a serious disability in LA), a cab ride to any performance was expensive and ate into what little I received. Eventually I had to move out of the place I was renting in North Hollywood and stay with some relatives for a while hoping to regroup. After 10 months on the West Coast I eventually made my way back to NYC. Broke and somewhat homeless, I crashed with various friends on their living room sofas and, in one case, a cot in a room used for storage. I immediately jumped back into playing. During the day I performed in Battery Park and the new South Street Seaport and at night I would perform in various restaurants. Having been gone from the city for the year I began to re-establish my network of previous and new contacts in the music business. This was not like now. No internet. It was phone

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 9 calls, drop ins, mailing postcards, etc. It was laborious and costly. Then the call from Stan came.

In the studio I was seated in a folding chair across from Jack Douglas and next to John Lennon. We all were in very close proximity to each other. Through the large window in front of us were framed two sound engineers seated before the vast sound board, with Yoko in the background. There was no printed music. No music stands. It was just three musicians, two guitars, and an English Concertina. We worked slowly and methodically, sometimes playing through just one or two measures at a time to get the exact feeling and sound accompaniment they were looking for. We spent close to 2 hours of focused playing and recording until John, Jack, and Yoko felt they had exactly what they wanted. The song was called Beautiful Boy, Darling Boy.

When we were done John asked me about my instrument. “What do you call it?’ he asked.

‘An English Concertina’ I told him.

He smiled and said ‘English Concertina. I rather like that. Nice job, chap.’

And that was it. I spoke to Jack Douglas about some paperwork and left. Not until I got outside to the street did the import of what just happened hit me. I grabbed a cab downtown to meet and tell my friends about it. They listened but somehow nothing translated the way I wanted. A couple months later the album was released and hit the stores. And there was my name in the

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 10 credits for musician attributions. I bought the LP and walked around the streets of Greenwich Village most of the afternoon. Just being in the moment.

A lot changed after that. We sadly lost a brilliant musical genius and influence to an untimely tragic death. Something that still brings great sadness to me. I made my living full time as a musician, playing and performing exclusively on the English Concertina, prolifically arranging tunes to play self-accompanied in French and Italian establishments around NYC. Instead of performing with an open case for coins, I was hired by the South Street Seaport on the southside of Manhattan as the “house musician”. While the intervention of more and more sophisticated digital and electronic music diminished a lot of recording studio work, I still received calls to perform and record around the Tristate Area. Eventually I would meet a wonderful and brilliant woman, an actress, who I would marry and share my life with for 39 years and counting. It was when our son was born that we realized we needed to better our lives, plan for the future, and make a change outside of show business, travel, and our small expensive Brooklyn apartment.

The opportunity of recording on Double Fantasy was a momentous and changing experience for me both professionally and personally. My life was transformed from that moment on. I’ve profoundly grown since that time in ways that I cannot even begin to understand or explain. 40 years later, with adult children and a grandchild, the pace of our lives has slowed down a bit. I am playing and teaching the English Concertina full time

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 11 and enjoying new and challenging musical experiences. John Lennon and I are part of each other’s musical history. I am but an asterisk on the footnote of his. He is a great story for me. A gift to remember and cherish to my grave.

Ruth Bryan Owen: Congresswoman, Diplomat, Concertinist by Eric Matusewitch

Ruth Bryan Owen (1885–1954) led a life of “firsts”: first woman to represent the American South in Congress; first woman to serve on a major congressional committee (the House Foreign Affairs Committee); first woman to be appointed as a U.S. ambassador; first woman delegate to represent the United States at the Inter-Parliamentary Union; and, first woman to be a special assistant to the State Department. In addition to being a trailblazer, Owen was an avid concertinist who took the bellows instrument with her around the world.

Owen was the eldest daughter of William Jennings Bryan (1860– 1925), a statesman and dominant force in the Democratic Party. Dubbed “The Great Commoner” because of his faith in the wisdom of the common people, he was a Congressman, Secretary of State to Woodrow Wilson, and three-time Democratic presidential candidate. He also gained notoriety for his role as special prosecutor in the Scopes Trial, the 1925 prosecution of science teacher John Scopes for teaching

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 12 evolution in a Tennessee public school. (The trial was the subject of a 1955 Broadway play, Inherit The Wind, and a 1960 Hollywood film adaptation of the play featuring Fredric March as William Jennings Bryan.)

As a U.S. Representative, William Jennings Bryan often took his daughter to the Capitol. She began helping him with his correspondence at age 11, and in 1908 she served as Bryan’s traveling secretary during his third presidential campaign.

In 1910, she married Major Reginald A. Owen of the Royal British Engineers. The Owen family lived at his numerous overseas duty posts. It was at the first post – Jamaica - that Ruth Owen purchased an Anglo-German concertina. According to a 1930 Pennsylvania newspaper article, Ruth Owen was quite musical and adept at “playing by ear” on the piano, organ, and harmonica. “But her favorite music-maker is her faithful concertina.”

During World War I, the concertina travelled with her to London where she volunteered alongside Lou Hoover (wife of future president Herbert Hoover) in a women’s relief group that aided injured soldiers, the unemployed, and Belgian refugees. It was in London that “she began specializing in haunting, romantic London ballads” on the concertina.

In 1915, Owen journeyed to Egypt and joined the British Volunteer Aid Detachment as a nurse to care for convalescent soldiers. (Sadly, Major Owen ended up as one of her patients, felled by a kidney disease that would leave him an invalid. He

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 13 died in 1928.) A newspaper account from 1929 indicates she was a compassionate caregiver: “A Turkish general who was captured at the Dardenelles gave her his most precious ornament as an appreciation of the humane and kindly service rendered prisoners. [A gorgeous star worn around the neck] had been given him by the sultan for deeds of bravery.”

She also established a volunteer entertainment troupe, the “Optimists,” that performed at military hospitals and rest camps in the Middle East. Her concertina skills were put to good use at those facilities. A drawing of her in a nurse’s outfit performing on the bellows instrument at the bedside of wounded soldiers in the Palestine campaign appears in the Pennsylvania newspaper article cited earlier.

The carnage of World War I made a lasting impression on Ruth Bryan Owen. After the conflict, she joined organisations such as the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, arguing that peace could be sustained if the world accepted the “feminine values of cooperation and compromise.”

Following in her father’s path, in 1928 Owen won a seat in Congress from a Florida district that stretched from the Keys to Jacksonville. In the House of Representatives, she worked to protect the Everglades and proposed the creation of a Cabinet- level agency to oversee the health and welfare of families and children, a Department of Home and Child. Mindful of the needs of her constituents, she secured more than $4 million in federal funding to combat the Mediterranean fruit fly pest, which threatened Florida’s citrus crop.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 14 Bryan continued performing on her bellows instrument while serving in Congress. A Tennessee newspaper reported that at “small, informal parties [she] often played Negro spirituals on a tiny concertina, to the delight of the other guests.”

In 1930, furthermore, Congresswoman Owen was interviewed by the Boston Globe about her musical and playful home life. Part of that interview reads:

“‘Why, we have an orchestra at our house. And you know orchestras. They take time’ she smiled, ‘and effort. Especially effort. I play the concertina, my son has a drum and traps, and there are other instruments, a French horn and a trombone. My youngest daughter, who is 9, officiates on a kazoo. She is a premier kazoo player.’”

Owen’s youngest daughter, Rudd Brown, wrote in her 2014 biography of Owens that this home orchestra was called the “Friday Night Bass Clef and Calliope Club,” and “mostly was an excuse for a lot of laughter.”

That same year (1930), Owen and some family members went “gypsying” through the USA in a luxury trailer. A Louisiana newspaper reported that she took “her favorite instrument - the

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 15 concertina. Although modestly denying other gifts as a musician - she plays the piano delightfully and has a charming voice - Mrs. Owen admits that she is an artist with the concertina.”

In 1931, Owen once again went gypsying in an “auto-trailer”— this time to Denmark. She told a North Carolina newspaper that she was bringing her concertina and would “go from town to town as a traveling musician goes, and see people that way.” For this overseas trip, Owen brought along Benjamin DeLoache, described as a young, “brilliant baritone,” and author Fannie Hurst. Hurst, coincidentally, wrote the 1923 novel Lummox, which includes a prominent role for the concertina. The book’s leading character - Bertha, an inarticulate kitchen worker - anonymously gifts her son with a battered concertina, which ignites his musical talent and leads him to become a great pianist. The novel was turned into a 1930 United Artists movie and included a scene of Bertha playing the bellows instrument.

After losing re-election for a third term in 1932, Owen campaigned extensively in the Western states for Democratic presidential candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR). The next year, FDR appointed her as America’s first woman ambassador - to Denmark. (To be exact, Ms. Owen was appointed “envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States to His Majesty the King of Denmark and Iceland.”) An American newspaper noted that “she took her concertina, three children, three grandchildren, a mouth organ and an auto camping trailer along to Copenhagen.” Another American periodical reported that Owen [once again] “sang Negro spirituals in a pleasing manner

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 16 to her own accompaniment on a tiny concertina” while serving in that Scandinavian country.

Walter Winchell (1897-1972), the syndicated American newspaper gossip columnist, also thought highly of Owens’s musical skills. In a 1933 column - where he confused the two bellows instruments - he opined that she “is an accordion player to compare with Phil Baker.” Baker (1896-1963) was a prominent American accordionist, comedian, actor, songwriter, and radio emcee.

A visit from a Nebraska friend to the American embassy in Copenhagen in 1933 was an occasion for more music making. After a luncheon, the ambassador’s “family orchestra” gave an informal concert. One of Owen’s daughters, Kitty Owen Meeker, had written a song - Springtime in Denmark - which was performed by Meeker (concertina), Helen Rudd Owen (another daughter, miniature saxophone), the embassy secretary (piano), and Ruth Bryan Owen (voice). The first two stanzas follow:

Old scenes are calling

Over the years intervening,

Time brings us closer

To all of their tendest[sic] meaning.

Dear memories pictures

Over the miles you have found us,

Memories fond dreams

Are dearer than scenes that surround us.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 17 A Copenhagen newspaper published the song in one of its weekend issues.

Owen served until 1936, when the widowed diplomat married Captain Borge Rohde of the Danish Royal Guards (and her name officially became Ruth Bryan Owen Rohde). Because her marriage meant that she was now a citizen of both Denmark and the United States, she had to resign her diplomatic post.

Owen’s political career did not end after she left the Foreign Service. She served as a delegate to the San Francisco Conference, which established the United Nations after World War II. And in 1949, President Harry Truman appointed her as an alternate delegate to the United Nations General Assembly.

Among her other accomplishments, Owen wrote several well- received books on Scandinavia. In an account of her tour of Greenland coastal settlements in 1934 (Leaves From a Greenland Diary), Ambassador Owen observed a concertina being used by the Eskimos in Danish folk dances, “which all Eskimos dance with such skill and zest.” Owen even produced and directed a feature film based on a tale from the Arabian Nights. Alas, Once Upon a Time/Scheherazade (1922) never

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 18 appeared on a commercial screen and is now considered to be lost.

In 1954, at age 68, Ruth Bryan Owen died of a heart attack in Copenhagen, where she had gone to receive the Order of Merit from the Danish king. In 1992, Owen was inducted into the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books

Kazin, Michael. A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006).

Brown, Rudd. Ruth Bryan Owen: Congresswoman and Diplomat, An Intimate Portrait (North Charleston: Create Space Publishing, 2014).

Owen, Ruth Bryan. Leaves From a Greenland Diary (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1935).

Print and Internet Articles

Buford, Mary E. “State Affairs in Washington to Lead Gay Social Season,” Nashville Banner (Nashville, TN), November 17, 1935, p. 20. I accessed this and all subsequent newspaper citations from www.newspapers.com, which has an extensive archive of North American and British newspaper dating back to the nineteenth century.

Coe, Lulu Mae. “Lincoln Traveler’s Delightful Summer Tour of Europe Climaxed by Visit With American’s First Woman Envoy,” Nebraska State Journal (Lincoln, NE), September 24, 1933, pp. 1, 30.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 19 Gray, Mrs. Benjamin. “Society: Reflections From Shreveport’s Social Life,” The Times (Shreveport, LA), July 5, 1930, p. 6.

Matusewitch, Eric. “The Concertina Goes to the Movies,” Concertina World (ICA), CW 477, March 2019, p. 7.

Nelson, Robert J. “She Sprinted to NU - and into history,” Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE), January 30, 1982, p. 8.

Plummer, Herbert. “Two Ruths To Stump Country To Aid Parties: Ruth Owen and Ruth Sims Will Make Campaign Speeches,” Newark Advocate (Newark, OH), September 30, 1932, p. 13.

Risher, Donna. “Daughter of Bryan Takes Concertina to Copenhagen,” Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), May 12, 1933, p. 2.

Siegel, Suzie. “Another Bryan Made History,” Tampa Tribune (Tampa, FL), November 8, 1992, p. 100.

____ “Women’s Hall Gets a Wall,” Tampa Tribune, November 8, 1992, p. 97.

Unsigned. “Finds Time For Both Career and Family: Ruth Bryan Owen Says Work in Congress Does Not affect Care for Her Children,” Boston Globe (Boston, MA), March 13, 1930, p. 24.

____ “Minister to Denmark Is Guest Of Mr. and Mrs. Russell Bridges,” Atlanta Constitution (Atlanta, GA), November 23, 1935, p. 13.

____ “Mrs. Owen, First Feminine Envoy, Amazingly Versatile,” Courier-Post (Camden, NJ), April 15, 1933, p. 5.

____ “North Carolina Singer To Go ‘Gypsying’ With Owen Family,” Charlotte Observer (Charlotte, NC), June 21, 1931, p. 22.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 20 _____ “Ruth Bryan Owen Takes Concertina On Trip Abroad,” Tucson Daily Citizen (Tucson, AZ), July 24, 1930, p. 8.

____ “Social and Personal,” Journal News (Hamilton, OH), November 18, 1929, p. 5.

____ “Ruth Bryan Owen, Former Diplomat, Congresswoman, Will Speak Here,” Post-Star (Glens Falls, NY), February 19, 1946, p. 5.

_____ “Ruth Bryan Owens Was Important Factor - Did Big Jobs During War,” Springville Journal (Springville, NY), November 1, 1923, p. 4.

____ “Ruth Bryan Owen,” Wikipedia, https:en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Ruth_Bryan_Owen.

Winchell, Walter. “Winchell in Hollywood,” Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, OH), July 17, 1933, p. 13.

Wood, Jane. “Ruth Bryan Rohde Was A True Diplomat,” Miami News (Miami, FL), March 10, 1958, p. 17.

Newspaper Photos

“Ruth Owens Mixes Melodies, Politics With Concertina,” St. Cloud Times (St. Cloud, MN), July 19, 1930, p. 7. (A photo and two drawings depict Ms. Owen playing the concertina as a nurse and in social settings.)

“America’s First Woman Envoy Sails With Family For Denmark,” Pittsburgh Press (Pittsburgh, PA), May 12, 1933, p. 2. (Photo of Owen with a daughter and three grandchildren.)

Untitled, Morning Call (Patterson, NJ), April 18, 1933, p. 5. (Photos and drawings of Ruth Bryan Owen in various capacities, including lecturer, nurse and Member of Congress.)

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 21 VIRTUAL FOLK CLUB 6

A themed issue with Paul Walker.

Tonight’s guest is Nigel Harbron, long time folk singer/ songwriter, here tonight to discuss his interest/role in a nature reserve in Cumbria, and the plight of England’s endangered wild flowers.

With a guest appearance by Rob Harbron on English Concertina.

PW: Nigel, is there anything positive that interested people can do to protect endangered flower species?

NH: Just being aware that wild flowers exist (often in unexpected places) is the starting point. If you suspect that something untoward is going on, then do what you can to draw the world’s attention to the problem - but don’t give up if nothing actually happens as a result of a complaint, and keep trying.

PW: Well, you have done something to draw the world’s attention to the problem, Nigel - you’ve written a beautiful tune “The Last Flower” and CW is proud to be able to present Robert Harbron with an emotive rendition: https://youtu.be/ zYbajRYvjKk

And now before Rob gets the last bus home, he’s going to accompany Nigel on concertina: first the song “Penton Grove.”

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 22 Then a version of the Yeats poem - “Golden Apples Of The Sun”.

What does your job as honorary manager of a nature reserve consist of?

NH: Work falls into three broad areas: practical - repairing fences, walls, steps, paths, etc.; conservation - coppicing, scrub control, control of negative flora, etc.; and, monitoring - plant and tree surveys, annual counts, educating visitors, etc.

PW: And now Martin Carthy - Famous Flower of Serving Men: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_00g-asQvVk

In general terms how has the Cumbrian countryside changed over say, the past 25 years?

NH: Superficially, it probably hasn’t changed much. It is still, mostly, a very attractive-looking county, but intensive agriculture is continuing to result in over-grazing, over-use of artificial fertilisers, and contamination of water courses. ‘Unimproved’ areas are becoming increasingly rare.

PW: Your self-penned opus Nigel - “Pendle Witches”: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oMLuT1GVHE

There’s natural justice for you. In particular, what is causing the loss of wildflowers?

NH: The main culprit is the change from species-rich hay meadows to the monoculture of silage, and the situation is not helped by the increasing search for tidiness in the countryside. A

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 23 new problem is the rush to plant trees on marginal land, often the only place where wild flowers still survive.

PW: Our next song, a favourite of yours Nigel, is by Cara Dillon – “Flower of Magharally” (Live with youth band Oige): https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CqcpNU_-FI

Is this decline in numbers of wild flowers irreversible?

NH: No, it isn’t. Over the past decade there have been many examples of successful areas of wild flower re-creation, but it is slow process.

PW: What’s the effects of pollution on wildlife in the countryside?

NH: As mentioned above, almost every aspect of intensive farming - and that means most agriculture - is harmful to flora and fauna.

PW: A song now from Eliza Carthy – “Greenwood Laddie/ Mrs.Caprons Reel/Tune”: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=1kUjtmrT7HE

How much has the countryside been a source of ideas for you as a songwriter/tunesmith?

NH: In truth, I have probably written more songs about disasters than hay meadows, but I do find nature inspires particularly tunes from time to time, with snatches of them often occurring when doing outdoor work.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 24 PW: I know you’re a fan of the band Leveret* - how much do you think they draw inspiration from the rural/pastoral. Both in the subject matter and the way they play in the concert.

*British instrumental folk trio Leveret feature melodeon player Andy Cutting, concertina player Robert Harbron, and fiddler Sam Sweeney.

NH: I can’t speak for Sam and Andy, but I know Rob is very aware of nature. He and his partner have created a very wildlife-friendly garden, and volunteer on work parties in local woods. A lot of the band’s material clearly has its roots in the natural world.

PW: And now, to illustrate, “Sylvia's Serenade/Blew Bell Hornpipe” Leveret https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=VzRwD8Ny4HM

Credits

The tune The Last Flower was composed by Nigel Harbron.

Arranged & played by Rob Harbron.

Photos & videos by Lois Harbron, Jo Frost and Seb Frost.

Video edited by Liz Morley.

PW: Great to have a father/son, indeed a whole family collaboration.

See this issue’s Tune Supplement for the “dots”, kindly provided by Nigel.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 25 NH: Check out our website at: https:// thelastflowervideo.wordpress.com to learn more about the cause!

If you would like to make a donation to or otherwise support Cumbria Wildlife Trust & Plantlife please visit: https:// www.cumbriawildlifetrust.org.uk and https:// www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/support-us

Please share with anyone you know who cares about our wild flowers.

NOTE TO CW READERS: for this feature we have an unlimited budget & can feature artistes from any area/decade! If you have any requests for the VIRTUAL FOLK CLUB, please let the editor know.

Music Supplement

The Music Supplement for this issue contains music from Nigel Harbron, as noted above. Plus, Steve Goodyear has kindly sent in a few pieces from his “…collection of recorder music. Although I have set them for solo English concertina they could work very nicely (or perhaps even better) played as duets with two trebles or treble and baritone.” Finally, The supplement is rounded off with three items from our very own ICA Library.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 26 Concertina World Interview: Martin Bluer - Part 1

Paul Walker and Eddie Worrall

Concertina World welcomes Martin Bluer, clog dancer extraordinaire - whose mis-spent youth involved learning the classic Royton Morris dance in the folk revival days of the 1970s. He also shares his recollections of Anglo players, particularly his association with morris man Ellis Marshall, and folk singer Harry Boardman. legends of the Lancashire concertina world.

Eddie Worrall (former Squire of the Morris Ring and currently Chair of the Morris Ring Advisory Council, provides invaluable help digging through the Archives and checking the chronology). Paul Walker asks the questions.

PW: Martin, how did you first become involved with Morris dancing - I believe you danced first as a boy?

MB: I started in 1967 when I was 11. I went to a new all boys comprehensive school called Moston Brook which was a combination of two Technical High Schools, Openshaw Tech and Newton Heath Tech. The new building was not yet ready so we started in the old Newton Heath building.

I remember being in one of the first geography lessons when the teacher, Jim Mainland, announced that the school had a Morris Dancing team and they practiced at lunchtimes in an old

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 27 workshop called The Rubber Room. I remember saying to my friend something along the lines of “I’m not doing that!”.

As it happens it was raining that lunchtime and, in those days, you had to stay out in the playground in the rain and try to find shelter wherever possible. All doorways, overhangs and the bike sheds were already full with the ‘big lads’, so we were getting soaked and I suggested to my friend that we try to go inside. We were stopped at the entrance by the door prefect who told us we couldn’t come in unless we were part of a club. I was trying to think and suddenly remembered the Morris dancing, having no intention of course of actually going there. The trouble was he followed us and we had no idea where we were going but had to wing it. Luckily we went the right way and found it and went in. I remember Jim Mainland being there with three lads from the year above us and one sixth former – John Nuttall. It turns out that the team had at one time been quite strong, but John was the only one left from his age group, and there was then a gap to the three second year lads. John was no longer dancing as he was much taller than the other lads and, being only three, they were only doing a clog step dance called The Ulverston Three Hand Reel. A lot of new boys had turned up so Jim and John started to teach us the basic Cotswold step up. Anyway, it turned out that I picked the dancing up quite easily and actually loved it. For some reason that year quite a lot of the new boys kept coming and so the team went from struggling to suddenly being quite strong. The first dance we learned was Shepherds Hey and then Shooting, from Hinton.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 28 We learned quite a few Cotswold dances, but we also did clog stepping too. Jim Mainland was originally from The Midlands but had at one point been in Manchester Morris Men, and certainly had been around the Morris world for some time and had a great many friends from it. I remember him bringing Roy Dommit along at one time to teach us some Cotswold. In the end we had quite a large repertoire.

When we were really young, Jim used to impress upon us that when we put on our Morris kit we were magic and the Morris was a serious thing not to be messed with. He didn’t mean don’t let it evolve, but to respect it. I did honestly think for a while, though, that the kit gave me magic powers!

As the team became stronger Jim decided that we could go back to doing some North West, which is what they had done in the past before their numbers had dwindled. To this end he persuaded Julian Pilling of Colne Royal to come along and teach us the Failsworth Dance, which he had researched. The DNA of this dance incidentally has connections to Royton. Anyway, we learned this dance which has some clog stepping in the chorus and also at the end, which is a crescendo. This dance was unique

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 29 and only danced by us and I guess it is no longer done anywhere, which is sad.

[EW: Unfortunately Jim passed away a few years ago and I can’t provide any more information about him. I think he had actually been squire of Manchester Morris Men sometime around the early 60s and it is a vague recollection of mine that he was from The Midlands.]

MB: The team had been called Newton Heath Morris Dancers, but as the new school was called Moston Brook we needed to rename it. As we were doing some clog step dances as well as The Failsworth it became The Moston Brook Clog Dancers.

That team was really good as we had some good dancers and had pretty much all grown up together from 11/12 years old, and over that five year period just got better and better. We did Cotswold, Lichfield, a really good rapper dance. Some Longsword, jigs, reels and, of course, the clog stepping and Failsworth, which were always the highlights. We danced all over SE Lancashire, NE Cheshire and West Yorkshire doing Lancashire evenings, on the bill with the likes of Harry and Lesley Boardman, Mike Harding, The Oldham Tinkers, Harvey and Mary Kershaw, and The Pennine Folk.

PW: I was wondering if you had any contact with Harry Boardman - renowned Anglo concertina player & folk singer?

MB: Harry Boardman was a great guy and always looked after us. Many of these evenings would be held in Town Halls or places

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 30 without bars and Harry would always have a hold-all with some bottles of beer. As we got a little older he would let us have a bottle between us as long as we kept it quiet. Of course one small bottle of pale ale between 12 or so lads wouldn’t go very far, but he made us feel special. My nickname was Tich in the team and years later we corresponded when I was setting up Wrigley Head and his letters would always start ‘Dear Tich’.

I also remember us going to a Ring Meeting at Derby as guests, in about 1968. I was completely blown away as I didn’t know there were so many Morris teams in existence. I remember we learned the Winster Processional on the Saturday evening so that we could join in on the Sunday. That sight of all of those dancers to an 11 or 12 year old was just magical.

Up until then when boys left school they would leave the team, but when we all reached 16 we decided that we wanted to carry on. So we renamed the team The Failsworth Morris Men, changed the kit to something more akin to North West, although to be honest it was a bit generic, and carried on as before.

PW: Who provided the music for the boys’ team?

MB: Jim Mainland, who had also been our only musician, initially playing concertina - until it broke - and then played fiddle for the three years or so leading up to now, continued to be our musician but took a back seat in terms of organising and running the team.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 31 Being young and fit lads we actually were rather fast dancers, too fast to be honest. When Jim’s concertina broke he taught himself to play fiddle, and I remember one article in a paper that said something along the lines of ‘What the fiddler lacked in expertise was certainly made up for by his sheer enthusiasm in trying to keep up with the dancers!’

We had been approached by The Manchester Morris Men to join them, but we wanted to carry on with our own team. Around this time possibly one of Peter McGloughlin, Derek Froome or Dennis Cleary was squire [of Manchester Morris Men]. I seem to think it was Peter McGloughlin that invited us, but I know that they were all squire at one point or another around that time. And later I remember Derek Froome coming up to practice one night at Wrigley Head; I think to just see for himself what was going on and what we were doing. He had done quite a bit of research himself and certainly offered his support if it was needed. Derek Froome came up with a Welshman called Bryn Pugh, who enjoyed a drink and became more Welsh the more he drank. He was a Manchester man but came up to us a few times and would get steadily more drunk as the night wore on. He loved to pick an

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 32 argument and one time it all culminated in him inviting one of us outside for a bit of shin pairing – clog fighting. Anyway, we managed to calm things down and never saw him again!

I think it might have been in 1973 or ‘74 that the Manchester Festival was held and each area also had its own mini festival and parade. We had a rushcart that was paraded through the streets of Moston, pulled by a horse with us dancing along in front of it. We continued to do all of the different traditions of dancing although we looked more North West now with our kit.

PW: Were you interested in the traditional folk scene?

MB: By this stage I think that I had absorbed a lot of the local traditional songs sung by Harry Boardman and his ilk, by way of osmosis. When the Topic Album ‘Deep Lancashire’ had come out a few years previously most of us had arranged through Harry to buy copies. I remember him bringing a box of them along to one of the Lancashire evenings. Although by that age I was a Northern Soul Boy, I also loved the traditional working and political songs and songs of hardship that these guys were doing.

The Moston Rushcart had stimulated my interest a bit more in local history and traditions, and I remember getting a book from the library called ‘Moston Characters At Play”. It was about the history and, as per the title, characters of Moston and the surrounding area from when these places were small villages and hamlets. I grew up in Moston and found this history fascinating, as I could identify with the places and still recognise

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 33 some of the lanes and beer houses/pubs from their descriptions even though it was more built up now. I was only 17 at this stage, but reading this book began an awakening in me about the importance of local tradition and culture. I had always been aware of Julian Pilling’s commitment to only performing the local dance from the area at Colne Royal but hadn’t paid too much attention until now. I began to think that instead of doing all of these dances from other parts of the country we should be focussing on our local tradition and maybe trying to research them before there was no one left to remember them. As time wore on I was becoming more and more vocal about this in the team, but nobody else really had the same views or commitment to the tradition that was developing in me.

When I look back I can see that the team didn’t really come through what you might call a traditional Morris route, by which I mean we hadn’t really toured much apart from the occasional invite to dance with Manchester Morris. Our dancing had always been bookings for various societies and organisations and the Lancashire evenings, and so I think that there was something missing from our DNA. We had only done the one Ring Meeting back in ’68, so were quite isolated from the rest of the Morris world. I think it affected the way the lads thought of the Morris.

PW: What are your views/memories of the “folk revival”?

MB: At that stage I was a lone voice in the team, but there were one or two new members who joined. None of them had ever danced before but I think they could see where I was coming from. I used to say that we might as well be Pans People doing

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 34 all these different dances instead of focussing on a great tradition that was on our doorstep!

Also at about this time there was an explosion in the Morris world, with new teams starting up everywhere. The only North West teams that I recall up until then had been Manchester, Manley, Colne Royal. Garstang and The Bacup Nutters. Suddenly there were new teams everywhere. The real catalyst for me was when our team was invited to dance at the Uppermill Civic Hall at a fund raising event for Saddleworth, who were just starting. I remember them doing a dance without kit. That’s where I first got to know Pete Ashworth (then Squire of Saddleworth Morris Men) and Ronny and Hilary and some of the other very early members. I think we may have done a couple of these events. We were invited to dance with them not long after they had first danced out and we danced outside The Church Inn. For me, I was thinking we have to focus on our own tradition before it’s lost, and if these guys can do it with no previous experience so can I. I redoubled my efforts to persuade the rest of the team but to no avail. So I decided that I would start a new team. I discussed it with three of the newer members who were in agreement and, after one particular practice where we had quite a heated argument about it, I told them that I was leaving to start a new team. I have always felt that Pete Ashworth unwittingly had a big impact as, if he hadn’t brought Saddleworth into being, there may not have been a catalyst for Wrigley Head. By this stage I was still only 18. But I think that naivety coupled with the energy of youth can allow you to do stuff you may not do later.

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 35 PW: So next came Wrigley Head, a side you helped put together?

MB: There were four of us who left Failsworth: Mike Higgins, Mike Cahill and Mark Golding, who were all pretty new to the dancing, and myself. We had to decide where we were going to base ourselves and what we would be called. Mike Higgins was a big help here as he was probably in his early 30s then, so a lot more life experience than me and the other guys at 18 or 19. We wanted to locate ourselves in the Failsworth/Royton area but were wary at the time of being accused of hijacking a team. Thinking back, it would have made sense to try and revive the Royton team there and then. But anyway, we didn’t do that. Instead we centred ourselves on Failsworth and found a pub, ‘The Pack Horse’ on Wrigley Head, adjacent to Failsworth Pole with a landlord, Tom Lowe, who was willing to allow us to make it our headquarters. We then found a scout hut nearby and the Failsworth Scouts kindly agreed to let us use it on Thursday evenings for practice in the winter. In the summer we practiced in the pub car park. We then needed dancers, musicians, kit, and dances or, at least, a dance. So we set about writing to local papers, getting

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 36 announcements made at local folk clubs, etc. We also put notices up in libraries and any public building that would allow us to.

PW: And you did quite a bit of local research?

MB: Not only did we ask for dancers but also for anyone who remembered seeing or had had anything to do with local Morris teams to come forward with any information that we could use. As I mentioned earlier, I wrote to Harry Boardman as I knew he had connections to the Failsworth area. He gave me some good information, including sharing his mother’s memories of seeing the Morris Dancers in Failsworth, and also some names of people who had been involved.

Mike Higgins and I then began visiting local libraries around the North East Manchester and Oldham area, looking at old archives for any references to Morris dancing, rush carts, etc. The interest generated was amazing and very quickly we were inundated with people wanting to learn to dance, as well as musicians who wanted to play for the Morris.

We actually came across a guy called Frank McDermott who had danced with the Failsworth team in the early part of the century. He was one of the McDermotts associated with Royton. Talking to him it soon became clear that the boundaries between the different teams dances were somewhat blurred, and there was a much more mercenary approach to it than I had imagined. Mick McDermott, who was the older brother of Bob McDermott, had started this team in Failsworth so it is clear to see how these dances were all linked. Harry Boardman actually sent me a copy

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 37 of a photograph that his mother had of the Failsworth team with Mick McDermott and a young Frank McDermott on it.

Although he was too old to demonstrate the steps and figures, Frank McDermott was able to provide us with some details of the dance that he did with Failsworth, which certainly differed somewhat to the dance that Julian Pilling had taught to us. He lived in sheltered accommodation. Mike Higgins and I would visit him regularly, and over a few weeks we were able to put together the basic dance and steps. Mike would take notes as I tried to interpret his description and then demonstrate back to him to check our understanding. I could not guarantee that we got the whole thing, or what we got was entirely right, but from it we managed to recreate the dance as best we could. We called it Old Failsworth, in recognition that the Failsworth team were still dancing and performing the Failsworth dance.

PW: It’s great that you had direct contact with dancers from a previous era…

MB: Another connection we managed to get was with a lady called HH Standing, who had danced with a team at Westwood after the First World War. As I recall, this came about after there weren’t enough men left to dance and so girls and women were recruited to keep the teams going. She was quite a lively character and full of life and would actually get up in her living room and show us steps and kicks, so it was much easier to pick up what she was telling us. She did say that they started to enter competitions and eventually the dances were simplified to make it easier to win these competitions. This is borne out by

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 38 things I heard elsewhere over the years and seems to be how the girl morris troupes came about.

There were some similarities in some of the ‘ones’ and ‘twos’ steps that were done in the Royton dance, which also helped confirm the blurred lines between dances around the area. From what she was able to demonstrate we were able to piece together a dance which we called Oldham, rather than Westwood. We did this because she wasn’t able to remember some of the more complicated figures that they had done before they started to simplify the dancing for competitions. We incorporated other figures that we had found from the odd written description in old newspaper cuttings, etc. By nature a written description is subject to interpretation which was done by me, so any errors are mine.

Incidentally, there was a figure and step that we ended up not using for some reason which I can’t recall now, but this is the one which is now used by Saddleworth in the Denshaw. Not sure what the guys really call it, but it is the one known colloquially as ‘Bastards’. That figure came from HH Standing.

We had many more connections with people, but mostly rather bitty and vague. Whereas, with Frank McDermott and HH Standing, we did actually get hold of quite a lot of useable information.

Regarding kit, it was based on old photos and descriptions of the Failsworth kit but also limited by the materials we could get hold of at the time. If you look closely at Wrigley Head you will see

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 39 that their cummerbunds are a tartan plaid, and this is because that is what Failsworth had. Middleton Morris also had tartan sashes and this is because Middleton at the time was the centre of the tartan silk weaving industry. I would assume that with Wrigley Head the cummerbunds are now a standard tartan that they can get hold of. But back then we got the museum in Uppermill to weave us a bolt of tartan cloth that was exclusive to us.

PW: I believe that the Royton dance was a classic?

MB: Armed with these two dances we started to teach the whole team but then, after much discussion, decided that as nobody else in the area was performing The Royton dance we should do it as it was so good. We were concerned at the time that Manley might be upset but figured that their version, as taught by Bob McDermott decades previously, had actually evolved and was really now The Manley dance rather than The Royton (Dance).

PW: Collected/notated by Maud Karpeles - a pioneer of the folk revival. How accurately did she portray the dance? It's spirit?

MB: We got hold of the Maud Karpeles book and took it from there. I remembered that, when dancing one time in Royton with Failsworth, we had bumped into Norman Coleman; who introduced himself to us by telling us that he used to Morris dance with Royton in the 1950s. Anyway, we set out to try and locate him to see if he would come and help us ensure we got it right. I don’t recall how, but we did find him. He told us that one of the concertina players, Ellis Marshall, who had played with

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 40 them in the 30s when they won the English Folk Dance Championship at the Royal Albert Hall, was still around and he brought him along to play. By this time we had been using the book to put the dance together, but when these guys came it really was a revelation. There is no criticism of the book here because what those guys showed us would be impossible to get down in dance notation. There were subtle ways in the way you walked when doing step ups or cross-overs while swinging the slings. The Royton is done with slings rather than sticks. There is a swagger involved in these figures and then a change in emphasis from this to vigorous and fairly complicated steps. Another thing we learned was that sometimes the Polka (rant) step would be done backwards, i.e. the leg would cross behind rather than in front of the hopping leg with the foot kicking out backwards. It may have been that this was introduced after the book was published, but I don’t recall any mention in the book.

PW: Do you remember the names of any of the tunes you dance to? I remember you told me that the side danced on the offbeat?!

MB: I mentioned this sort of swagger, but what really made the difference in this swagger was the way the music was played. The main tune for the dance is ‘Oh Suzanna’ but it is played on the off-beat, and done this way it actually makes you swagger as you move. It’s not the same, of course, but I would liken it to the way Cajun melodeon makes you want to dance. The first time Ellis heard our musicians play it he said that they had got it all wrong. As soon as he played on his own it was a revelation. It

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 41 lifted the whole dance and was incredible. After that I told our musicians that they had to follow Ellis’s example and learn to play it that way which, to their great credit, they did. We also had the added bonus that Ellis decided that he wanted to become a permanent member of the band, and so he joined the team. He was well into his 60s by this stage but a lively and very tough character with an equally formidable wife. I found a paper cutting I have of an obituary for him after he passed away in ’93 at the age of 87, so in fact he would have been 69 or 70 when he joined us.

Regarding the swagger, I haven’t seen Manley for a long time but I remember seeing them sometime in the late 70s, I think, and they definitely had the swagger, even though their dance had evolved. If you ever watch Dave Biggs [now Squire of Saddleworth Morris Men - PW] dance he definitely has a swagger. I have always thought that he would have made a wonderful Royton dancer.

In relation to the style of the dance, prior to going to Manley, Bob McDermott and Jimmy Coleman had always been at loggerheads over how the dance should be done. Both families were stalwarts of the Morris, but at this stage it was the Colemans who had the upper hand, so to speak. Ellis told me that Bob wanted to be a bit more adventurous with it but Jimmy was reluctant. Eventually Bob was recruited to go and teach Manley when they started. There was a lot of bitterness over it and ever since a rift between the Colemans and McDermotts existed. I was quite surprised in the 70s how to Ellis and Norman

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 42 this was as fresh as if it had happened recently, and they were very derogatory about Manley. Ellis always used to say that they looked ridiculous wearing those billy pots (flowery hats) on their heads rather than velvet caps.

PW: And Royton were recorded for posterity in the 1930s?

MB: One of our musicians, Dave Richie now sadly deceased, had a contact at the BBC and was able to get hold of an archive audio recording of Royton dancing at The Royal Albert Hall in the 30s. By this stage we had pretty much got the dance down and were performing it regularly. We played it one evening in The Pack Horse after practice, and the whole place just erupted in spontaneous applause after listening to it. The dance sounded exactly as we performed it, from the steps to the music to the sound of Jimmy Coleman calling out the figures. Another thing not in the book is that, of course, being originally a dance for processing along the road, the figures would be called out in the order that the conductor felt like rather than always being done in the same fixed order, which is the way most North West dances are done these days. Back in those days at Wrigley Head we also danced the figures in any order and I would call them out as I saw fit. It keeps the dancers on their toes.

PW: Do you remember any memorable gigs/anecdotes from your youth?

MB: I mentioned the mercenary approach earlier, and talking to Ellis Marshall in particular over the years it was easy to understand where these guys were coming from. They were all

Concertina World 484 Editor: Peter Rowlstone © 10/12/2020 43 very tough, as I think people back then generally were. As an example, Ellis was the youngest of something like nine children and they lived in a cellar in Bolton with their mother. I don’t know where his father was, but anyway, when he was six years old their cellar was flooded out. Somehow his mother had heard that there was a cellar available in Royton and her and the nine children, including six year old Ellis, walked from Bolton to Royton carrying their belongings with them in the hope that it would still be available.

PW: I’ve heard that for the NW working class in the Depression, Morris dancing was a way to earn a few bob - not a hobby?

MB: When the dancers turned out they saw it as a way of making a bit extra as, of course, they weren’t that well paid in the mills, etc. Ellis described one incident when they were on the train travelling back from London after having danced at the Royal Albert Hall. Their expenses were all covered by the EFDSS, but I think that they had also been paid or been allowed to collect money, too. Jimmy Coleman had all of this cash in one of the concertina boxes. Anyway, he was counting it out but one or two were a bit worried that they were going to be fiddled out of their fair share and kept leaning over him and asking how much there was. In the end Jimmy saying something along the lines of “you want to know how much? Here’s how much!” smashed the concertina box in the face of one of them, breaking his nose. Tough and quick tempered! Ellis did say that Jimmy wasn’t to be messed with.

Part 2 of Martin Bluer’s recollections will follow in the next issue of Concertina World.

If you have any recollections yourself, please contact the editor.

2020 New Members

Martin Henshaw

The ICA welcomed the following new members during the course of 2020

Apicella Joseph East Sussex Beveridge Nestor North Lanarkshire Bullen Ronald Essex Carlin * Richard New Jersey USA Collett Julie N Manchester Constable Ian North Home Counties Cooke Kevin Bristol Cooper Lyn Leicestershire Coover Gary Honolulu Dawson Ray Leics. Day * Alan East Anglia Fackrell Ken North Yorkshire

Hubbard Mary Aberdeenshire

Lee David Wiltshire McDougall Jeifer California - USA McKee Tara N Manchester O’Connell Marie Kent Orme Chris Norfolk Poruks Juris Quebec Ranger David Hertfordshire Redfirn Andy South West Rohmann Werner North Germany Seguin Serge Harrow Shettle * Irene Surrey Smith John Worcester Smith Laura South America Spence Anita Kent Stein Randy Virginia - USA Taenzer David Colorado - USA Tauber McNaught Cheryl Maryland - USA Taylor Ian Surrey Thorold Emelia London SW11 Victoria College of c/o Dr. S. Thompson London EC Music Winslow Geoff Washington State- USA * Rejoined

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International Concertina Association (ICA) Established 1952

Application Form (REV 03-12-2019)

Open with Adobe Acrobat Reader DC – Free App available at https://get.adobe.com/uk/reader/ Tab from field to field – save the completed form and email to [email protected]. Click as appropriate to put an X in a square box. Alternatively print off form, complete and post to the Mem Sec - see address below.

Select: New Applicant Renewal (after lapsing) Change of Details

Title: First Name: Last Name: Membership No:

Address: Postcode: Country:

Email address: Telephone: System(s) played: None Anglo English Duet Musical Interest Concertina related talents: e.g. Maker/Restorer/Retailer Happy to help Beginners Membership type: Individual Joint Family Corporate Junior Fee s for individuals: UK £20.00 Europe £23.00 Rest of World £26.00 Joint/Family/Corporate Fees: UK £30.00 Europe £34.00 Rest of World £39.00 Junior Fees (under 18 or FTE): UK £4.50 Europe £6.00 Rest of World £9.00 Renewal date: 1st January annually. Members joining after 1st October get cover for following year. UK Members: I will pay by – in ICA order of preference: Standing Order BACS Cheque (must be made out in full to: International Concertina Association) or PayPal Standing Orders and BACS transfers must have at least your initial and name in the reference field.

Cheques and application forms should be sent to the Membership Secretary Martin Henshaw: Oak End, 23A Bedford Road, Northill, Biggleswade, Beds. SG18 9AH, United Kingdom Non UK Members must pay by PayPal in GB Pounds (GBP) via the ICA website. Email queries: [email protected] Website: www.concertina.org/membership ______

Please also review these Terms and Conditions of Membership and sign the form below: All members must:

Abide by the terms and conditions set out in the constitution. Always act in the best interests of the ICA Comply with and support the decisions of the elected committee. Advise the committee of any change in your personal details.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

The ICA holds and stores membership details securely for: Administration purposes and to communicate with you as an ICA member To distribute ICA publications via a third party printer Members’ details are never given or sold to third parties Members’ details are never given to another member without prior permission

By becoming an ICA member you automatically permit your details to be used for the above purposes.

Be advised that you can change data usage for any of these purposes at by contacting the membership secretary.

I apply for membership of the International Concertina Association and confirm that I will abide by the terms of membership as stated above. I confirm that I have completed the form myself.

Signed Date DDMMYY