WARREN FAHEY © 2005

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For many people their first encounter with a concertina came through films that featured concertina music or, occasionally, a player. If any one film influenced how we perceive the instrument it would have been John Houston's 'Moby Dick' (1957) featuring the legendary British player Alf Edwards playing on an English concertina � it immediately became associated with sailors and the sea. Here's a short list gleaned from www.mediarare.com
  • The Gay Divorcee / / 1933
    Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, RKO Pictures. The alternative male love interest (played by Erik Rhodes) "plays" an Anglo concertina (and sings for real) at length in the grand production number "The Continental". The sound of an accordion is heard briefly, as Mr Rhodes starts, then fades out under the orchestra. The film is very Art Deco/stylish -- the concertina, for example, is an almost pure white, with big buttons

  • Oliver / Carol Reed / 1968
    Peter Honri played the MacCann Duet and a miniature Anglo German.

  • Camille / /
    Greta Garbo/Robert Taylor/Lionel Barrymore. There is a brief scene with a country peasant on a wagon playing an anglo concertina, about midway through the movie.

  • Back to Oklahoma / / 1936
    Tex Ritter is in a jam and wires Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys for help. They arrive by stage with Tex driving and the Playboys sitting on top of the stage, playing and singing. Arkansas Slim, Tex's sidekick, gallops behind the stage on his mule, playing an anglo concertina. Later, Slim, on concertina, and the Playboys accompany Tex's singing by the campfire. It's then time for Tex and Slim to ride into town and outfox the villians. Slim hands his concertina to Bob Wills and says, "Here Bob, hold my wrinkle-box."

  • Night to Remember / Roy Ward Baker / 1958
    B/W. One scene showed the steerage passengers dancing to a concertina. It was a nice 56 key metal ended Aeola and the person holding it was actually playing it.

  • The Magic Box / John Boulting / 1951
    features a Concertina and stars Glynis Johns, Richard Attenborough, Sir John Gielgud. Herbert Greene played the concertina in the Crystal Palace Fairground sequence ("Knees up Mother Brown").It was based on the life of Movie Inventor, William Friese-Green.

  • Mary Poppins / Disney Production / 1964
    Bert "plays" an anglo concertina (heard as an accordion) as part of his one-man-band in the opening.

  • The Milagro Beanfield War / Robert Redford / 1988
    Features, prominently, a little old man (who is actually an angel), dancing around the town (he is invisible except to one of Milagro's old-timers) playing his beat-up Anglo concertina. He is faking it.

  • Nightmare before Christmas / Tim Burton
    A cute little stuffed Christmas Bear seated under a Christmas tree plays a (if you can call it one) Concertina in one of the scenes of this film. The Concertina is toy bear sized and basically only a bellows with two hexagonal ends.


Locally, writers and songwriters have also reinforced the concertina and its association with the bush. Henry Lawson mentions the concertina and there are 'bush songs' like 'The Man With The Concertina' that toast the instrument.

The first concertina I ever heard live was played by Mike Ball, an Englishman who was instrumental in the Australian folk revival in the 1960s. later I heard Carol Wilkinson play her English and then Colin Dryden (I bought his English concertina in 1970) and Mike Eves. Mike Ball's playing is heard accompanying Declan Affley on the recording 'Rake and Rambling Man'. Also in the 1960s I heard several recordings of the legendary British singers A.L.Lloyd and Ewan MacColl who were accompanied by Alf Edwards and Peggy Seeger, respectively and respectfully. I have always loved the sound of the instrument as an accompaniment to song.

I play a 48 key concertina that is the same as the first instrument to be made by Wheatstone & Co. Mine, a Lachenal, is around 120 years old and still going strong.

It is hard to explain the enjoyment I receive from playing this instrument. It is ideal to accompany songs and for those who tend to get baffled by learning an instrument allow me to say that I had quite a battle to get my fingers and head around playing. I taught myself music by carefully picking out the notes until eventually I managed to knock out some tunes. It was only recently that I stopped reading the dots and started to play by ear. It worked and I can now play most songs and tunes I hear in my head. It's a wonderful thing!

Warren and his Lachenal English


The surprising thing about the history of the concertina is that it appears to be extremely popular in the 21st century. It had a revival in the 1960s through the 1950s and 60s international revival of interest in folk music and has steadily increased its popularity. This is a tribute to Wheatstone and his fellow inventors and to the players who have championed the instrument. Countless recordings have been issued over the past fifty years, concertina virtuoso players have emerged, repairers and restorers kept busy and a quick look at the Internet will reveal chat-rooms, blogs, sites and all manner of things 'concertina'. Ebay has a whole section devoted to the buying and selling of the instrument. Australia has two master craftsmen manufacturing excellent Anglo German concertinas.

Note the round sides of this concertina


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