I brought Pat's red concertina from a junk shop in Whitley Bay, Tyne and Wear, about 30 years ago. I paid £35 for it. At the time it wasn't red; it was wooden, with green bellows, and someone had written "Silly Wizard" on it. It was a C-G Lachenal anglo-concertina, with a low-number identifying mark. The Lachenal company produced over 400,000 concertinas before they folded in 1936. They were the workhorses of their times, the Morris-Minor among concertinas. I can't remember what the five-figure number was, but I guessed that this particular concertina had been around since the 1870s.

I was a concertina player and founder member with the three-piece group Swansea Jack (with Mike James and Peter Davies) in those days. I had just met Pat, and Swansea Jack became a five-piece before Pat and I left the group to gig on our own – and that was how Calennig was formed.

I was still touring solo, and embarked on a tour of Scotland. The late Johnny Cunningham, of Silly Wizard, came along in my van to play fiddle at Glenfarg Folk Club, and his eyes widened as they locked on my instrument: "That is OUR f—kin' concertina!" Apparently Silly Wizard had sold the concertina in Edinburgh, and it had ended up in Whitley Bay – where I brought it!

Then Pat got really ill and ended up in hospital. I had just bought a Wheatstone metal-ended concertina, and so for a present I donated my Lachenal concertina to her. She had no idea, but she learned to play quickly. The old dears in the hospital asked: "Can you play Danny Boy?", and so Danny Boy it was!

The concertina was getting a bit scruffy by this time, so I drove it to Devon for renovation at John and Sue Holman, concertina restorers. Sue did the bellows – she showed me this lovely red leather, I rang Pat and Pat readily agreed!

In fact, Sue restored Pat's red concertina as good as new. I wonder what it's worth now?

Mick Tems