Mr Gladstone's Bag were wonderful. They brought all sorts of wonderful props with them and while I agree that they could be OTT at times, they were probably one of the funniest acts on the folk scene. In spite of that, their musicianship was first class - especially John Watcham's concertina playing. They used to perform one number "Beautiful Bird Sing on" through megaphones containing mechanisms to provide a scratching sound like that on early recordings, with an incredible instrument which they called a "pneumatic nightingale". This was basically a vastly scaled up version of the bird warbler whistles which contain water made out of a car tyre pump, a watering can and a large whistle. Although vastly hilarious, the final sound almost exactly matched that of the original Edison phonagraph recording.

John is still playing concertina, but sadly Mick (?) the flamboyant other half of the act died some years ago. Both were members of Albion Morris.