>> I quickly decided Service is merely unconvincingly holding a cheap English-system concertina ... probably a Wheatstone or Lachenal "beginner grade" model ... and possibly a "prop" in the photographer's studio!

Typically, in Australia ... and, I'm sure, elsewhere ... kids learned on a cheap mouth organ and, if parents were willing to let them play Mum or Dad's button accordion - or 'Anglo' concertina - could quickly transfer the tunes they learned on the mouth organ to the bellows instruments. <<

Very interesting idea, Bob. Paul Morris told me he'd seen a photo of Service playing an Anglo (a suggestion I repeated in my own liner notes), but I've not been able to find anything apart from the one linked above, of the poet holding what seems to be an English. But if the photo is an irrelevance and his "accordion" was actually some kind of melodeon, it would explain that great verse about the "cheap and vulgar" instrument, which doesn't seem to me to describe accurately the more genteel English concertina.

>> Damn - When did that Anglophilia CD come out ... I can't see it in the "Brian Peters" area on my CD shelving! (Or is it your track on Alan Day's collection forthcoming collecion ... ?) <<

"Anglophilia" came out in Autumn 2005, around six months after my last tour in Oz. Since you've enquired, I hope it won't constitute naked commericalsm to point you here.