Alf Edwards played English in a rather bouncy style behind the
appropriate songs on the old Lloyd/MacColl recordings.

Louie Killen learnt from him. In fact, he owns Edward's concertina.
I saw it meself and even had a go.

The problem with the English is the very layout itself. With every
other note on the opposite end, it is a bit of what the French
would call a 'casse-tete' (sorry, I haven't the keyboard to get
the accents right). There is a fundamental physiological left-brain-
right-brain problem which involves a rather narrow neural pathway
called the 'corpus callosum.'

For many (if not most) people, playing the English concertina
melodically can bugger up the proper operation of the speech
center--- makes it hard to sing. Even harder to speak. Hence,
what Rick Spence calls 'hexagon zombies.'

Playing chord-style seems easier--- the chords are one-handed
triangles.

The problem doesn't seem to exist with Anglo concertinas and
melodeons. The left-bass right-treble thing doesn't seem to screw
with the central nervous system quite so badly.

One of the problems with Anglo concertinas is that the most common
key combination is G/C with the G being a rather high, squeaky
sound. A lot of singers don't like 'em.

D/G is better for many; but D/G Anglo boxes are rather scarce and
expensive, at least in the vintage world.