It did indeed start as a "free read". I must have picked up a few at festivals when the "Free Reed" record stall used to empty my pockets in the seventies. A trip to the shop in Belper (cross-country rail from Blackpool) produced a haul of about fifty albums for around £70 (mostly rejects/returns that Neil had picked up for next to nothing from Transatlantic and others, still perfectly playable, though you had to watch that they hadn't been drilled through the playing surface).

The rest of my copies I got in a bundle from David Bland when he was running an occasional folk-music related book-list. Much of the content has been copied and expanded on the Web. I still haven't managed to visit the Wayne Collection at the Horniman Museum - the instruments were still undergoing conservation processes when I was there, but I was able to see Neil's comprehensively detailed and beautifully-photographed catalogue from when the collection had been housed at Belper.

Intro to "Free Reed Instruments at the Horniman Museum"

The Free Reed website reckons they still have a few of both "Concertina Newsletter" and "Free Reed" at £1.00 a copy (snail-mail order only) - there's a printable order-form:-

http://www.freedmus.demon.co.uk/Frmag.htm

Also lots of other goodies I'll leave you to discover.

Ross