G'day Crane Driver,

Afraid I was just stirring my old "The bloke that invents anything never gets the credit" line. It's certainly not limited to concertinas.

I am aware that Crane sold duets of this system under his own brand and I have handled a few In fact, I nearly mentioned one as an exception to my sweeping generalisation that you have to wait for some old SA officer to die if you want one ... but I wasn't letting inconvenient facts spoil a good story! (And this one was in Sydney, Australia, so it wasn't much help to Sledge.) They were also made by Lachenal and Wheatstone (and, probably, other London makers like Jeffreys and Crabb) - and sold under their own brands or the SA's Triumph name.

Pavane: I can't speak for anywhere other than Australia, but I doubt the 'bonfire' story. Salvationists paid for their own instruments and I spent a wonderful afternoon in the early '80s listening to retired SA officers from the SA retirement home up the road from the Bush Music Club play on their newly restored instruments ... after a very keen Anglican concertina virtuoso, the Rev. Alex Richards, had got together with concertina restorer Frank O'Gallagher to get some of Alex's SA friends playing again.

It was a great session (unfortunately, I have not been able to find if anyone recorded it) and I was astonished at what these elderly blokes could play ... and how well! One effect was that I shortly afterwards sold my Wheatstone System Duet and invested the takings into a new 3-row ADG button accordion and a 20 key Anglo ... so I could concentrate on what I did best ... and let the virtuoso instrument go to an appropriately skilled player!

Regards,

Bob Bolton