Tech: concertina newsletter

Subject: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: GUEST,squeezer
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 07:30 AM

Anyone remember how Neil Wayne's concertina newsletter was first distributed? The weird thing is I can't remeber how I received it. It would be about 1971/72-the weird thing is I had no involvment in the folk scene af the time, so can't have obtained it at a folk club.

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: GUEST,oldnickilby
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 10:23 AM

Why not ask Neil himself?

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: raymond greenoaken
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 10:28 AM

Subscription only. The odd copy might have fetched up in a folk club or at a festival, but by and large you had to order it.

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: Bernard
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 11:06 AM

I used to receive mine in the post. As I recall, Bernard Wrigley put me onto it. I've still got my 'Concertina Consciouness' canvas bag with the Lachenal logo on it!!

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 11:57 AM

By post. I still have some of the original A4 copies before it was A5 folded. Heard about it at an ICA meeting. I still have a Concertina Conciousness tee shirt but it seems to have shrunk!

Mitch

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: Mitch the Bass
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 11:58 AM

The last post was me.

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 12:12 PM

Yes by post.
I had to think about how I used to get a copy and I'm sure it was during my days as secretary of The North East Folk Federation; Neil used to send us a newsletter.

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: Folkiedave
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 01:33 PM

I quote from issue number 17 - A5 version - January/February 1974. I believe Chris Algar at Barleycorn Concertinas may have some back numbers.

Available free, on subscription and supported by readers' donations.

GB £1.50, Europe £2.00 etc for one year. Year began November 1st.

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: Ross Campbell
Date: 24 Nov 10 - 10:55 PM

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

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: Valmai Goodyear
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 02:36 AM

Nowadays, members of the International Concertina Association get a very informative quarterly magazine, Concertina World, and music supplement. Their website, as you can see, is excellent, and gives a summary of the contents of past magazines as well as plenty of other news and music. Standard membership is £20 a year for UK residents.

The ICA has turned into a much more lively and active organisation than it once was, thanks especially to the great efforts of Chairman Jon MacNamara, editor Pauline de Snoo, and webmaster Michael van der Meiren.

Valmai (Lewes)

Subject: RE: Tech: concertina newsletter
From: JP2
Date: 25 Nov 10 - 06:31 AM

I have a full set of Newsletters having been an early donater.

If you couldn't afford to send a donation Neil would send it to you for free!

Reading the first one I can see that the cost of the original circular,inc.postage,stationery and printing was £3-11.5 and the cost of the first newsletter a print run of 400 copies,was £2-50,partly covered by the fee from the BBC for an article on the Jim LLoyd programme,Folk on Friday.

Surprisingly,there doesn't appear to be a publication date but mention is made of a forthcoming social at the ICA on the 13th October 1971.

On page 6,Para 2, Neil makes his famous,or is it infamous statement
"The English concertina is superior in every way"!

This statement was refuted in no uncertain terms by a John irkpatrick on page 10,Para 1,in issue 4.
John signs his letter off by saying "I am sick and tired of hearing in Folk Clubs round the country that the English is the only one of it's family worth serious consideration as a musical instrument.I am more than willing to spend the rest of my life attempting to prove otherwise".
JP2.
PS.If anyone wants access to these docs they are welcome to photocopy or whatever so long as I get them back!!!