What a lively day we had! Nearly 30 members attended our first Playday of the year.
Vanessa Archer began the day with a talk on the wassail tradition, leading us in several tunes from different region. This prepared us for the later, raucous invasion by her very own border morris side, Bootstrap Morris. They danced four of the tunes that we had prepared. This was congenially followed by cider and apple cake.
The theme of the day was light/dark, new/old and all things generally ‘turn of the year’. Individuals and groups entertained us with songs and tunes such as the Year End Two-Step, The Wren, Slow Broke the Light, The Wedding at Riding Mill, Abendlied by Rheinberger (in 6 parts!), Penny for the Ploughboy, Indian Queen, a wassail song from Bath, Old Towler and a song about Santa’s whiskers!
The next meeting is on St David’s Day, 1st March 2026 so you can expect a Welsh feel to the theme as well as a masterclass from Rob Harbron, the renowned player of the English concertina. See you there!
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This was our second year at Wellington School for our beginner/intermediate weekend. Almost 80 people attended including non-playing partners and tutors. About half stayed in the school accommodation and the rest in nearby B&B’s or in their camper vans.
As usual courses were provided for all systems, Duets, Anglos and English and Band for all. Options sessions broke up the tuition during the weekend and concertina maintenance was provided by Steve Dickenson. Barleycorn brought a variety of instruments to tempt us to upgrade.
In the evenings we all joined together for some shared music with the tutors giving some wonderful performances. We had sourced a mobile bar for this year and this added to the ambience of the evenings.
All in all an enjoyable weekend making music together. We have used the useful feedback to work with the school to make some improvements for the next event Friday 16th October until Sunday 18th October 2026.
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The annual visit of WCCP to the Sidmouth Folk Festival started at All Saints Church Hall on Monday 4th August at 8:15 am when Chris, Tess, Ross and Liz opened up the hall and started setting up for the morning’s activities. The WCCP hires the hall for the mornings of Monday to Friday of Sidmouth week and we have a band session each day led by Paul Barrett, an improvers session run by Sally Barrett and we encourage non-members to drop in and try a concertina. By 9am, the rooms were set up, the kitchen open for refreshments and members were arriving to meet their friends and have a chat before the music started at 9:30. Music was issued and played until around 10:30, a break for refreshments and then back to “playing together” until 11:45. During the session, non-members who drop in are introduced by club members to the systems of concertina and some basic instruction given. From 11:45 everything was packed up before the next folk week event took over and then this pattern was repeated each day.
Band Rehearsal
As the week ran on, the performance of the band improved, the pieces played were expanded and the players present were supplemented by players of the J25 Concertina Band who were to perform in the Parish Church on Thursday afternoon. All of the pieces played are of published works with the arrangement for Treble 1, Treble 2, Baritone and Bass prepared by Paul. The pieces vary in difficulty to allow for a range of abilities and result in a superb sounding combined performance. On average there were around thirty players in the band with around forty different club members playing at least for one day.
Sally ran the improvers group in the smaller club room and had eleven different players at some time during the week with numbers ranging from three to eight. They played a number of different pieces including one played in eight different keys.
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| Sally's group | Liz and Ross on refreshments |
| On Thursday, during the refreshment interval, those present were given a real treat as Sandra Kerr (known for the Bagpuss concertina theme tune amongst many achievements) arrived to be honoured by the International Concertina Association with lifetime membership presented by Liz Ellison. It was a real treat when Sandra played and sang beautifully for those present. |  |
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During the week approximately 30 non-members dropped in to find out about the concertina and this was a significant increase on last year. Four of these joined the club and hired club instruments. |
| Claire introducing Hannah to the English concertina |
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On Friday, the two groups performed their work in a showcase for some family members and friends and this was followed by some closing words and thanks by Chris, the Chairman, thanking the volunteers who manned the desk or worked with the drop-ins, Ross and Liz on refreshments and to Paul and Sally for the music. In particular, it was the end of an era for the event as Paul and Sally were running the workshops for the last time having run them for the club for 25 years. Chris recalled meeting Sally and Paul for the first time at the club Quantock Lodge residential in 2018 when he and Tess were in Sally’s English Ensemble group and made great progress with Sally’s help and Paul was running Band for All in the option sessions. Chris presented them with a framed print of Sidmouth sea front to remind them of their happy times at Sidmouth with WCCP. For the future, the hall has been booked again for 2026 and the bones of a team for opening the hall, setting up and providing refreshments has been established, but as yet we do not know what concertina playing activities we will be running. Members at the event were asked to complete a survey and 28 were returned. A preliminary look shows that band playing needs to be part of the offer. If anyone can offer to run a concertina playing activity next year or knows of a band leader we could employ, please let us know. |
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The Music played by the band was: A Little Prayer;To Drive the Cold Winter Away; Gabriella’s Song;March from Scipio, Myfanwy; Se Fores Tentado; Slaidburn; The Parting Glass; When You Wish Upon a Star.
All arrangements were by Paul except A Little Prayer (Evelyn Glennie) and See Fores Tentado (Horatio Richmond-Palmer).
Recordings of our rehearsal of March From Scipio and of Slaidburn are provided.
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