A goodly group of WCCP Members met on a sunny Sunday to play together, including one person completely new to the instrument. And we did play: it was a day of playing without any talks on concertina-related matters.
The theme for the day was ‘the written word’ and individual members regaled us with tunes and songs related to poems and even financial documents! These included the Irish jig ‘The £42 cheque’, the tune ‘Lindisfarne’ (Gospels), ‘Who Wrote the Book of Love?’, ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’ (a James Herriott reference) and tunes from Jane Austin dramatisations, amongst many others. It is not at all obligatory to play or teach a tune but these play days exist to offer that chance in the most supportive environment possible.
Some of these were done as ad hoc groups, which is always a fun thing to do, with just an hour’s guidance from the originator.
We also played some pre-prepped tunes from our own library collections, including renaissance dances and three Australian ‘bush dance’ tunes that were collated by our own Iris Bishop. One of our attendees had already learnt them with her in 2002!
In our ‘flexible’ last hour we played some simple canons. Concertinas ‘en masse’ make a lovely, uniform, pure, rich sound when playing canons – probably as close to playing a dry-tuned church organ as you can get.
Our next meeting is on Sunday 18th May (note the date) at 11 a.m., at Ruishton Village Hall, TA3 5JD. All WCCP Members or concertina-curious non-members are very welcome.
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A goodly group of concertina players met at Ruishton for the first WCCP Play Day of 2025.
The weather warnings meant that we did not have quite enough to run the planned ceilidh, but we worked through the tunes for the dances then split into elective groups for the usual ‘shared tunes’ which members bring to teach and lead.
The theme for the day was ‘Birds’ and that provided a rich seam of shared tunes, including Sir Arthur Sullivan’s ‘Tit Willow’, ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’, ‘The Cuckoo’, ‘Chimney Bird’ and ‘Bye Bye Blackbird'.
The January meeting is a ‘bring and share’ lunch and that was exceptional with members providing fancy and home-grown fare for all.
The 'Showcase' included group performances of the shared tunes interleaved with a wide variety of solo spots including songs in the form of ‘Saucy Sailor,’ ‘Bonny Light Horseman’, ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’’, an instrumental duet of Paul Simon’s ‘Me and Julio’ and even a Christmas recitation.
With time to spare we had a session dedicated to reading chord symbols using 'Off to California' as the ad hoc example.
The next meeting is on Sunday 2nd March at 11 am in Ruishton, Junction 25 of the M5.
There were big changes for our Autumn Residential weekend in 2024 as we relocated to Wellington School, near Taunton. It was a considerable move with lots to organise but the weekend went well in its new venue.
Wellington School has a very different ambiance from the faded grandeur of Quantock Lodge but everyone embraced the change and a good time was had by all. The weekend hosted around eighty attendees, including new members who were made very welcome.
The weekend took place in the modern prep school, the teaching was in actual classrooms and there was a good-sized modern school hall for the Band to practice in during the day and plenty of room for everyone to congregate for the evening playing sessions. Fewer people stayed onsite this year but as the school is in a small town there was plenty of accommodation options within walking distance. Whether staying onsite or nearby, we were well looked after, with plenty of tea/coffee breaks and lots of good food.
Friday evening was taken up with introductions and a relaxed playing session. On Saturday and Sunday, the day started early with tuition and guidance delivered throughout the day in small groups for beginners and improvers on Anglo, Duet (Crane, McCann and Hayden) and English concertinas. The Band offered more complex music for those who wanted a challenge. Between teaching sessions there were opportunities to participate in Circle Dance and Playford tunes, Rounds, and Slow tunes.
On Saturday evening, after dinner, there was an enjoyable and relaxed social gathering in the hall. We played along with tunes, sang along with some fun songs and were treated to some excellent performances by our tutors.
Steve Dickinson of Wheatstone was available over the weekend to repair concertinas (he also gave an interesting talk about concertina maintenance). Barleycorn Concertinas were also there on the Saturday with a good selection of quality instruments – very tempting!
On Sunday afternoon, there was a showcase where each tutor group showed what they had learned over the weekend – it was impressive to see the progress people had made. There was a presentation and a big thank you to Claire Wren, who is taking some time out from the Autumn Weekend for a while. Claire has been an inspiring and committed member of our tutor team over the years and we will all miss her.After playing the last tune of our weekend together, ‘Farewell Old Friends', we were treated to a delicious cream tea before reluctantly heading home.
The WCCP Autumn Weekend is very friendly, welcoming and encouraging, participants will not only have made progress with their concertina playing but will also go home having made new friends.
There was a full house at this year's Spring Weekend for intermediate and advanced players of all concertina systems, held at Halsway Manor.
The workshop tutors were:
The course members worked diligently in their workshops throughout the weekend, and the groups provided impressive demonstrations of their progress in the Showcase event on the Sunday afternoon. The concertina band were joined by a scratch choir for a performance of "Pastime with Good Company".
Steve Dickinson (Wheatstone & Co) set up a workshop in the lIbrary for consultation and emergency repairs throughout the weekend, and the Barleycorn Concertinas pop-up shop attracted the usual keen interest.
The Saturday evening concert featured virtuoso performances by Brogan, Iris and SImon.
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