A very local gig for me – it’s Wall Village Hall. Northumbrian night with fiddler Roddy Matthews, singer Roly Johnson, pianist Cathy Anderson (& friends) and myself on Northumbrian Pipes and Concertina. Pie and pea supper included and anyone who has tasted Billy Bells’ pies baked by Jackie will know they are in for a treat. Tickets are £5.00 per person or £2.00 if you are still at school available from Richard Dodds.
It’s great to have such a vibrant local community with lots of people organising events. If you haven’t got contact details for Richard – drop me a line for details
Our local newspaper is the Hexham Courant and it’s always a joy to read. The events page at the back really tells you what season it is. Right now it’s village shows – at least four every week. In a couple of months, it’ll be time for the leek club shows.. not much call for pipes at these – I’ll have to see if any of my veg are up to scratch.
June kicked off fo me with Ovingham Goose Fair – one of the wettest I can remember. Then it was the Humshaugh School Fair which was a great success in baking sunshine. Not quite a village show but this weekend the Farmer’s Market was in held in Hexham – they invited me to go and play and it was a lovely morning. Playlist included The Lea Rigges, Bobby Shaftoe and Cut and Dry Dolly – I’d love to know where the PRS license money went for those pieces (150yrs+ old). A heavy shower came in at midday so I ended with the Raindrop Waltz.
Next week is the Three Churches Fete in Wall (Sat 16th July), Steve Cram is opening the show at 2pm and I’ll be playing a couple of half hour sessions in the church. I even do requests, feel free to ask!
Afer a flurry in July, August is a bit quieter for me – with the exception of the truly tremendous Bellingham Show on Bank Holiday Saturday (27th August). I’ll be sitting the judges chair this year for the Northumbrian Pipes competitions – this has a lot of meaning to me as it’s the first competition I won almost 20 years ago.
Traditional music is a bit of an oddity in the music world in that the authors of tunes are rarely known and seldom recorded. Northumbrian music has long been a semi-literate tradition and composers can often be found for pieces from the 19th and 20th centuries. So while ‘Trad’ is still the standard attribution, I prefer ‘Unknown’. Someone came up with the musical idea and it’s always satisfying to find out who. In some cases however authorship can be assigned where in truth the story is perhaps more complicated.
I learnt the rant ‘Jock Wilson of Fenton’ on the concertina many many years ago from the likes of the Shepherds and Andy & Margaret Watchorn. It’s got a great rhythm and structure and I’ve always known it as a Bryce Anderson composition. Bryce was the accordion player with the Cheviot Ranters dance band and composed a great many tunes but it seems that this might not have been composed as much as adapted.
Thanks to the Village Music project, I discovered a much earlier version of the tune. For many years now the VMP has been cataloguing and transcribing all of the english fiddle manuscripts they can find. John Clare was a fiddler in Northamptonshire who wrote down many of his tunes in the first half of the 19th century. One of the many untitled tunes (#170) in the manuscript bears a striking similarity to the modern Jock Wilson. The tune was transcribed by Flos Headford who gave the tune the title ‘Jock Wilson’s Hornpipe’. Here’s the first line:
A bit of further research throws up a very similar tune in Kerr’s Second Collection of Merry Melodies – No. 346 Cooper’s Hornpipe: Different versions of Cooper’s can be found in a variety of places (it even has a touch of the Old Morpeth Rant in the B part).
Jock Wilson of Fenton starts in an almost identical fashion: The B-part diverges a bit more – starting on a minor chord but the structure is still reminiscent of Cooper’s.
Here’s the manuscript for all three tunes in full:
In times gone by tunes were frequently renamed with local references – Jimmy Allan (Reel of Tullochgorum), Lads of North Tyne (Boys of Bluehill). This may have been to make them memorable, because the original name was unsuitable or because the original name was not known to the player. Deliberate passing off is a possibility but it’s more likely that some musicians quite simply forgot whether or not they wrote a tune. I’ve played composers’ tunes back to them and had them ask where the tune came from. Tunes also evolve when a musician knowingly changes sections of the tune – either due to replacing ‘missing’ pieces or out of musical choice, it’ll get a different name to make the distinction from the original.
So my theory is that Bryce had a bit of a tune going round his head and by the time he filled the gaps in it got recorded as his. Alternatively; somewhere somebody asked what a tune was called and was given the name “Jock Wilson of Fenton” and then further down the line someone called it “one of Bryce’s tunes”. Either way history now has it as his and it’s been distinctive and popular enough to remain in the local repetoire for at least the last 30 years.
It’s a 56 key extended treble Lachenal English Concertina – made for the retailer Harry Boyd of Newcastle. These concertinas were made to a high specification and are very bright with good response – also easily identifiable through the ‘H Boyd’ in the fretwork design on the right hand side. It’s number 39851 which puts it somewhere around 1900.
Concert pitch, raised metal ends, bowing valves (air in & out), five fold bellows, light action (standard Lachenal hook), original(?) wood case.
I purchased this instrument from Barleycorn ~1994 and it was refurbished at or before this point. It’s also been rebushed and bellows rehinged since then and the long thumbstrap screws replaced with bolts. I’ve used it as my main instrument for over 12 years but I’ve recently got hold of an instrument I’ve been after for over ten years. This one turned up in Yorkshire but it turns out I used to live about 3 miles from it’s previous previous owner. It’s been bashed about a fair bit and needs a full overhaul – all which means I will have to sell my current back up instrument.
It sounds like this: [audio:http://milecastle27.co.uk/wordpress/audio/SevenStars001.mp3|titles=Seven Stars * Dunstanburgh Castle][audio:http://milecastle27.co.uk/wordpress/audio/SilverWings001.mp3|titles=Silver Wings Polka]
It’s not the instrument on my CD – but it sounds very similar! If you want to buy this concertina get along to Theo Gibb of The Box Place