Concertina player in Aberdeenshire?

[Dick Glasgow]

I recently acquired a lovely 62 key Wheatstone Aeola Baritone Treble English Concertina, which I'm told used to belong to a musician in Aberdeenshire. He played this & a Treble, but mostly the Treble.

Unfortunately his son doesn't play so he sold them & I was lucky enough to get the big one.

Here it is:



Anyway, I was wondering if anyone here might know who this player was, as I'd be keen to learn a little more about him & his music, if possible.

Cheers,
Dick

[Dick Glasgow]

Stuart Eydmann has kindly sent me this link to a photo of the famous Aberdeen Concertina player:

George Dod Morris

Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to what sort of Concertina he's playing in that tiny photo .... i.e. English or Duet?

Cheers,
Dick

[Dick Glasgow]

According to this CD review, George Morris played an English Concertina:

".. there are also a couple of pleasant surprises, in the form of a pair of English concertina tracks by George Smith Morris (known as 'The Buchan Cheil') .."

Sook and Blaw

Certainly tracks 4 & 11 read as follows:

4 : George Smith Morris (English concertina), William S Morris (piano); mid August 1931; Beltona 1753
11 : George Smith Morris (English concertina), William S Morris (piano); mid August 1931; Beltona 1753

How about this interesting quote too:

"One glaring typo leapt out: George Morris apparently played 'an eight sided Wheatsheaf concertina' (not mentioned but nevertheless actually depicted on the cover photo). One wonders what Messers Wheatstone and Co. would have made of that."

Ahhh you can't beat those great old WHEATSHEAF Concertinas! :-)

In any case, here's a clip of George Morris actually playing his Concertina:

Track 12: The Buchan Scottische

Hopefully his playing will also help to verify that he is playing an English Concertina.

Of course, that's not to say that I have his old Concertina.
The fact is, I'd be surprised if anyone selling George Morris' old Concertina on eBay, wouldn't have mentioned his name to try & bump up the value a little.

Cheers,
Dick

[Dick Glasgow]

RE: George Morris.

I was just speaking to a good friend & fellow Oldmeldrum musician, who told me that George had a son, Bill, but he died 5 or 6 years ago.

This friend was also involved in sorting out all the items of his estate, but she said the one thing they didn't find were his Concertinas.

So it looks unlikely that this Concertina I have now, belonged to George Morris.

Cheers,
Dick

[Dick Glasgow]

David Corner has just kindly chipped into this debate, by suggesting that it may have belonged to a Concertina player from the Tomintoul area, who used to regularly attend the Keith Festival, back in the 70s & 80s.

Does anyone here remember who that was?

David also gave me this interesting link to more info. on George Morris.

A salute to Doric heroes

Sounds like he was a real character alright & I'll certainly search out the plaque, the next time I'm going through Oldmeldrum.

Cheers,
Dick

[Dick Glasgow]

I had another lead, one Peter Campbell of Tomintoul, but I learned tonight from Stuart Eydmann that Peter only played 48 & 56 keyed instruments.

So the search goes on .....

In the meantime, you can learn a little more about Peter Campbell, by reading Stuart Eydmann's excellent pdf:

Working Class Adoption of the English Concertina in Scotland 1900-1945

It is absolutely fascinating what Stuart learned from the older players. Here are some quotes relating just to Peter Campbell, but you really must read the whole piece to begin to understand its value & worth.

"As a child, Peter Campbell of Tomintoul (a rural player) would listen to his father
play: “I’d watch him every night. It was a ritual. He used to sit and play it, you
know, and if he was playing that instrument I was there”.735 He claims that at the age of eight or nine he “just literally lifted it up and played it”, taking the instrument out while his father, who would have disapproved of him touching it, was not around."

"Peter Campbell of Tomintoul said of his father:

He had so much pride in this instrument. And don’t forget he played
the trombone and the piano accordion when it came into vogue...
several instruments, like myself, but the concertina was his prize, his
pride and joy.

Like many other working-class musicians in the early twentieth century, Peter
obtained his formal musical training through membership of the local silver band and piping during military service."

"Peter Campbell described the concertina of Lachenal as “just a
copy” of Wheatstone’s instruments with “not quite the same tone”"

"Most of the players I encountered agreed that Scottish music had an important place in their repertories. With the exception of Peter Campbell of Tomintoul in the
Grampian mountains, who was mostly concerned with fiddle and bagpipe music,
there was no consensus as to the limits of what could be described as “Scottish” and no one appeared to be concerned with issues of “tradition” or “authenticity”."

"Again, the Highland musician Peter Campbell was an
exception, his relatively unadorned style reflecting the monodic tradition of Scottish music. His approach to playing “The Dark Island”797 (Example 10.6) exploits a different aesthetic which prefers the stark simplicity of the melody, part of the more conservative, rural tradition."

Peter Campbell’s family had a concertina-based dance band which played around the Tomintoul area:

P.C.: Yes. There was “Campbell’s Dancing Band” which consisted of my grandfather, my father and my uncle.
They were, eh, he had two brothers that also played it.
My father’s family were five sons and five daughters and three out of the five played the concertina, and at one time they had this concertina dance band.

Cooke.: Campbell’s?
P.C.: Aye, father and two sons.
Cooke. : All playing concertina?
P.C.: Yes. No drums.
Cooke.: No fiddle?
P.C.: All concertina.

Cheers,
Dick

[Dick Glasgow]

Well, I managed to track down the dealer who sold it to the restorer I bought it from.

It turns out that he is actually based in Oldmeldrum!

Unfortunately, he was unable to furnish me with the name of the person he bought it from, due to client confidentiality, but he was happy to tell me that he knew for a fact that it hadn't been played for 40 to 50 years, because the person he got it from, had inherited it & wasn't actually a player himself.

Interesting eh, ..... especially when you consider that George Morris, of Oldmeldrum, died in 1958 & his son Bill didn't play.

Of course, that may just be putting 2 & 2 together & getting 37!

Anyway, this ties in with the information I got from David Robertson, after he sold me this beautiful instrument:

"It came from an old chap in Scotland ( Oldmeldrum ) who didn't play himself. It had been his father's instrument, and he was selling a nice raised metal-ended treble at the same time. Maybe the father found the baritone/treble a bit heavy for everyday use, so used the treble regularly, but only played the big beast on high days and holidays? Frankly, your guess is as good as mine, but you don't often find an 88-year-old instrument whose reeds have remained untouched since the day it was made!"

Wikipedia has this to say about him:

"George Smith Morris, The Buchan Chiel, was born in Aberdeen in 1876 and died in 1958. He is best known as a singer and writer of Doric comic songs. His father was a farrier with his own business and in due time George too became a blacksmith. In 1912 he married Agnes Kemp, the sister of Willie Kemp, the King of the Cornkisters, and moved to Oldmeldrum in 1919 where the Kemp family ran a hotel business.

During his time in Oldmeldrum he started performing and writing. By 1930 he came to the attention of the Beltona record label and during the following decade he recorded more than 40 pieces, either bothy ballads or cornkisters, for them, some of which he composed himself or in collaboration with Willie Kemp.

His best-known composition, still popular in Northeast Scotland today, was A Pair o Nicky-tams but he wrote many others, the most notable of which were The Buchan Bobby, Aikey Brae and A New Lum Hat."

Cheers,
Dick

[Dick Glasgow]

I've just learned that there were only 8 metal ended #15s like this one, ever made by Wheatstone.

So where are the other 7 now?



Cheers,
Dick

[Dick Glasgow]

Here's a short video of the Baritone / Treble in action, just so's you know what all the fuss is about!



... & the same tune, with Harp accompaniment:



Cheers,
Dick