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Kettle Bridge Concertinas

Concertina group based in Maidstone, Kent, UK

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WCCP Kilve Residential Weekends - March and October 2011

Original photo: Sally George
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Kettle Bridge Concertinas made two trips to Kilve in 2011 to attend the West Country Concertina Players (WCCP) Concertina weekends. Sandy, Pat, MF-D, Tricia, Carol, Sally, Liz and John attended the March weekend. However a much larger group attended the second weekend.

In October, 14 members of Kettle Bridge Concertinas made the journey to the West Country: The majority of the band were there including Sandy, Pat, Tricia, Liz, Sally, Fiona, Sue, Pom, Trina, Carol, MF-D and John. It was great that also 2 members from the beginners’ group also attended: for Lee and Barbara this was their first visit. All were wearing the now familiar bright turquoise polo shirts!

The October 2011 weekend was the best any of Kettle Bridge Concertinas had attended for several reasons. It was obviously great to have so many from our group attending as well as sharing in the great friendship and camaraderie of other like minded people. Kilve had a new chef and the food during this weekend was first class. But additionally the weekend was made even more fun by the whole of the weekend of concertina playing.

Most attended the band workshop led by Claire Wren which was absolutely terrific thanks to Claire’s expert tuition. Fiona abandoned her treble concertina to play a borrowed bass all weekend alongside Pat and absolutely loved it. Sandy and John played baritone with the rest of the band on treble. We worked on two pieces of music Off to Ruishton, composed and arranged by Claire and also a piece called Hallelujah which Claire had arranged for concertina band and which could only be played in this workshop situation led by her. Both pieces were great and we loved playing them. Lee and MF-D attended workshops led by Sally Barrett who, as usual, ran sessions which helped all to extend their skills. Barbara, who had only picked up a concertina for the first time a few weeks before, attended the beginners’ sessions. We all felt that our playing improved immensely.

Another highlight, albeit very nerve racking, was Kettle Bridge Concertinas’ performance during the tutors’ concert on the Saturday evening. Claire Wren asked us to perform as part of her section on Band Workshops. Her own band, Junction 25, was performing and inspired us with their music especially ‘Persian Market’ and Claire’s own composition of ‘Concertina Breakdown’. Claire also invited us because she wanted to show that if people got together to practice and play regularly, they could improve and produce something worth listening to. She also wanted to give us experience of playing before an audience in preparation for our participation in Maidstone Music Festival the following month. As we only knew about this on the Friday there was little time to practice. We chose to play Paul Barrett’s arrangement of Liberty Bell. Sally Barrett (one of our honorary members) agreed to play with us on baritone and our new members agreed to join in adding a percussion section on triangle and very large tin lid. MF-D conducted using a blackened and well used large wooden spoon. We had just one rehearsal in one of our dorms.

An article written in ICA’s Concertina World about SqueezEast in June 2011, had said (in totally friendly fun) that “Kettle Bridge witches were there in force along with warlock mascot John Wild”. We took this in good spirits but decided to use the performance at Kilve to get our own back. So, once on stage, and following the signal from our conductor, we donned witches hats and some hooked noses before all turning to look at the author of the article. This caused a great laugh and also helped a bit to settle the nerves before our performance, which went OK and was met with a big cheer from a supportive audience.

At the end of the Sunday afternoon showcase, Kettle Bridge Concertinas had another big occasion to look forward to, a session with Claire Wren. We would be playing two of Claire’s compositions at Maidstone Music Festival and she had agreed to give us what we felt was a master class. Claire has a rare talent for getting the best music out of people. Somehow playing under her direction touched one’s heart. We all felt that this session was a real privilege. At the end of the session, Claire was awarded with the first Kettle Bridge Concertina badge.

As a thank you, Claire and Esther (organiser of the weekend) were also taken to dinner, as our guests in the pub, the Rolle Arms. It was great to have them with us. During this session, Pat officially absolved the author of the article which referred to the Kettle Bridge witches and warlock. He was duly repentant and so was sprayed with water and totally forgiven!

This evening was a fabulous end to a really fabulous weekend.


Below is a link to another website which has a recording of KBC at Kilve in Oct 2011 playing Liberty Bell as well as the band (which had several of our crowd in) playing Off to Ruishton with Claire conducting:

Kilve recording