In January 2020 the club met to record a set of five tunes written by one of our members, John Willis, selected from hundreds John had written for concertina over many years. The project began in 2017 to celebrate the club's 25th anniversary - it was founded in November 1992. John was one of our founder members, and a prolific tunesmith, and it felt right that we celebrate our jubilee by selecting our favourite five tunes to share with the wider concertina community. It took more than 18 months to decide on our final selection, and we asked our Duet player Steve Griffiths to arrange them for us. This section contains links to the recordings made in January by the YCC band, and also of John playing his compositions for us. You will find here copies of John's scores for his tunes, and also Steve's arrangements, with their kind permission, for you to play along to the tracks. Sadly, John passed away on 2nd July 2020, and the club feels very honoured to have been able to capture his music and share it here. The International Concertina Club carried a feature article about our recording project in the July 2020 edition of its magazine Concertina World (Issue 482, 19.7.20), and we also reproduce here a copy of this article for you to enjoy.
Larpool Hall
A trip to Whitby inspired this tune. "I was walking back from the Middle Earth Pub one night when it came to me. Larpool Hall was on the top of the hill, and I could see it as I was walking back to my digs. I jutted the tune down as soon as I got in so that I wouldn't forget it."
| Click here to download the band score of Larpool Hall |
| Click here to download John's original score |
Bernie the Ragtime Ferret
Bernie was a ferret who lived in an old shed at the bottom of John's garden. "We found out he was quite sociable and he liked a cup a tea. He was a real comic. We would bring him into the house on an evening, and he licked the back of my neck whenever I started playing concertina!" The tune was originally written for banjo but works well for concertina and is a favourite of the YCC's - if only for its unusual title.
| Click here do download the band score of Bernie the Ragtime Ferret |
| Click here to download John's original score |
Old Jock's Dance
Old Jock was an engineer at the power station in Mexborough where John worked. He had been in the merchant navy and had plenty of stories to tell. When he died, John wrote this jaunty tune in memory of him, as he felt it captured his spirit just right.
| Click here to download the band score of Old Jock's Dance |
| Click here to download John's original score |
Shannon Waters
John said he enjoyed holidays in Ireland and this tune reminded him of some of the rivers he had visited there.
| Click here to download the band score of Shannon Waters |
| Click here to download John's original score |
The Little Mouse
The Little Mouse: this tune was written for a friend who had bought a piccolo banjo, and John said it just came to him while he was driving home.
| Click here to download the band score of The Little Mouse |
| Click here to download John's original score |
If you would like to download some or all of the tunes to play when you are offline, or even to make a CD of them, click on the links below. John's version of the tunes start with 'jw', the band's version start with 'ycc'. All tunes are in MP3 format.
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Feature about our Special Project as published in Concertina World, July 2020 (Edition 482)
(Note, the hyperlink to the ICA website as mentioned below is inactive as this is an ICA members-only area)
