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It was the early seventies and each evening after the Golden Lion pub closed, a number of people would repair back to Nick Kinseys house in Foxton Road, Hoddesdon in order to take drugs and if possible drink more alcohol. Background music would be anything from the then ultra cool Genesis to the Classical. A favourite was the Walter (now Wendy) Carlos "Switched-On Bach" recordings. It was always very clear to me in the drunken haze which so quickly dropped over the Foxton Road proceedings that something along these lines was a possibility for the concertina.
Thus it was that I managed to sober up sufficiently at the beginning of 1975 to make a start and what eventually became The Concertina Record grew out of those sessions.
In early 1976 I signed a deal with Virgin Records. The initial deal was for one album - The Concertina Record, and a series of singles of which "Lazy Afternoon" and "The Dambusters" March were both released. At this time the first movement of the Brandenburg was virtually complete and a copy had been sent to Mike Oldfield. As a result I ended up spending a couple of days down at Mikes place in Gloucestershire and Kopya, the duet with him, was recorded during this stay.
Lazy Afternoon was a minor hit in France, and the usual nonsense then ensued with the result that by 1978 Virgin and I had parted ways. However, the rights to the tapes and work completed for the Concertina Record had reverted to myself and partner Nic Kinsey, of Livingston studios.
The album was finally completed by the end of 1979, and for a while it looked as if it might be released on the old Charisma label (a £16k advance was being discussed - a lot of money then!). Music Biz recession put paid to that idea, however. Finally the album was released with American acoustic guitar specialist label Kicking Mule (advance of $500!) and promptly disappeared without trace.
However, the tape lease deal with Kicking Mule stipulated that on deletion rights would be returned to the original owners. So by the early nineties the tapes were once again back on my shelf. The album was digitally remastered at Blue Strike Studios, Harrogate and during the early nineties it was available briefly on cassette as The Concertina Tapes.
The turn of the millenium and a combination of the internet and cheap small run CD manufacture meant that for the first time it was possible to make the album available in CD format. | 
