An ailing 150-year-old organ is proving a key problem for a church director of music.

The instrument, at St Peter’s Collegiate Church, Wolverhampton, is the subject of a £300,000 restoration appeal and a fundraising concert featuring the music of Elgar is to be held at the church on September 25.

But director of music Peter Morris says he will have to negotiate his way around all the keys that no longer work.

The 1860 Father Willis organ has been in need of work but a 1970s restoration project made future repairs difficult. The organ will now be taken apart and rebuilt.

Mr Morris says people will not hear dodgy notes but missing keys makes playing more difficult. “I’m afraid not much of it is working at the moment,” he said.

The concert will feature Elgar’s Organ Sonata and part of the Enigma Variations on pipes built by Henry Willis & Sons of Liverpool, who built organs at the Royal Albert Hall and St Paul’s Cathedral. It will also include a rendition of Elgar’s early Wolves-inspired football chant ‘He Banged the Leather for Goal’.

The concert has been backed by Wolves vice president Rachael Heyhoe Flint, who got involved because of Elgar’s support of the club in the 1890s.

It is hoped organ restoration work will start in 2012. Concert tickets are £9/£7 . Call 01902 423388 or email admin@wulfruna.org.ukg.