Bobby Coghill
Bobby Coghill became involved with music at the age of ten when he started playing the pipes and joined the Wick Boys Brigade Pipe Band. Two years later he moved on to the Town Band – an obvious progression as his father, three uncles, a brother and a sister were all pipers – four of them Pipe Majors. Bobby has been Pipe Major of the Wick Royal British Legion (Scotland) Pipe Band for the past eight years and last June was honoured by the Legion when he was invited to be leading Pipe Major at Edinburgh Castle for their Massed Pipe Bands “Beating The Retreat”.
In 1949 Bobby was introduced to the dance band scene, playing a Ludwig piano keyed melodeon with British Chromatic action. He teamed up with accordionist Billy Munro, and on most Saturday evenings played in The Crown Bar. At this time he was under the legal age for drinking and an “arrangement” was made with the proprietor, so that when visitors to the bar bought a round for the musicians they would be charged for a whisky and orange, but Bobby would be served only the orange! At the end of the evening the proceeds from this “arrangement” would be shared between the two players. On quite a number of occasions a half bottle “carry out” would then be purchased and the two would proceed the three miles to a dance in Ackergill!
Eventually, both were invited to join another band, which had two accordion players but no drummer. The name, “The Wick Hawthorn Accordion Band” appealed to them, so the invitation was accepted and Bobby volunteered to play drums. At this time he lived over a mile from Wick and could often be seen walking into town to catch the bus to dances in the country laden down with bass and side drums, cymbals, skulls etc. This process was repeated in the wee sma’ hours of the next morning on the return journey. Addie Harper lived only four doors away and on many nights the two met up after returning from dances to exchange stories as to how their respective evenings had gone. Both had always had “first class nights” – whether they had or not!
Upon leaving school, Bobby began his apprenticeship as a stonemason and during one of these aforementioned nocturnal meetings Addie enquired if he would undertake a “homer” and build a fireplace for him. Needless to say, no money was going to change hands, but a deal was struck whereby Addie would play the fiddle to accompany Bobby as the building work progressed. The job took place one morning after both had returned from playing and was completed in around four hours. Upon completion, none was happier than Addie, not only to see his new fireplace in position, but to get rid of, “that damn fiddle”! This night’s work, however, marked another milestone in Bobby’s musical career as he decided to teach himself the fiddle.
National Service intervened in 1953, so Bobby parted company with The Wick Hawthorn (the name was more splendid than the music) to enlist in the Royal Air Force as a Radar Operator. He signed on for a three-year engagement and was delighted when given the opportunity to play in an RAF Pipe Band. Moving around the country enabled him to hear such diverse favourites as Johnny Dankworth, John Johnstone and his Band (resident every Saturday in The Pool Ballroom, Dunbar) and two interesting groups from the Borders – Wattie Frater and his Hawaiian Serenaders and The Margaret Mercer Scottish Dance Band. For a considerable period of his service Bobby was stationed at RAF Drone Hall between Cockburnspath and Eyemouth.
After demob he joined the highly acclaimed Wick Scottish Dance Band to play fiddle in place of Addie, who was experiencing a spell of bad health. Bobby is the first to admit that he gained a tremendous amount of experience in the eighteen months he spent with this great band, which comprised Eann Nicolson (accordion), Charlie Ewan (piano), Alistair Budge (bass) and John Gunn (drums).
While chatting one day to Addie in 1957, they agreed to form a trio and recruited Chris Duncan to play drums while Addie played guitar and Bobby the second-hand La Vera 3-row, which he had just purchased from J.T. Forbes, Dundee for £49 on a sale or return basis. This box must have been acceptable as he still has it in his possession – albeit for sentimental reasons, as his Shand Morino gets most of the work to do now.
As all three of the band members lived in Weir Crescent, Milton – Bobby at number 2, Chris at number 4 and Addie at number 6, the obvious choice of name was The Milton Trio. Personnel came and went for various reasons; the trio increased to a band, and in total ran for nineteen years. During this period Bobby had great assistance from three members of The Donaldson Family, Noel on accordion, Barbara on piano and Lois on double bass.
Many stories can be recalled of incidents in which the band got involved in this period, including one 3a.m. encounter in Berriedale with a group of Scottish Country Dancers from Bonar Bridge who insisted that the band play for them to dance “Wild Geese”. As the band members had just enjoyed a refreshment from the dancers’ Thermos flasks and sandwich boxes, how could they refuse?
Wintry conditions often caused the band problems on the notorious A9, and once Bobby had to reverse the front-wheel Jenson minibus up The Berriedale Braes as the vehicle could not make the ascent the conventional way!
On another occasion en route to an engagement in Golspie, the vehicle got stuck in a snowdrift on The Ord. In true “the show must go on” spirit, all set off on foot carrying their instruments – unfortunately for pianist Donnie Morrison, he lost his shoes in the deep snow and arrived at the dance in his stocking soles!
In 1961 Bobby entered and won the North of Scotland Accordion Championship at the Empire theatre, Inverness. In the wake of this win, bobby was in great demand as a guest musician and travelled all over the country including several visits to London, where he appeared at Society Balls and Dinners.
Bobby teamed up again with Addie Harper in 1976 to play lead accordion in The Wick Band. This band was extremely busy at this time making records on the EMI label and broadcasting on BBC Radio. After about eighteen months, Bobby handed over the lead accordion spot to Addie Jnr and formed his own band, which is still going strong to this day, although there have been many enforced changes in the intervening period. One particularly sad loss was the untimely death in 1986 of personal friend and piano player David Smith, very shortly after the band had played at the re-opening of the new-look Music Hall in Aberdeen.
The current lineup of The Bobby Coghill Scottish Dance Band has Bobby on lead accordion, Noel Donaldson (second box), Jacqui MacDonald (piano), Willie Lyall (drums) and vocalist Lesley McKay. Others who played in the band since its inception include pianists Ruby Malcolm, Barbara Donaldson, Heather Mill and Dennis Manson; drummers Johnny Swanson (now deceased), Donnie MacKay and Chris Duncan; bass players Lois Donaldson and Fergus Mill; fiddler Ian Deerness and second box player Charley Dey. Charley also encouraged Bobby to return to playing when he thought he had given up for good, and sang with the band – as did Jim Kemp, Margie and Ian Sinclair (now part of Mirk), George Lamont, Ina Miller (Bobby’s sister) and Elfrida Scott. Other players, too numerous to mention, have also guested with the band.
Over the years they have travelled extensively, including two trips each to Canada and The Faroe Islands. Incidentally, they were the first Scottish Dance Band to perform in The Faroes where, at that time, there were eighteen Scottish Country Dance teams. At present, the band is busy most weekends, with the occasional mid-week Accordion & Fiddle Club guest spot to keep them on their toes.
Mentioning Accordion & Fiddle Clubs, Bobby has been actively involved in the Wick Club since it started in 1976. He served as the first Chairman for eleven years and currently occupies the post of Vice-Chairman. The present Chairman is Addie Harper and Bobby’s sister, Ina, is the Club Secretary. Somehow Bobby also finds time to be an active player with The Wick Fiddlers.
In the mis-80s he made another change of instrument. He purchased a 5-row Hohner Vox and teamed up with soprano Elfrida Scott from Kintore to form a popular duo called “The Norlanders”. They recorded a couple of cassettes on the Ross label and for four years enjoyed great popularity appearing in a variety of venues all over Scotland. In addition to appearances at ceilidhs, pubs and clubs, they guested at many big festivals, also at the Gordon Highlanders Freedom Ceremony at Inverurie in June 1988.
Although he still plays fiddle, 3- and 5-row accordions, Bobby’s first love remains the bagpipes and through his playing of this instrument he was fortunate to visit other countries with the renowned band, “Colorado”. His son, Bryan, is a member of Colorado, playing accordion, banjo and steel guitar, having started his musical career with his dad. The tours with Colorado have included three visits each to Germany and Switzerland and also a television appearance from the Wembley Festival.
Another two well-known players who started with Bobby are accordion champion Elizabeth McKenzie (née Steven) and accordionist Kevin Gunn, who is now a piping instructor in Caithness Schools.
Composing tunes comes quite easily to Bobby – one bears the unusual title of I Got the Devil for Burning the Tatties – there must be a story there somewhere! Amongst others from his pen include The Queen Mother’s Welcome to Caithness General Hospital and two for musician friends David Smith of Cawdor and The Chris Duncan Two-Step. Although living in the far north of Scotland, distance is never a worry to Bobby and, if a “good tune” is guaranteed his motto is: “Have instruments – will travel!”
Since writing this article eleven years ago I have been casting my mind back to my involvements with Bobby in the intervening period. Although these have been many and varied, the ones I remember most vividly were the ceilidhs and Hogmanay Shows run to raise money for the Moray Firth Radio Charity Trust.
In the late 90s Bobby suggested we should have a weekend of entertainment in Mackay’s Hotel, Wick when he would arrange a ceilidh/dance on the Saturday evening followed on the Sunday afternoon with a live two-hour Scottish variety show on Moray Firth Radio. This popular event ran for four years in the month of February between 1999 and 2002, raising lots of money for local charities. On these shows Bobby gave many local entertainers the opportunity to perform live on the radio. Also his beloved Wick Royal British Legion Scotland Pipe Band was heard by a wide variety of listeners.
Bobby also arranged the programmes for a couple of pre-recorded Hogmanay Shows on MFR – one in The Drumossie Hotel and the other in a large marquee at Eden Court, both in Inverness. These shows were very much appreciated by large audiences, so pleased to hear good Scottish music and song and to say goodbye to one year and welcome another.
Just a few days before Bobby entered hospital I phoned him with my good wishes. He said, “While you are on the line keep the weekend 10th-12th June free as I have a job for you.” This job was to act as commentator at the Massed Pipe Band Festival in Wick on the Saturday afternoon and evening. I was honoured to carry out Bobby’s wishes and despite cold and, on the Saturday evening, extremely wet weather the Festival was a great success with nine bands performing, including one from Lucerne in Switzerland and another from Waldsee in Germany. Both of these bands had benefited greatly from Bobby’s tuition at piping workshops in their own countries.
Incidentally, they had first met Bobby several years ago when he was appearing with the country band Colorado on their European tours. At Bobby’s funeral in January both of these Pipe Bands sent pipers to pay their respects and play at the Church and graveside. The funeral was one of the biggest seen in Wick for many years as hundreds of people, myself included, gathered to say farewell to a perfect gentleman who will be sadly missed not only in Caithness but much farther afield.
In 1949 Bobby was introduced to the dance band scene, playing a Ludwig piano keyed melodeon with British Chromatic action. He teamed up with accordionist Billy Munro, and on most Saturday evenings played in The Crown Bar. At this time he was under the legal age for drinking and an “arrangement” was made with the proprietor, so that when visitors to the bar bought a round for the musicians they would be charged for a whisky and orange, but Bobby would be served only the orange! At the end of the evening the proceeds from this “arrangement” would be shared between the two players. On quite a number of occasions a half bottle “carry out” would then be purchased and the two would proceed the three miles to a dance in Ackergill!
Eventually, both were invited to join another band, which had two accordion players but no drummer. The name, “The Wick Hawthorn Accordion Band” appealed to them, so the invitation was accepted and Bobby volunteered to play drums. At this time he lived over a mile from Wick and could often be seen walking into town to catch the bus to dances in the country laden down with bass and side drums, cymbals, skulls etc. This process was repeated in the wee sma’ hours of the next morning on the return journey. Addie Harper lived only four doors away and on many nights the two met up after returning from dances to exchange stories as to how their respective evenings had gone. Both had always had “first class nights” – whether they had or not!
Upon leaving school, Bobby began his apprenticeship as a stonemason and during one of these aforementioned nocturnal meetings Addie enquired if he would undertake a “homer” and build a fireplace for him. Needless to say, no money was going to change hands, but a deal was struck whereby Addie would play the fiddle to accompany Bobby as the building work progressed. The job took place one morning after both had returned from playing and was completed in around four hours. Upon completion, none was happier than Addie, not only to see his new fireplace in position, but to get rid of, “that damn fiddle”! This night’s work, however, marked another milestone in Bobby’s musical career as he decided to teach himself the fiddle.
National Service intervened in 1953, so Bobby parted company with The Wick Hawthorn (the name was more splendid than the music) to enlist in the Royal Air Force as a Radar Operator. He signed on for a three-year engagement and was delighted when given the opportunity to play in an RAF Pipe Band. Moving around the country enabled him to hear such diverse favourites as Johnny Dankworth, John Johnstone and his Band (resident every Saturday in The Pool Ballroom, Dunbar) and two interesting groups from the Borders – Wattie Frater and his Hawaiian Serenaders and The Margaret Mercer Scottish Dance Band. For a considerable period of his service Bobby was stationed at RAF Drone Hall between Cockburnspath and Eyemouth.
After demob he joined the highly acclaimed Wick Scottish Dance Band to play fiddle in place of Addie, who was experiencing a spell of bad health. Bobby is the first to admit that he gained a tremendous amount of experience in the eighteen months he spent with this great band, which comprised Eann Nicolson (accordion), Charlie Ewan (piano), Alistair Budge (bass) and John Gunn (drums).
While chatting one day to Addie in 1957, they agreed to form a trio and recruited Chris Duncan to play drums while Addie played guitar and Bobby the second-hand La Vera 3-row, which he had just purchased from J.T. Forbes, Dundee for £49 on a sale or return basis. This box must have been acceptable as he still has it in his possession – albeit for sentimental reasons, as his Shand Morino gets most of the work to do now.
As all three of the band members lived in Weir Crescent, Milton – Bobby at number 2, Chris at number 4 and Addie at number 6, the obvious choice of name was The Milton Trio. Personnel came and went for various reasons; the trio increased to a band, and in total ran for nineteen years. During this period Bobby had great assistance from three members of The Donaldson Family, Noel on accordion, Barbara on piano and Lois on double bass.
Many stories can be recalled of incidents in which the band got involved in this period, including one 3a.m. encounter in Berriedale with a group of Scottish Country Dancers from Bonar Bridge who insisted that the band play for them to dance “Wild Geese”. As the band members had just enjoyed a refreshment from the dancers’ Thermos flasks and sandwich boxes, how could they refuse?
Wintry conditions often caused the band problems on the notorious A9, and once Bobby had to reverse the front-wheel Jenson minibus up The Berriedale Braes as the vehicle could not make the ascent the conventional way!
On another occasion en route to an engagement in Golspie, the vehicle got stuck in a snowdrift on The Ord. In true “the show must go on” spirit, all set off on foot carrying their instruments – unfortunately for pianist Donnie Morrison, he lost his shoes in the deep snow and arrived at the dance in his stocking soles!
In 1961 Bobby entered and won the North of Scotland Accordion Championship at the Empire theatre, Inverness. In the wake of this win, bobby was in great demand as a guest musician and travelled all over the country including several visits to London, where he appeared at Society Balls and Dinners.
Bobby teamed up again with Addie Harper in 1976 to play lead accordion in The Wick Band. This band was extremely busy at this time making records on the EMI label and broadcasting on BBC Radio. After about eighteen months, Bobby handed over the lead accordion spot to Addie Jnr and formed his own band, which is still going strong to this day, although there have been many enforced changes in the intervening period. One particularly sad loss was the untimely death in 1986 of personal friend and piano player David Smith, very shortly after the band had played at the re-opening of the new-look Music Hall in Aberdeen.
The current lineup of The Bobby Coghill Scottish Dance Band has Bobby on lead accordion, Noel Donaldson (second box), Jacqui MacDonald (piano), Willie Lyall (drums) and vocalist Lesley McKay. Others who played in the band since its inception include pianists Ruby Malcolm, Barbara Donaldson, Heather Mill and Dennis Manson; drummers Johnny Swanson (now deceased), Donnie MacKay and Chris Duncan; bass players Lois Donaldson and Fergus Mill; fiddler Ian Deerness and second box player Charley Dey. Charley also encouraged Bobby to return to playing when he thought he had given up for good, and sang with the band – as did Jim Kemp, Margie and Ian Sinclair (now part of Mirk), George Lamont, Ina Miller (Bobby’s sister) and Elfrida Scott. Other players, too numerous to mention, have also guested with the band.
Over the years they have travelled extensively, including two trips each to Canada and The Faroe Islands. Incidentally, they were the first Scottish Dance Band to perform in The Faroes where, at that time, there were eighteen Scottish Country Dance teams. At present, the band is busy most weekends, with the occasional mid-week Accordion & Fiddle Club guest spot to keep them on their toes.
Mentioning Accordion & Fiddle Clubs, Bobby has been actively involved in the Wick Club since it started in 1976. He served as the first Chairman for eleven years and currently occupies the post of Vice-Chairman. The present Chairman is Addie Harper and Bobby’s sister, Ina, is the Club Secretary. Somehow Bobby also finds time to be an active player with The Wick Fiddlers.
In the mis-80s he made another change of instrument. He purchased a 5-row Hohner Vox and teamed up with soprano Elfrida Scott from Kintore to form a popular duo called “The Norlanders”. They recorded a couple of cassettes on the Ross label and for four years enjoyed great popularity appearing in a variety of venues all over Scotland. In addition to appearances at ceilidhs, pubs and clubs, they guested at many big festivals, also at the Gordon Highlanders Freedom Ceremony at Inverurie in June 1988.
Although he still plays fiddle, 3- and 5-row accordions, Bobby’s first love remains the bagpipes and through his playing of this instrument he was fortunate to visit other countries with the renowned band, “Colorado”. His son, Bryan, is a member of Colorado, playing accordion, banjo and steel guitar, having started his musical career with his dad. The tours with Colorado have included three visits each to Germany and Switzerland and also a television appearance from the Wembley Festival.
Another two well-known players who started with Bobby are accordion champion Elizabeth McKenzie (née Steven) and accordionist Kevin Gunn, who is now a piping instructor in Caithness Schools.
Composing tunes comes quite easily to Bobby – one bears the unusual title of I Got the Devil for Burning the Tatties – there must be a story there somewhere! Amongst others from his pen include The Queen Mother’s Welcome to Caithness General Hospital and two for musician friends David Smith of Cawdor and The Chris Duncan Two-Step. Although living in the far north of Scotland, distance is never a worry to Bobby and, if a “good tune” is guaranteed his motto is: “Have instruments – will travel!”
Since writing this article eleven years ago I have been casting my mind back to my involvements with Bobby in the intervening period. Although these have been many and varied, the ones I remember most vividly were the ceilidhs and Hogmanay Shows run to raise money for the Moray Firth Radio Charity Trust.
In the late 90s Bobby suggested we should have a weekend of entertainment in Mackay’s Hotel, Wick when he would arrange a ceilidh/dance on the Saturday evening followed on the Sunday afternoon with a live two-hour Scottish variety show on Moray Firth Radio. This popular event ran for four years in the month of February between 1999 and 2002, raising lots of money for local charities. On these shows Bobby gave many local entertainers the opportunity to perform live on the radio. Also his beloved Wick Royal British Legion Scotland Pipe Band was heard by a wide variety of listeners.
Bobby also arranged the programmes for a couple of pre-recorded Hogmanay Shows on MFR – one in The Drumossie Hotel and the other in a large marquee at Eden Court, both in Inverness. These shows were very much appreciated by large audiences, so pleased to hear good Scottish music and song and to say goodbye to one year and welcome another.
Just a few days before Bobby entered hospital I phoned him with my good wishes. He said, “While you are on the line keep the weekend 10th-12th June free as I have a job for you.” This job was to act as commentator at the Massed Pipe Band Festival in Wick on the Saturday afternoon and evening. I was honoured to carry out Bobby’s wishes and despite cold and, on the Saturday evening, extremely wet weather the Festival was a great success with nine bands performing, including one from Lucerne in Switzerland and another from Waldsee in Germany. Both of these bands had benefited greatly from Bobby’s tuition at piping workshops in their own countries.
Incidentally, they had first met Bobby several years ago when he was appearing with the country band Colorado on their European tours. At Bobby’s funeral in January both of these Pipe Bands sent pipers to pay their respects and play at the Church and graveside. The funeral was one of the biggest seen in Wick for many years as hundreds of people, myself included, gathered to say farewell to a perfect gentleman who will be sadly missed not only in Caithness but much farther afield.