Derek Hamilton
Born in Duns Berwickshire on May 28th 1945 Derek's folks moved to Chirnside, Berwickshire when he was two. A third move in October 1949 saw Derek domiciled in Galston, Ayrshire where he has been ever since. His father had a grocer's shop and then a pub.
Derek got interested in music through the medium of radio. At the age of five he was an avid listener to Scottish Dance Music on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. He recalls hearing two vastly different bands as his early favourites – the legendary Jimmy Shand and Bobby MacLeod.
He was so keen on this type of music that on visits back to his parent’s home town of Hawick he spotted an accordion in the window of Spence's Music Shop and pestered his father to buy it. It was an 8 Bass Hohner Mignon which still proudly sits on the piano in his lounge to this day 63 years later!
His Dad took him, with box, to the local music teacher in Galston who promptly told him to come back when the box grew up a bit!
Formal training was not to be, so Derek set about learning tunes for himself. When he was 8 he got a Hohner Verdi 1 48 Bass and found another teacher in Galston but he would play the tunes Derek had to learn and Derek, having heard them, could play them without reading the music. So that only lasted a short time. So again no formal training.
Derek played in his first band at the age of 10 with Alan Logan (the son of the first teacher who rejected the wee box). Infrequent gigs came between practices. Derek remembers his first paid gig – a Women's Guild Social in the Cooperative Hall where he got 7/6d (that's 37.5 pence in today's terms) and a steak pie tea!!
Having played with the Alan Logan Band on and off for quite a few years, he joined up with Richie Holland who was to become a lifelong friend. At 16 he played in his first real Scottish Country Dance Band with Richie, Ed McLuckie on Drums (Ed still plays with the bands of David Ross and Karin McCulloch), Johnny Paton on Piano and Eddie MacKinnon on Double Bass.
At school Derek had a couple of musical mates – Jimmy Christie and Matt Richmond and after leaving school they all joined up again with Alan Logan (who had bought a bass guitar) and formed various groups with various names such as The Corvettes, The Beetles (yes – this was 1960 and the Fab Four had not been heard of). Derek played guitar as it was no longer 'hip' to play the box!
In 1962 Derek met Jean Thorburn. They got engaged and married in March 1965. However, this was not the only major change to happen in Derek's life. The day before the wedding Derek & Jean had a major car accident on their way to Kilmarnock to buy a new Accordion. The new accordion was put on the back burner.
On return from their honeymoon Derek, on a visit to McCormick's Music shop in Glasgow, decided not to buy a new accordion but procured a Hohner Symphonic 30 organ instead.
With Jimmy Christie and Matt Richmond he formed a 'Club' trio – the Likely Lads! The boys became one of the most successful bands on the Ayrshire (and beyond) working men's club scene which was huge in the 60s and early 70s. They worked with cabaret stars – Sydney Devine, Hector Nicol and the like, gaining great experience.
Back in time, as a very young teenager, Derek found an interest in recording. He had acquired a reel to reel tape machine and he and a pal, Walter Davidson who was keen on broadcasting, spent their summer holidays from school recording programmes and broadcasting them (highly illegal of course but when you're 13 that really doesn't come into the equation!) to the good people of Galston blotting out the BBC Light Programme in the process!!
In 1972 for work commitment reasons (the day job always intervenes with part time musicians) the Likely Lads disbanded. Derek and Richie Holland joined forces again and this brought about a renewed interest in Scottish Music for Derek. Combining his interest in recording and playing Derek and Richie produced a 'live' album – 'A Scottish Dance Party' which was a multi-tracked affair with Richie on accordion and double bass and Derek playing accordion, piano and drums. That was actually the catalyst for a long happy friendship with George Fleming who had a very popular Scottish Dance Band. Derek played drums with George until his death in 1988.
Also in 1972 Derek got a call from a guitarist, Sam Nimmo, who had a trio of organ, guitar and drums playing resident in the Gowanbank Hotel in Darvel. The organist was emigrating to Canada and Sam planned to follow shortly after. Derek was asked if he could fill in until Sam finished the contract with the hotel. That 'fill in' lasted 7 years till in 1979 Sam finally decided to go an make a new life in Canada, where he still is today.
During his time at Gowanbank, the band, Just Three, recorded two albums both produced by Derek.
The second one 'Gowanbank Cocktail' featured not only the trio but a Scottish Dance Band comprising Richie Holland (you've heard that name before) on Accordion, Archie Brown on Fiddle, Sam Lawson on Drums and Derek on piano/bass.
Derek, while playing very little Scottish music during the late 60s through to the late 70s always had an interest and it was, and still is, his first love in music.
The Galston Accordion Club which started in 1969 (Davie Ross says 1970 but he's wrong!!!) re kindled a real interest in the music and Richie and Derek played duets round the clubs as they sprang up all over the place.
In 1979, while playing drums with the George Fleming Band, George mentioned to Derek that he was going to pull down the private recording studio he had built due to the sudden death of the chap who did George's private recordings. Derek talked him out of it, saying he would find time to do these recordings for him. Bands like John Renton, Derek Lawrence, Ronnie Easton, Kenny Thomson used to use the studio for practice sessions and they would be recorded purely for George's own private collection and of course his pleasure as he was a real enthusiast for Scottish Dance Music.
After about a year of keeping the studio alive Derek suggested to George that they should set up a proper business. Ayrespin Music was born.
Derek, who by this time had been Sales Manager at Glenfield and Kennedy Engineering works in Kilmarnock for a few years left the company, where he'd worked for 20 years.
He spent the next year (and nearly all his savings!) building up Ayrespin Music.
Kenny Thomson & the Wardaw Band were first to record an album there, followed by debut albums for Colin Dewar, The Etives (later to become Cappercaille), Ian Muir, The Oakbank Sound, Bobby Torrance, Sandy Nixon, Colin Ross, Danny Black. Robin & Deryn Waitt (The Bon Accords), Willie MacFarlane & Colin Brown, Fintry Style, Ron Harris, Pipe Major Ian Clowe, John Douglas and many, many more all recorded albums in the Studio at Crosshouse under the engineering and production skills of Derek.
After George Fleming sadly passed away in 1988 Derek continued with the studio on a hobby basis having gone back to work as Sales Manager for another engineering company in the early 80s and in 1992 set up Bryansroom as a record label. To date Bryansroom has some 75 CDs in it's catalogue.
Names like Andy Kane, Kenny Thomson, Roy Hendrie, Alex Fitzsimmons, Bill Stewart, John Stuart, Ewan Galloway, The Clappy Doo Ceilidh Band, David Sturgeon & the Waverley Band, James Paterson and the Caberston Ceilidh Band, Wullie Scott, Colin Donaldson, Archie McPhee and the Bogroy Band, Sandy Nixon and most recently Janet Graham all appear on the label. Derek, too, has albums of his own and albums produced for other labels such as Ross Records, Highlander Music and Club records. Notable big names produced by Derek are Joe Gordon & Sally Logan and their Scottish Champion son Scott as well as Richard Smith from Coalburn.
Two names omitted from the list are Charlie Kirkpatrick and Ian Muir.
Derek first met Charlie in 1978 when the Cullivoe Band visited Galston Accordion Club and Charlie came to hear them. Derek played piano for Charlie's spot at the club and that started a long and enduring friendship, hundreds of gigs and over 30 broadcasts. Derek reckons Charlie has got the formula just right for a band leader. He combines great communication and rapport with the audience with equally great musicianship. In Derek's eyes he is an undisputed master of the 3 row Shand Morino.
Likewise Derek has great praise and humble admiration for the talents of Ian Muir whom he met first when Ian was just 16. After producing Ian's first album they became great friends and along with Colin Bell (the best all round pianist Derek has ever known) played many gigs in many places.
The years spent playing with Ian were actually a great time of learning for Derek, having never had any formal training. Some of the gigs were quite demanding for a non reader but Ian was always encouraging. He also played 2nd box in Ian's broadcasts.
Derek recognises that these two musicians were probably the biggest influence on his musical career since the early 80s.
In 1983 & 1984 Derek jumped at the chance, presented to him by Deryn Waitt, to tour playing keyboards for Dermot O'Brien, a wonderful experience he'll never forget.
Derek was also in Abu Dhabi in 1984 and 1986 with Charlie Kilpatrick and John McCroskie.
In recent years Derek has been to China with the John Stuart Band several times to play for ex-pats at the Beijing and Shanghai Annual Scottish Ball and on one occasion there even rubbed shoulders (literally) with the First Minister – Alex Salmond!
Having retired from the day job as an engineer and Sales Manager in May 2010, Derek still enjoys his playing with the likes of Charlie Kirkpatrick and Gordon Young and relishes getting away for the weekends of the Mull Festival, Skye Festival and Dumfries Festival when he meets up with old pals Richard Hughes and Jimmy MacDonald for a tune and a vodka or three (doubles of course! If Jimmy's buying – triples!!).
He also spends a lot of time recording in Bryansroom and out in the field. His latest recording is of Ian Muir, Gordon Simpson and Neil MacMillan playing a selection of new country dances for the Glasgow Branch of the RSCDS. It's their 90th Anniversary in 2013.
He is also pleased to be part of the Mauchline Accordion Club as resident pianist. Mauchline celebrate s it's 30th year in October 2013.
Of course, who can forget that Derek was in from day one of the Box & Fiddle. Under the editorship of Ian Smith he wrote the Record Review, The Reel Radio and many fine articles on the life and times of the musicians and our Scottish scene. He was also an enthusiastic committee member of Galston Accordion Club and on the committee and then Secretary of The Ayrshire Scottish Music Association (ASMA).
When you analyse it, there's not much Derek hasn't done in the music scene. He says humbly, 'I shall be eternally grateful to all the musicians and friends who have placed so much faith in my meagre abilities and given me opportunities I would never have had if I hadn't convinced my Dad to buy me that wee box in 1950 and then spent a lifetime kidding the world that I was a musician! Thank you to every one of you – you know who you are!'
Derek is one of the National Association of Accordion and Fiddle Clubs recipients of the annual honour award. It took him a wee while to accept as he genuinely believes that there are plenty folk much more deserving than himself and as he says 'Little did I know or expect when I proposed to the Association in 1971 that we have an annual celebration to honour our treasured musicians while they were still alive, that I would one day receive the award. I am deeply honoured.'
B&F June 2013
Year 36 No 10
Derek got interested in music through the medium of radio. At the age of five he was an avid listener to Scottish Dance Music on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. He recalls hearing two vastly different bands as his early favourites – the legendary Jimmy Shand and Bobby MacLeod.
He was so keen on this type of music that on visits back to his parent’s home town of Hawick he spotted an accordion in the window of Spence's Music Shop and pestered his father to buy it. It was an 8 Bass Hohner Mignon which still proudly sits on the piano in his lounge to this day 63 years later!
His Dad took him, with box, to the local music teacher in Galston who promptly told him to come back when the box grew up a bit!
Formal training was not to be, so Derek set about learning tunes for himself. When he was 8 he got a Hohner Verdi 1 48 Bass and found another teacher in Galston but he would play the tunes Derek had to learn and Derek, having heard them, could play them without reading the music. So that only lasted a short time. So again no formal training.
Derek played in his first band at the age of 10 with Alan Logan (the son of the first teacher who rejected the wee box). Infrequent gigs came between practices. Derek remembers his first paid gig – a Women's Guild Social in the Cooperative Hall where he got 7/6d (that's 37.5 pence in today's terms) and a steak pie tea!!
Having played with the Alan Logan Band on and off for quite a few years, he joined up with Richie Holland who was to become a lifelong friend. At 16 he played in his first real Scottish Country Dance Band with Richie, Ed McLuckie on Drums (Ed still plays with the bands of David Ross and Karin McCulloch), Johnny Paton on Piano and Eddie MacKinnon on Double Bass.
At school Derek had a couple of musical mates – Jimmy Christie and Matt Richmond and after leaving school they all joined up again with Alan Logan (who had bought a bass guitar) and formed various groups with various names such as The Corvettes, The Beetles (yes – this was 1960 and the Fab Four had not been heard of). Derek played guitar as it was no longer 'hip' to play the box!
In 1962 Derek met Jean Thorburn. They got engaged and married in March 1965. However, this was not the only major change to happen in Derek's life. The day before the wedding Derek & Jean had a major car accident on their way to Kilmarnock to buy a new Accordion. The new accordion was put on the back burner.
On return from their honeymoon Derek, on a visit to McCormick's Music shop in Glasgow, decided not to buy a new accordion but procured a Hohner Symphonic 30 organ instead.
With Jimmy Christie and Matt Richmond he formed a 'Club' trio – the Likely Lads! The boys became one of the most successful bands on the Ayrshire (and beyond) working men's club scene which was huge in the 60s and early 70s. They worked with cabaret stars – Sydney Devine, Hector Nicol and the like, gaining great experience.
Back in time, as a very young teenager, Derek found an interest in recording. He had acquired a reel to reel tape machine and he and a pal, Walter Davidson who was keen on broadcasting, spent their summer holidays from school recording programmes and broadcasting them (highly illegal of course but when you're 13 that really doesn't come into the equation!) to the good people of Galston blotting out the BBC Light Programme in the process!!
In 1972 for work commitment reasons (the day job always intervenes with part time musicians) the Likely Lads disbanded. Derek and Richie Holland joined forces again and this brought about a renewed interest in Scottish Music for Derek. Combining his interest in recording and playing Derek and Richie produced a 'live' album – 'A Scottish Dance Party' which was a multi-tracked affair with Richie on accordion and double bass and Derek playing accordion, piano and drums. That was actually the catalyst for a long happy friendship with George Fleming who had a very popular Scottish Dance Band. Derek played drums with George until his death in 1988.
Also in 1972 Derek got a call from a guitarist, Sam Nimmo, who had a trio of organ, guitar and drums playing resident in the Gowanbank Hotel in Darvel. The organist was emigrating to Canada and Sam planned to follow shortly after. Derek was asked if he could fill in until Sam finished the contract with the hotel. That 'fill in' lasted 7 years till in 1979 Sam finally decided to go an make a new life in Canada, where he still is today.
During his time at Gowanbank, the band, Just Three, recorded two albums both produced by Derek.
The second one 'Gowanbank Cocktail' featured not only the trio but a Scottish Dance Band comprising Richie Holland (you've heard that name before) on Accordion, Archie Brown on Fiddle, Sam Lawson on Drums and Derek on piano/bass.
Derek, while playing very little Scottish music during the late 60s through to the late 70s always had an interest and it was, and still is, his first love in music.
The Galston Accordion Club which started in 1969 (Davie Ross says 1970 but he's wrong!!!) re kindled a real interest in the music and Richie and Derek played duets round the clubs as they sprang up all over the place.
In 1979, while playing drums with the George Fleming Band, George mentioned to Derek that he was going to pull down the private recording studio he had built due to the sudden death of the chap who did George's private recordings. Derek talked him out of it, saying he would find time to do these recordings for him. Bands like John Renton, Derek Lawrence, Ronnie Easton, Kenny Thomson used to use the studio for practice sessions and they would be recorded purely for George's own private collection and of course his pleasure as he was a real enthusiast for Scottish Dance Music.
After about a year of keeping the studio alive Derek suggested to George that they should set up a proper business. Ayrespin Music was born.
Derek, who by this time had been Sales Manager at Glenfield and Kennedy Engineering works in Kilmarnock for a few years left the company, where he'd worked for 20 years.
He spent the next year (and nearly all his savings!) building up Ayrespin Music.
Kenny Thomson & the Wardaw Band were first to record an album there, followed by debut albums for Colin Dewar, The Etives (later to become Cappercaille), Ian Muir, The Oakbank Sound, Bobby Torrance, Sandy Nixon, Colin Ross, Danny Black. Robin & Deryn Waitt (The Bon Accords), Willie MacFarlane & Colin Brown, Fintry Style, Ron Harris, Pipe Major Ian Clowe, John Douglas and many, many more all recorded albums in the Studio at Crosshouse under the engineering and production skills of Derek.
After George Fleming sadly passed away in 1988 Derek continued with the studio on a hobby basis having gone back to work as Sales Manager for another engineering company in the early 80s and in 1992 set up Bryansroom as a record label. To date Bryansroom has some 75 CDs in it's catalogue.
Names like Andy Kane, Kenny Thomson, Roy Hendrie, Alex Fitzsimmons, Bill Stewart, John Stuart, Ewan Galloway, The Clappy Doo Ceilidh Band, David Sturgeon & the Waverley Band, James Paterson and the Caberston Ceilidh Band, Wullie Scott, Colin Donaldson, Archie McPhee and the Bogroy Band, Sandy Nixon and most recently Janet Graham all appear on the label. Derek, too, has albums of his own and albums produced for other labels such as Ross Records, Highlander Music and Club records. Notable big names produced by Derek are Joe Gordon & Sally Logan and their Scottish Champion son Scott as well as Richard Smith from Coalburn.
Two names omitted from the list are Charlie Kirkpatrick and Ian Muir.
Derek first met Charlie in 1978 when the Cullivoe Band visited Galston Accordion Club and Charlie came to hear them. Derek played piano for Charlie's spot at the club and that started a long and enduring friendship, hundreds of gigs and over 30 broadcasts. Derek reckons Charlie has got the formula just right for a band leader. He combines great communication and rapport with the audience with equally great musicianship. In Derek's eyes he is an undisputed master of the 3 row Shand Morino.
Likewise Derek has great praise and humble admiration for the talents of Ian Muir whom he met first when Ian was just 16. After producing Ian's first album they became great friends and along with Colin Bell (the best all round pianist Derek has ever known) played many gigs in many places.
The years spent playing with Ian were actually a great time of learning for Derek, having never had any formal training. Some of the gigs were quite demanding for a non reader but Ian was always encouraging. He also played 2nd box in Ian's broadcasts.
Derek recognises that these two musicians were probably the biggest influence on his musical career since the early 80s.
In 1983 & 1984 Derek jumped at the chance, presented to him by Deryn Waitt, to tour playing keyboards for Dermot O'Brien, a wonderful experience he'll never forget.
Derek was also in Abu Dhabi in 1984 and 1986 with Charlie Kilpatrick and John McCroskie.
In recent years Derek has been to China with the John Stuart Band several times to play for ex-pats at the Beijing and Shanghai Annual Scottish Ball and on one occasion there even rubbed shoulders (literally) with the First Minister – Alex Salmond!
Having retired from the day job as an engineer and Sales Manager in May 2010, Derek still enjoys his playing with the likes of Charlie Kirkpatrick and Gordon Young and relishes getting away for the weekends of the Mull Festival, Skye Festival and Dumfries Festival when he meets up with old pals Richard Hughes and Jimmy MacDonald for a tune and a vodka or three (doubles of course! If Jimmy's buying – triples!!).
He also spends a lot of time recording in Bryansroom and out in the field. His latest recording is of Ian Muir, Gordon Simpson and Neil MacMillan playing a selection of new country dances for the Glasgow Branch of the RSCDS. It's their 90th Anniversary in 2013.
He is also pleased to be part of the Mauchline Accordion Club as resident pianist. Mauchline celebrate s it's 30th year in October 2013.
Of course, who can forget that Derek was in from day one of the Box & Fiddle. Under the editorship of Ian Smith he wrote the Record Review, The Reel Radio and many fine articles on the life and times of the musicians and our Scottish scene. He was also an enthusiastic committee member of Galston Accordion Club and on the committee and then Secretary of The Ayrshire Scottish Music Association (ASMA).
When you analyse it, there's not much Derek hasn't done in the music scene. He says humbly, 'I shall be eternally grateful to all the musicians and friends who have placed so much faith in my meagre abilities and given me opportunities I would never have had if I hadn't convinced my Dad to buy me that wee box in 1950 and then spent a lifetime kidding the world that I was a musician! Thank you to every one of you – you know who you are!'
Derek is one of the National Association of Accordion and Fiddle Clubs recipients of the annual honour award. It took him a wee while to accept as he genuinely believes that there are plenty folk much more deserving than himself and as he says 'Little did I know or expect when I proposed to the Association in 1971 that we have an annual celebration to honour our treasured musicians while they were still alive, that I would one day receive the award. I am deeply honoured.'
B&F June 2013
Year 36 No 10