Jimmy Clinkscale Articles from 1981
Perfect Venue for Accordion Bonanza
By Ian Smith
The Tait Hall, Kelso on 7th December, was the perfect venue for Jimmy Clinkscale’s production of No 2 Accordion Bonanza.
We have a lot to be grateful for to Jimmy Clinkscale and all those others who make tapes for us. Each tape is a piece of history. Bonanza No 1 had some great names and this concert, which was also taped, has a further group of star names.
The backing band was in the very capable hands of Iain MacPhail. The compere was Bill Torrance, one of Radio Forth’s greatest characters – comedian, singer, plays guitar, clarinet, penny whistle and moothie. A talented and jovial continuity expert who expertly kept the show cracking along at a good pace.
The show opened with rousing piping by Jimmy McRae and Stuart Robinson , members of Galashiels Pipe Band.
From then on it was a parade of accordion stars – Sandy MacArthur, Ian Wilkie, Robert Whitehead, Paddy Neary, Addie Harper Jnr, Ron Hodgson, Andrew Rankine, Bobby MacLeod with Jim Johnstone, the fabulous Jimmy Blair Quartet, John Carmichael, Gordon Pattullo, surprise guest Max Houliston and a local lad, 14-year-old Raymond Laidlaw, who played the Clinkscale Polka. Thus the first half ended.
The second half was much more relaxing, as the live taping had ended. Methinks the second half should have been taped secretly as the players went to town and thoroughly entertained a full house superbly.
The concert, well beyond its time, ended with a stramash. With such a gathering of famous personalities it was the stramash of a lifetime.
Come on Jimmy Clinkscale, how about Accordion Bonanza No3.
Box & Fiddle Jan 1981
Year 04 No 05
Paddy – Star of the Borders
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Paddy Neary has just finished another concert – an exhibition in the Scottish Borders – and the huddled audience of just over 200 are delighted.
“Incredible” says one man. “Did you see his fingers move?” says another, “They were just a blur!”
That’s the sort of reaction one of Ireland’s best known accordionists has known for most of his life now – and how he enjoys playing well!
“I hate giving a bad performance” says Paddy in that beautifully rounded Irish drawl. “It really depresses me. It’s like the whole world has collapsed around me. The fella who said you’re only as good as your last performance got it right. I feel sick when it happens and can’t wait for the next opportunity to do it all over again.
“It’s because I respect the music so much.”
Music and marriage are Paddy’s two great loves. He tied the knot with his wife June four years ago and feels his music has improved by leaps and bounds because of it.
“I only wish I’d married earlier” he says. He now has two young boys but would not like them to follow their father into a musical career.
“I’d like to see them enjoy music but not take it up professionally” he says.
It’s music that holds him together and his love, nay passion, for it emanates from every fibre of his body.
The man thinks, sleeps, eats and breathes the stuff, a love born out of his parents’ encouragement and his own innate ability. Without it the 33-year-old Irishman is like the shark that must always move in the water les it stagnates and dies.
Paddy was born into a musical background in Ardee, County Louth. His father, Mickey, was a farm labourer whose family had tilled the soil on the same estate for well over 100 years.
His mother loved the classics and Beethoven in particular and it was in this ground that the tended shoots of the young Neary’s budding musical career would take root and flourish. Paddy started plonking away on the piano before he was four, converting the sounds in his head into an elementary musical shape.
As he grew through childhood and listened to, and sometimes even joined in music sessions in the house, his education developed until, at the age of 11, he took up the accordion – a Christmas present from his dad.
He began playing in a three-piece band around the local hotels and also started composing his own tunes.
A capable pianist, even at that tender age, he swept the board with three composed Irish airs at the Newry Music Festival, beating a nearby piano teacher.
Even then he preferred slower, emotional pieces – songs like ‘The Dark Island’ or ‘Londonderry Air.’ “My favourite though is the slow movement from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathetique Symphony’”.
“I never play it though because I can hear the orchestra in the background and know what it should be sounding like. Mine is an awful little sound by comparison.”
It was only when Paddy moved to Scotland and purchased an electronic accordion that he began to enjoy playing it.
“It had strings you see, and I love strings. I really detested the accordion before that – it had no feeling or timbre like the piano.”
That was not the major turning point in his career however. Following a three year period in his late teens when he toured America and Germany with a showband, Paddy returned to Ireland and took the All-Ireland Accordion Championship.
He then went to University College, Dublin, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music – both at the same time. It was at the latter that he studied under DR A. J. Potter, a man who was to reveal to him what Paddy now recognises as one of the greatest gifts of music. The ability to approach music from within yourself.
“Before then I had always played a piece from the outside in,” he says “and any emotion which came in the tune was purely accidental. Dr Potter reshaped my whole musical education.”
Like many players, that realization has led him to continually strive to better his own musicianship but it inevitably promptsthe question ‘are you ever satisfied with you own ability?’
“Well my only real ambition is to improve my playing. I have always deeply admired the Norwegian player Toralf Tollefson who, in an age when there were no sophisticated accordions, could produce superb music which I have yet to hear bettered.
Paddy says that the only performance of his own that he would describe as definitive, a piece that he is entirely satisfied with, is ‘The Blue Danube’ by Strauss.
It was only when he moved to Scotland, however, that Paddy finally realised just how much enjoyment his music gave to people.
He came over in 1977 at the invitation of Alex MacArthur from Biggar who met Paddy while judging the All-Ireland Championships that same year. The initial visit consisted of a brief 10-day tour around some of the A&F Clubs, but Paddy was flabbergasted by the response.
“I couldn’t believe the appreciation for what I did”, he says “and made up my mind that I wanted to move to Scotland where there were so many marvellous people who wanted to hear my music.”
With an almost childlike innocence of the gifts he possessed, Paddy continued to impress Scots audiences settling down eventually in Auchterarder.
He says he’s a little bit disappointed with the way the scene has changed in his home country during that time, particularly on the East Coast.
“Most of the venues have become infiltrated with heavy pop music. Most of the time badly performed.
“As in most types of music there is good and bad, but a lot of it seems to be noise for noise’s sake.” He admits, however, to a healthy respect for Stevie Wonder. “He makes lovely music” adds Paddy.
Talking of the charts reminds Paddy that he does, after all, harbour an ambition. “I want to be the first accordionist to take the instrument – solo – to number one in the Hit Parade.”
“I have the tune but I am not going to tell you what it is!”
“What I would really love is to do for the accordion what James Galway has done for the flute. I’ve never met him but I wish I had his fingers” laughs Paddy.
Try telling that to the man in the Scottish Borders!
Box & Fiddle Dec 1981
Year 05 No 05
Robin Brock
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Robin Brock will turn 41 three days before Scotsman all over the world bring in the New Year, accompanied, no doubt, by the kind of music the East Lothian accordionist and double bass supreme has loved passionately for most of his life.
But Robin himself is taking life very easily at the moment.
He has to, having only recently been discharged from hospital following a gall bladder operation.
When asked jokingly if the old maxim about like beginning at 40 was true, he replied “I thought it was finished three weeks ago!”
The doctor has told him he has not to do anything for the next eight weeks, but, “Ach” says Robin “I don’t like just sitting about”.
He certainly has plenty to keep him going. The farm he bought just outside Penicuik just over seven years ago is thriving and has expanded to 175 acres. He employs 40 people and still operates the landscape contracting business he trained for, for over seven years.
Main Interest
Apart from all this, he co-presents ‘Pure Scotch’ with Steve Jack every Friday night on Radio Forth. The programme is a light-hearted, two hour Scottish request programme. However, his main interest every week is his very own programme called ‘Folks Around Robin.’ Every week Robin plays host to a band or well-known group of musicians and records their music. Each selection of music is interspersed with ‘informal blethers’ when the bandleader is invited to introduce members of the band, tunes they play and recount any interesting or amusing incidents from the past.
“There is anything from ten to twelve hours of hard graft involved in any programme” say Robin, “but I really enjoy it. I have been so many places, met so many marvellous people through Scottish music that I’m only to delighted to be able to put something back into it.”
Robin’s programme is obviously the apple of his eye. It is like another child to his apart from Russell (12) and Susan (9), children of his 15-year-marriage to wife Linda.
Credibility
He says he is trying to rid Scottish dance music of the ‘heather, haggis and hairy knees’ image. He is striving to give the music and the musicians the credibility he feels they deserve.
“It has been portrayed like that for far to long. I have believed, passionately, for a long, long time” he continues “that we have musicians here in Scotland who are as good in their chosen field as any other throughout the world”.
Robin’s aim, when initially approached to do the programme by Radio Forth Producer Sandy Wilkie two years ago, was to try something different. Introduce bandleaders to the public, put a personality to the name. Encourage other people to play.
“If as a result of my efforts I have encouraged people to begin playing again or make even one youngster pick up an accordion than I am well satisfied” he states.
He is particularly proud in respect of getting popular bandleader Angus Fitchet and Bobby MacLeod to do their first broadcast with their own bands for over 25 years. No mean achievement and one which speaks volumes for Robin’s dedication and respect in the Scottish dance scene.
He is delighted to sit and chat about the programme. After all, he is still a relative rookie on the other side of the little glass panel.
Robin is grateful to programme controller Tom Steel of Radio Forth for having enough faith in his suggestions to let him carry then through. He says he felt Scottish music was at its lowest ebb two years ago. Playing standards seemed to have fallen. Bands and production staff cared little how the sound came across.
But Robin is quick to qualify that forthright statement by saying “working with musicians from the lesser-known to the top names over the past few years, my faith in Scottish dane music has been restored ten-fold. I am delighted with the enthusiasm now and the huge talent coming through with the youngsters.
No Worries
“If that is what the general standard is like then Scottish dance music need have no worries about the future. But it’s a pity more youngsters are not joining bands instead of playing solo all the time.”
Most people, of course, are aware of Robin’s own particular talent and versatility. He is best known for his work on double bass and accordion, but says he can get a tune out of almost anything.
He has played alongside, for long spells, three of Scottish dance music biggest names – Jim Johnstone, Jimmy Shand and Jim MacLeod. “It is a privilege to have them as friends” he admits. He also had a spell playing for The Corries and has made countless appearances with many other bands and throughout the years has been very busy as a session musician in recording and television studios.
The days with Shand are recalled as “a dream come true.” His admiration for the man knows no bounds. “Without him Scottish dance music as we know it would not have existed” he says. “We own him a great deal.”
Robin joined the Jim Johnstone band when the Tranent born accordionist left Andrew Rankine. After all, Robin was born only a few miles away, at Thorntonloch, an agricultural community now lost for ever under the construction work for the nuclear power station at Torness.
Many Regrets
The Johnstone Band was exceptionally popular, bit it had its disadvantages. Jim was snapped up by Jimmy Shand for his Australian tours, but on his return it was Robin’s turn to join the legend.
Pressure of work in his landscaping business forced Robin, with many regrets, to call it a day.
“But as one door shut, another one opened” he says. Jim MacLeod asked him to do a radio series, ‘On Tour.’ After that most of his playing time was spent in Jim’s base at Dunblane Hydro.
Seven “very happy years” were spent with Jim. “It suited me just fine” Sys Robin “because with Shand it was Fife one night, Southampton the next. I just couldn’t do that. I like some stability and at least with Jim I knew where I would be playing anything up to a year ahead.”
But business commitments one again began to interfere. He had decided to go freelance again when he was approached by Jim Johnstone to do the ‘Songs of Scotland’ series. Robin played in that band for a second spell of almost three years before he again decided to give it a rest.
New Phase
Billy Craib was able to rejoin Jim’s Band and Robin returned to the peace and quiet of his beloved Mauricewood Farm. The good clean air kept him occupied for almost two years without playing a note professionally before a phone call from old friend Ian Holmes, asking his to do a spot on Radio forth, pulled him back to the studio.
That, as Robin was later to discover, would lead to a new phase in his career and the rest, as they say, is history.
Robin’s programme is now amongst the most popular in Scotland and selling well elsewhere. Radios London, Thames and Tay have all bought it and many others are expressing an interest.
So, having been in the main thrust of the revival, is he pleased with the present set-up in Scotland? What does he think of it now?
Revival
“Magnificent, But I would like to see more village halls opening their doors to Scottish dance music again. There seems to be a move into hotel lounges at the moment, but I think if people had the courage to promote dances in halls then the Scottish scene would boom again.”
And he is right. There is an undercurrent now. People genuinely want to dance to Scottish music again, halls are being booked and the promoters and the dance bands are as busy again as they ever were.
“Scottish music will go on forever” concludes Robin. And the programme? “Who knoe’s, even if it ends tomorrow, I can still look back and say that for a couple of years at least my efforts have done something to help revive the music I love.”
Hear, Hear!
Box & Fiddle Feb 1982
Year 05 No 06
Jim Johnstone – Man of Many Talents
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Born in Tranent 44 years ago and raised in an environment passionately obsessed with Scottish music, it was inevitable that the young Jim Johnstone would follow in his father’s footsteps.
But Jim has done more, much more, than simply follow the dictates of his own, particularly impressive, talent.
During a career in which he has appeared with anyone who is anyone in the Scottish Dance Band scene, Jim has played an integral part in furthering the public’s enjoyment of their own unique musical heritage.
Interesting
It is interesting to look back at those days of Jim’s early development as he was extraordinarily fortunate to have been weaned at the very heart of a loving and varied musical environment.
Five of his father’s seven brothers could play the accordion, while another could ca’ oot a tune on the trumpet.
Jim soon developed an interest in the accordion – what else – and was sent for lessons with local teacher Bobby Anderson at the age of nine. “My dad was worried I was learning bad habits” laughs Jim.
Bobby taught the youngster all he knew but after a year “he was realistic enough to realise he had gone far enough and it was time I went to someone else.”
The ‘someone else’ was to be Chrissie Leatham whom Jim recalls as a “great character with a marvelous sense of humour.”
Lessons were not the painful experience akin to a visit to the dentist for young Jim. He took an extra lesson at Chrissie’s Haddington home on the Sundays and so keen was Jim that he remembers his Mum saying “for God’s sake put that thing down!”
Progressing
Jim was by now progressing with such vast leaps and bounds that he was capable of his first broadcast at the age of 13. But it was only through a bet with his father that the strains of ‘Dundee City Police’, ‘’The Atholl Highlanders’ and the ‘Black Mask Waltz’ as performed by a wiry young teenager from Tranent were ever heard on the BBC airwaves.
“My father bet me £1 – it was a lot of money in those days – that I couldn’t pass an audition to appear on ‘Children’s Hour’. I won my pound!”
Jim was attending Preston Lodge School at this time and eventually formed his own band two years later.
They played around East Lothian and the Borders for a time – “great days” – before Jim was forced to leave for his two-year period of National Service in England.
He didn’t want to go – who would? – but his regular visits home at weekends kept him in touch with the family and with playing, as his Uncle John’s Band needed him for Saturday night concerts.
He played with that band for four years – working in Tranent as a mechanic with his father during the day – but Jim was getting restless and looking for a way to develop his career.
Opportunity
The opportunity soon arose when, much to his surprise, he was approached by Andrew Rankine.
Now Jim had always liked Rankine’s band – “they used to swing” – and the offer was one he just couldn’t refuse. The family didn’t like it though. After all, Jim had been a Johnstone player ever since he was a wee laddie.
But off he went.
“It was a step in the right direction” he admits. “My family were all ‘lug’ players, but Rankine’s band were all legitimate musicians. They could read music and play nice arrangements. I felt I should be getting into that.”
And get into it Jim did. Thrown in at the deep end he was forced to either sink or swim. Used to spending weeks with his uncles rehearsing for one concert, he now found himself going into broadcast, with Rankine himself the only one who knew the music which was to be played.
Jim left the band when Andrew announced he was considering emigrating to Australia.
He spent a lot of time forming his own band, gathering around him friends and musicians he had known for a long time. Jim was happy with that line-up – Bobby Colgan on drums, Alan Johnston on fiddle, pianist Davie Flockhart and bassist Robin Brock – but then came the offer from Jimmy Shand and a vastly accelerated lifestyle.
That broadcast in Edinburgh’s Queen Street studios was not Jim’s first encounter with Shand, however. Jimmy had been a regular caller at George Johnstone’s house in Tranent just before the War, at a time when Jim’s father and his Uncle John were themselves weel-kent names in the broadcasting scene.
He says he found touring exhausting. Travel was one of the aspects he disliked most about playing in bands.
“Jimmy Shand was the exception” he says. “He thrived on it. Jimmy was a big, strong man and he had tremendous stamina.”
Jim, of course, is referring to the tours of Australia and New Zealand while he was a member of the great man’s band.
He recalls the first time he played with him “I had my own band at the time, but Jimmy phoned up and asked if I could help him out one night. Naturally, I said I would. It was an honour. After the broadcast he took me aside and said “It’s not the way you play that I like, but you can read music!”
After the exhaustion of touring with the self-styled marathon man, Jim decided to further his experience yet again. This time with Jimmy Blue who had just taken over the Ian Powrie Band.
Increasing the pace to overdrive Jim soon found himself being asked by BBC Producer Iain MacFadyen to form his own band for ‘The White Heather Club’ tours.
Jim was now in constant demand and not just from legitimate ‘White Heather’ dates.
“There were a lot of ‘White Heather Club’ shows at that time” says Jim “but unless Robin Hall, Jimmy McGregor and Andy Stewart were going to be in them I refused to do them. I just said ‘no way’ as they weren’t authentic.”
Yet another example of the thick streak of integrity running through Jim.
Performed
Besides leading his own band, in between playing with Andrew Rankine, Jimmy Shand and Jimmy Blue to name but three, Jim was involved with the incredible successes of the ‘White Heather Club’ TV Shows and tours and is now arranging for, among others, Andy Stewart, Calum Kennedy and the BBC.
One would think from that catalogue of talent that Jim would have enough on his plate. But no, he’s a man of many parts. Not only does he now arrange and play around the dances, but Jim also holds down a highly active job as Entertainments Manager with East Lothian District Council.
It is a post Jim has been in for almost eight years and he obviously thrives on it.
His work in Musselburgh’s Brunton Halls isn’t exactly nine-to-five but the flexible hours allow Jim to control the other aspects of his life and career to his own satisfaction
Convinced
He is convinced he made the right decision all those years ago when faced with the prospect of applying for the job, opening a music shop in Musselburgh or taking on a six-month engagement in an Edinburgh Hotel with Larry Marshall.
“I don’t think it is possible in this day and age to maintain a full-time band, as for instance Jimmy Shand did. There are not so many theatres left in Scotland now and gone are the days when you could become a household name through records.”
It is something Jim – a delightfully warm, friendly and honest character – does not personally regret regarding his own band.
Currently happy with the way things have turned out, he is satisfied to play around the village halls. “Finances don’t worry me” he laughs. “I really enjoy playing to people I know and experiencing that close relationship.”
As for recording, Jim has no immediate plans to make another LP.
“The market is saturated at the moment” he says “it has not done the Scottish record market any good. Anyway I feel I just don’t have the material to warrant bringing out another one.”
That’s our loss and not Jim’s!
Box & Fiddle March 1982
Year 05 No 07
Welcome Addition from Iain
by Jimmy Clinkscale
The name of Iain MacPhail is synonymous with great Scottish Dance Music. Recently, the first Volume of some of his best-known compositions were released, and this will undoubtedly prove a welcome and invaluable addition to the collections of his many devotees.
For anyone who has grown to know his work over the years, the 42 tunes Iain has selected will be instantly recognisable, a collection of ear-catching numbers indelibly stamped with the unmistakable MacPhail trademark.
The Volume has been produced in response to the current demand for his work, and features such well-loved titles as ‘Mrs Mary Printy’ (dedicated to his grandmother), ‘Ray Milbourne’ and ‘Miss Elizabeth Purcell’s Favourite’.
Repayment
For the Argyllshire-born musician, who has firmly established himself among the top ranks of Scottish Dance Band leaders, the Volume is the culmination of 15 years work.
“It is an important milestone for me” he admits. “I write tunes for people. I have met and made so many good friends in my career, that it is one way of repaying kindness given to me.”
The towering six-footer will admit it – he is a great sentimentalist at heart.
Born in Campbeltown, Argyllshire, the young MacPhail was raised on the traditional music of his homeland. When he first began playing tentatively on the melodeon at the age of six, he probably never imagined that one day someone, somewhere would actually want to spend money on his music. But that is what happened.
Iain’s story has been one of hard work and dedication. That iron determination, born of an independent spirit caused by the death of his father when Iain was just seven, has always ensured that MacPhail will be cutting through the red tape, and doing things his way – although, it must be said, not at the expense of others.
After spells with the Jim Nicholson Band and the Strathedin SDB, Iain formed his own outfit in 1969. Five years later, he became Musical director of the Larry Marshall Scottish Cabaret in Edinburgh’s King James Hotel, and his popularity has just continued to grow with tourist and native alike.
And the latter have often grown restless, the traditionalists among them, criticising MacPhail for being what they are not – an experimentalist with imagination.
A passionate lover of traditional music, Iain has listened to the attacks, but contends “Scottish music is a wide open field and there is plenty of room for experiment. Certainly, I use jazz influences, but Duke Ellington once said there are only two types of music with swing – jazz and Scottish Dance music. Let’s face it, the music I am making now could well be regarded as traditional in 50 years’ time anyway.”
Fondly remembered
Tradition, almost ironically, plays a great part in his life. Almost all the tunes in his new book are named after people, either dead or alive, among them his father Dugald, a great melodeon player himself, and still fondly remembered in and around his native Kilberry.
Iain still has his father’s original melodeon – a 60-year-old Hohner DELuxe – proudly kept in tip-top condition and played occasionally. It has grown to be something of a family heirloom.
‘The Rowan Tree’ was the first tune Iain ever played on it, but it was the ‘Bluebell Polka’ popular at the time, which an audience first heard from Iain MacPhail. That was when he was ten at a school concert in Kilberry, a village with a “school, Post Office and a shop.”
From there, Iain moved to secondary school at Tarbert and then, at the age of 15, to Edinburgh. He played ‘diatonic’ at the time but changed to piano when he couldn’t find a teacher for the chromatic instrument – although he later discovered that Chrissie Leatham would have done the trick.
Whilst at school in Edinburgh, Iain met a man whom he says “motivated me to be different in my music.” That man was music teacher Ronald Stevenson, now an internationally famous pianist and composer.
“He played the ‘Laird of Cockpen’ and used ‘Greensleeves’ as a counter-melody” recalls Iain. “He showed me that music was not parochial, that it is a thing to be enjoyed and experienced by all. Stevenson gave me a lot to think about and encouraged me to bring my accordion along to the classes, which was unusual, as it was generally regarded as a very ‘downmarket’ instrument in those days.”
But it was not only Stevenson who influenced the eager to listen and learn MacPhail. The mustachioed maestro of the accordion lists scores of names who have helped him along the way. Among them, Andrew Rankine – “beautiful compositions and marvellous harmonies” , Jim Johnstone – “tremendous professionalism”, Ian Holmes – “magical playing”, Bobby MacLeod – “an emotive player”, Lindsay Ross and Ian Powrie.
Own Style
“They all had something different” Iain concedes. “I took something from them all until I had developed my own style”.
And that style is familiar to us all. A modern, swinging beat which sets the heart straining and the toes tapping.
As a broadcaster, he is highly popular, as a cabaret artiste a cast-iron, gold-plated success, particularly with the tourists, who wallow in a master craftsman’s art six nights a week throughout the summer.
It is a demanding schedule for Iain and his Trio, but they have been doing it for eight years now, so the show runs like clockwork. Prior to the show proper, Iain takes to the stage for a grueling 45-minute solo spot of ‘soup-music’ – and this at the end of a normal working day.
His job in Edinburgh, near Meadowbank Stadium, where he works as a Personnel Officer for the Scottish Prison Service. Iain likes the work, he likes people, but it is his music which makes him tick.
“I love music” he admits. “I enjoy arranging and composing. I must have written about 100 tunes, but I need to be in the mood to write. This is often dependent on the way the music is interpreted by other members of the band. The adrenalin has got to be flowing. All the best tunes are basically simple and written in two minutes – the harmonies take somewhat longer!”
His wife – and secretary – Viola, has, of course, grown used to sharing a marriage with music. Iain’s two children, Catriona, aged 4, and young Iain, aged 8, are also taking an interest, but Dad says he would never push them into a musical career. “Times are changing, and so different from my childhood. In some ways it is a harder field in which to be involved, and the dance scene has been altered by, for instance, the change in the Licensing Laws, which has meant short Saturday dances in the rural areas, or none at all, unfortunately.”
So how does he view the future of the music he loves?
“Well, excuse the pun, it’s in good hands. The standard of playing technically is very high, and it will get better if the youngsters can ally emotion to that. I’ll always go for the fellow who plays with the heart rather than the wrist.”
Anyone who listens to MacPhail, will soon realise he has practiced what he preaches!
Box & Fiddle Sept 1982
Year 06 No 01
Capacity Crowd thrill to Accordion Bonanza
By Aberdeen Press & Journal, Monday 4th October 1982
Jimmy Clinkscale’s ‘Accordion Bonanza’ came to the Capitol Theatre, Aberdeen, on Saturday night and the capacity crowd really lapped it up.
The title conjures up a mass of enthusiastic players dirlin’ out the reels and strathspeys but here he had a highly professional and thoroughly enjoyable show – if just a trifle on the long side. Those with late busses could well have had their problems.
From the strong local opening spot of the Willis Gerrard Accordion Band to the last ounce of applause at the finale, the show ran with scarcely a hitch and this was a mixture of full-time professionals and talented amateurs – some meeting for the first time.
The Accordion Band and also Graham Geddes and Ian Rennie as solo accordionists made sure that the talent of the North-East stood up to the best of them. But for the extra special performances the experience of Jim Johnstone and Paddy Neary shone through.
Jim Johnstone, with a relaxed style and snappy ad-libs, proved that the accordion has the ‘voice’ when properly controlled to hold the entire audience, and Paddy Neary, overcoming a wee technical problem, gave us a wide range of music, demonstrating so ably the attributes of the electronic box.
Don’t get the idea though that it was accordions all the way. Special guests were Alastair Macdonald and Anne Lorne Gillies who know how to woo a North-East audience. These two, along with the ‘Dunecht Loon’, Robbie Shepherd as compere, were in top form and provided the ideal balance to the galaxy of accordions.
Support also came from two young pipers of the 47th Company of Culter Boys’ Brigade, the Bonanza Dancers, and inspired backing from some of Scotland’s top session men led by John Carmichael.
Box & Fiddle Oct 1982
Year 06 No 02
The Story Behind Forth’s ‘Folks’
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Somewhere beneath the Reception area and offices of Radio Forth, in Edinburgh’s New Town, you will find, after being shown through a labyrinth of corridors not unlike a scene from television’s ‘Man from UNCLE,’ the unimposing surroundings of Studio ‘A’, a compact little room dotted with microphones, music stands, tables and recording equipment.
It is here, surrounded by switches, dials, faders and high technology that Robin Brock hosts his highly-popular, hour-long, weekly programme called ‘Folks Around Robin.’
‘Folks’ has been on the air for over three-and-a-half years now. An irresistible mixture of Scottish dance band music, chat and information. In that time Robin has featured a wide variety of bands and artistes, giving an estimated 20,000 listeners a week an insight into the lives and interests of the famous and the not-so-famous.
Robin, of course, is no mere interviewer. His extensive knowledge of Scottish dance band music is derived from a lifelong love of the genre, and experience o0f playing with some of the top names in the business, such as Jimmy Shand, Jim MacLeod and Jim Johnstone.
It is this background which is partly responsible for the programme’s appeal.
As Producer, Sandy Wilkie, points out “I don’t know of any other Scottish music programme that has a presenter who has been involved in the scene as much as Robin has.
“He has sympathy with the musicians. He doesn’t talk down to them and he doesn’t talk up to them. He is on the same level and they relax.”
I spent almost two hours chatting to Robin and Sandy about the programme on the recent visit to Radio Forth. One think that came through was their total dedication to ‘Folks’ and their near obsession with maintaining and improving on its already high standards.
Stirling-born Sandy is, to say the least, a perfectionist.
He has been with Radio Forth since it first took to the air on 22nd January, 1975, and was responsible for pushing up the faders which brought DJ Steve Hamilton’s voice into the homes of the listening public.
Before ‘Folks’ went on the air in February, 1979, the only programme catering for Scottish dance bands on Forth was ‘Pure Scotch,’ the brainchild of Bill Torrance and later hosted by Steve Jack.
However, a chance meeting with Sandy Wilkie in 1978 led to Robin joining ‘Pure Scotch’ for a few minutes a week to do a ‘What’s On’ piece. But I’ll let Sandy take up the story.
“Robin used to sit through the show because he liked it. He would do a few minutes before his spot and a few after and it just grew from there until he was eventually co-presenting the show.
“He was able to inject so much knowledge into it whereas before, Steve, who didn’t know that (clicks fingers) about Scottish music was given the show. And yet he put his whole heart into it and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
“Robin’s enthusiasm got Steve and I going. Honestly, I couldn’t have given tuppence for Scottish music four years ago. It was just another job, but now I can get goosepimples up and down my back when I hear a Scottish band.” And he laughs “I can now get as much of a kick out of Jim Johnstone as I can from listening to The Who.”
The keynote of each programme is undoubtedly the relaxed, informal atmosphere which comes across. But it does not just happen as easily as that. A lot of hard work goes into preparing each programme.
“Very few bands or artistes who come in here have ever been on radio before,” says Sandy. “Now, they don’t know what is going to happen to them when they come in. They are tense, but I can guarantee that anyone who comes in here is relaxed after 30 minutes.”
“No, it’s nothing to do with the valium we put in the coffee,” he jokes. “We have an attitude of mind downstairs that no matter what goes on behind the glass, no matter what technical hassles we have, they are never expressed to the band on the other side of it.
“Everything is A OK and we are having lots of fun.”
Robin, he points out, is largely responsible for that. Helping and advising with little problems that crop up. But he has one unusual method of gently bringing a ‘take’ that is not quite right to a close.
“He just puts on a cartridge of a dog howling,” says Sandy. “The band suddenly hears this dog yelping. They start looking round wondering what on earth is happening and realise that something is not quite right. It brings everything to a halt, but at least they can laugh about it.”
Robin is not beyond joking at the expense of his colleagues either. Sandy recalls one occasion when Robin was on the air with Steve Jack. Steve had just opened his mike when Robin turned his head away to turn back seconds later with his glasses on upside down and his teeth out.
“He just sat staring at Steve,” says Sandy “and the place fell apart.”
It is that kind of banter which brings the best out in Robin’s guests. John Ellis – who, incidentally, holds the record for recording a session in only 48 minutes – talked about racing pigeons, while Jim Johnstone revealed a love of sailing.
“It is like Desert Island Discs without the desert island,” quips Robin.
But the most important ingredient, of course, is the music itself. Robin feels it is vital that what is broadcast is given the nod by the bandleader himself.
“They complained for many years that the sound was not right on their broadcasts, but we always make a point of balancing it to their satisfaction. We treat it as a compliment now that many bands just say “We’ll leave it to you, Sandy.”
Sandy takes up the point “if they come up to me and say ‘no, too much fiddle, more piano’ that is exactly what they will get – whether we agree with it or not. It is their particular sound that we are trying to recreate. Jim Johnstone, for example, likes second box to be something that is felt and not heard.”
But no matter how impressive the recording equipment looks, just like a computer, if you put garbage in, garbage will come out.
“We cannot work miracles,” insists Robin. “We cannot make a Scottish dance band sound like Mantovani. But that’s one of the things that has really impressed me about this series. I can honestly say that 99.9% of the bands who come in here do a good job.”
After over three-and-a-half years ‘Folks Around Robin’ looks like going on forever. Its format has proved popular beyond either Sandy or Robin’s wildest dreams. Radio Tay now takes the programme and many more, even in England, have shown an interest.
Both men look forward to the future but they are refreshingly responsive to the needs of the listening public.
“They are our bosses at the end of the day,” says Robin. “If we are making a product they like, then they will keep listening. And in commercial radio that is the name of the game.
“We work to a formula of integrity and credibility. I once said to Sandy that if we had to compromise our standards I would leave right away. I put Scottish music above everything. I am technically irrelevant in a sense. It could have been Jim Johnstone, it could have been John Carmichael. I was just in the right place at the right time, and was able to take my place on the team.”
Box & Fiddle Oct 1982
Year 06 No 02
Englishman’s Love of Scottish Music
By Jimmy Clinkscale
Ron Hodgson may not be one of the more familiar names on the Scottish accordion scene, but he is up there with the best of them in his love for the music, its traditions and its future.
Being an Englishman, Ron has lived in what, he says, is almost a backwater for the instrument. “There is just not the same tradition surrounding the accordion south of the Border as there is further north of Gretna Green.”
Lone Furrow
He has never left his native Carlisle, where he has run an Accordion School since 1957. Ron has ploughed a lone furrow in that area for the past 24 years. So barren is the tract between Glasgow and Manchester that pupils come to him from as far afield as Preston, Jarrow, Dumfries and Whitehaven.
“Musically, there is a stone wall between England and Scotland” he says. “The accordion stops at Gretna Green. There are a few Clubs in England, but they are few and far between.”
Ron admits, wryly, that as a musician he wishes he had not been born a Sassenach. He loves the tradition of the Scottish Clubs and speaks of the accordion and Scotland in the same breath.
“It is the national instrument of Scotland” he says. “Nothing can approach the accordion playing of the Scottish boys, even today.”
As the recently appointed Chairman of the National Accordion Organisation of Great Britain, Ron, at 53 years old and with a lifetimes love of accordion music behind him, sees it as his solemn duty to break down barriers, widen the horizons of the instrument, go where no man has gone before.
He is immensely proud of his three-year appointment and sees it as his business to spread the gospel as far and as wide as possible within that period.
He says “The accordion is still looked down on in some circles because it was once a pub instrument. Admittedly there have been some steps forward – you can take the ‘O’ Grades in it now for example – but I want to see it accepted as a major musical instrument.”
Ron strongly believes it is about time the Music Colleges in the United Kingdom accepted the accordion on its merits. “The UK is now the only country in the world where this is not the case” he says.
By working actively on its behalf, Ron hopes to see the membership of the NAO blossom from its present total of around 4,000.
“I want to put the accordion on the map in Great Britain” he says. “It is a great shame, to my mind, that some of the great ambassadors of the accordion, such as Jimmy Shand and Toralf Tolleffson, have never been heard outside the accordion world.”
Great Hero
Tolleffson, in fact, is one of Ron’s great heroes. Ron met him backstage once at a concert in Dumfries, and calls him “The Gentleman of the Accordion World.”
The great Norwegian player was only one of Ron’s influences in those early days. The others, co-incidentally, were all Continental as well.
It was in his early teens that he developed an interest in the accordion. Born of a working class family in Carlisle – where his father was a train driver – Ron’s earliest ambition was to play the trumpet. Just like Harry James!
Understandably, mother Hodgson was somewhat aghast at the thought of her young son practising in the house, so she encouraged him to opt for a bike instead.
However, it was on his way with his mother to purchase that very commodity when Ron spied a shop with a ‘lovely accordion’ in the window.
He had never even heard the instrument before but knew he wanted it and the young Hodgson got his way. It was a small Midella.
But Ron was horrified when he realised he could not just put it on and play immediately. That meant lessons, and as there were no accordion instructors in Carlisle at the time, that meant lessons with an organist.
To cut a long story short, he did find another instructor – Billy Stewart – but His Majesty George VI intervened, and Ron was called up to serve in the Royal Army Service Corps.
It was during tours of duty in Northern Germany and Holland that Ron really became hooked on the accordion.
“It was there that I heard the accordion being played as it should be” he says. A visit to a restaurant in the Hook of Holland introduced him to the sounds of Art Van Damm – “a fantastic jazz player” – and it was from that point on that Ron knew his future lay in accordion music.
He passed an audition for the Combined Services Entertainmant Corps in 1949, but did nott have enough service left to warrant a transfer, so he was demobbed the same year.
After coming fourth in the British Championships, Ron joined the Northern Variety Orchestra in Manchester under the leadership of Alyn Ainsworth.
Although that was Ron’s first taste of professional work, he has never considered turning ‘pro’ full time. Now a Stores Officer with the Air Ministry in Carlisle, Ron’s range of work over the years has been impressive, including such glamorous positions as apprentice cobbler, plumber’s mate and assistant groundsman at the local cricket club!
Famous Protege
By 1957 Ron had started his own Accordion School and with his own Dance Band was playing all over the North of England. He and his Moffat-born wife Margaret used to play duets together before they were married in 1952, and Margaret still helps out with the administrative side of things at the school.
Although Ron has taught many aspiring young accordionists over the years, perhaps his most famous protégé is Max Houliston, who now runs ‘The Hole in the Wa’ Club’ in Dumfries.
In fact, Ron made a record with Max. It was called ‘On the Piazza’ with music arranged by Gordon Langford. Despite the fact that he appears on it, Ron, unabashed, regards the record, one of his rare appearances on vinyl, as “one of the finest Continental LPs ever made.” Ron also recorded a track on ‘Accordion Bonanza No 2’ live from the Tait Hall in Kelso, on the Stebelin label No C1003.
But these days there are two major apples of his eye. One is son Ivor (23) who recently appeared at the Proms playing bass with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the other is his Accordion Orchestra – winners of the All-British championship on no less than two occasions.
“It is just like one big family” enthuses Ron, a barely perceptible glisten appearing in his eye.
“They are an Orchestra, not a band, and I write for them with this in mind. I like to try and get away from the old, hackneyed style of writing.”
His major ambition now is to see the Orchestra play in Carlisle’s twin town of Flensberg in Germany. “As soon as they are ready musically, they will go” he says. It is almost as if he hopes to give something back to the country which inspired him so many years ago.
For Ron has a tremendous respect for the musical achievement of other countries.
He recalls a trip to Russia for the World Youth Festival in 1957. Ron won the Silver Medal and was one of a three-member team representing Great Britain.
“A 22-year-old Russian won the competition” he says. “He played his own arrangement of Bach’s ‘Toccato in Fuque in D Minor’!
But he wasn’t just an accordion player. He could conduct, compose and he was a Professor of Music. Yet he was just one of hundreds over there. Hundreds just like him.”
And he concludes, “If people could only hear the type of players which are being produced over there, they wouldn’t believe it. I would like to see every accordion player in this country like that Russian. As Chairman of the NAO I am in an ideal position to do just that!”
Since our interview during the summer, Ron has been recommended by the Board of Administration, and its President, Mr Ivor J. Benyon, to the Governing Council of the British College of Accordionists for membership of the Board of Examiners of that august body.
Box & Fiddle Dec 1982
Year 06 No 04
Final Accordion Bonanza
by Ian Smith
The final Accordion Bonanza was held in the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, on 12th December, the perfect way to begin the Festive Season. This was also Christmas present time for the winners of the three competitions and for once the veterans of the music world stole a march as there wasn’t a youngster in sight.
Well done Alf Silk, Sandy Ingram and John Leslie, you can still show the youngsters a thing or two. This night there were no stars. There couldn’t be as they were all stars in their own right; indeed, each star could head his own show.
The concert got off to a fine start with the Borthwick and District Pipe Band being joined by John Carmichael and his five-piece SDB, accordion, two guitars, piano and drums and they too were joined by the agile Bonanza Dancers, two ladies and four pretty lassies. This was a slick way to start and the fun was kept going by the two comperes Robbie Shepherd and Bill Torrance with their bubbling humour.
Robert and Duncan Black appeared then and treated the audience to some great music, followed by Bill Torrance singing ‘Jock o’ Hazeldean’, with girls weaving a dream dance magic.
Another accordionist, this time Graham Geddes, who kept up the high standard. A change followed with the smooth fiddle of Angus Cameron, a treat for the fiddle conscious.
Bill Black with his button box then entertained as only Bill can.
A duet from Iain MacPhail and Brian Griffin who were joined once again by the Bonanza Dancers and so ended the first half.
The interval was necessary to enable everyone to come back to earth and get their breath back.
Second Half
Immediately the second half started, everyone was once again uplifted by the Jimmy Blair Accordion Orchestra. It was sheer delight to listen to this fine group of talented youngsters.
The results of the competitions came next and were presented by Jimmy Clinkscale. This was for new written music. The Angus Fitchet Trophy is for a traditional fiddle tune and this was won by Sandy Ingram from Forfar for his slow air ‘Peggy Scott’s Delight.’ The Bobby MacLeod Trophy is for a Continental or Musette style piece and this was won by one of life’s gentlemen - Alf Silk from Kilmarnock. A roar of approval went up when his name was announced. The third trophy is the Iain MacPhail Cup for a traditional accordion piece. This one was also a popular winner – John Leslie from Dunbar, with his tune ‘Mr and Mrs Leslie of Grant House’ The three winners were well received, especially when they all elected to play their tunes themselves.
These trophies will be held for one year then competed for again.
The concert was going at a fair pace, no time to breathe, as this magic continued. John Carmichael and his Band and once again the dream weaving of the dancers; a duet by Robbie and Bill had the audience reeling and once again Iain and Brian, all leading up to a crescendo and without hesitation out stepped the lovely Anne Lorne Gillies in a dream of a dress and cast her spell to perfection.
All too soon it was the turn of Jim Johnstone to end a perfect night for this capacity crowd.
Our thanks must go to Jimmy Clinkscale for putting this show together. It confirms that if the theatres put on shows like this they could fill the seats.
Box & Fiddle Jan 1983
Year 06 No 05
Rosemary Wright
by Jimmy Clinkscale
The British College of Accordionists has as its Vice-Principal Rosemary Wright, a woman who has made the accordion her life’s work. And life is the operative word, for Rosemary, still the right side of 30, cannot remember a time when she could not play or read music.
The daughter of music publisher, arranger, teacher and composer Francis Wright, himself Chairman of thje Board of Administration of the British College of Accordionists, that examining body covering the whole of the UK as well as Malta, Rosemary has, for as long as she can recall, been steeped in the music of the accordion.
By the time she was three she had started to play and by the time she was three-and-a-half she was reading music, before, in fact, she could even read the alphabet.
“I don’t remember learning how to play” laughs Rosemary, a Leicester lass through and through “it was just something I was always able to do.”
Solo Concert
At five years old, the stage when most children are just graduating to Primary School to learn the three ‘r’s’ Rosemary had given her first solo concert in Leicester’s Edward Wood Hall. One of her major influences, the great Charles Camilleri, was present to watch the youngster going through her paces.
As 14 she achieved her Licenciate of the British College of Accordionists (LBCA) and the following year started to teach after winning the British Junior Championship, playing her father’s composition ’Extravaganza’ without the benefit of sheet music and before an audience of over 3,000 at the Evening Gala concert.
At that time Rosemary only taught children; adults, no doubt, would have felt intimidated by this perky youngster telling them how it should be done! Passing her ABCA Teacher Diploma at the age of 17 and becoming the first accordionist to be awarded the arduous LBCA (TD) Diploma, Rosemary became an examiner with the College in 1975, since then travelling to most parts of the UK and also to Malta, teaching and conduction examinations.
“I enjoy teaching” she says. “I will instruct anyone who is willing to learn.” Rosemary says she finds girls easier to teach than boys, but as they grow older the male of the species become more persistent as girls find other things to distract them.
Teaching, she says, gives her job satisfaction.
“I enjoy imparting knowledge and I enjoy seeing the results coming from my efforts. What really frustrates me, however, is when someone has the talent but they do nothing about it, or are too lazy to want to do anything about it.”
Rosemary enjoys teaching as much as playing. She herself has given many splendid concert performances over the years, both solo and as leader of the BCA Orchestra, a position she has held since turning 20.
Incidentally, she was the first accordionist to perform with the free-bass at junior level and also the first to perform on the BBC’s local radio network, broadcasting on Radio Leicester only a few weeks after it took to the air as the Beeb’s first local radio station in 1967.
Area Champion
She was 15 at the time and can’t remember what she played, but was asked on to the programme as the East Midlands Area Champion.
During 1981, Rosemary was appointed Vice-Principal by the Governing Council of the College, joining her father Francis (who also by the way edits the revitalized ‘Accordion Times’) on the Board of Administration.
Since then she has added the A.Mus. TCL and the A.Mus. LCM to her extensive list of qualifications and continues to travel throughout the country as an examiner and adjudicator.
Standards of playing, she says, are definitely improving, but like many people who take their accordion seriously, she would like to see it treated with more respect, particularly by the universities.
Rosemary has examined in Scotland five times, and Malta twice. “People take it very seriously over there” she points out, “and standards are improving all the time.” Due, in part, no doubt, to Rosemary’s interest and commitment, although she is too modest to admit it.
She enjoys the accordion for its completeness within itself, for its variety and for its tone. But Rosemary has other strings to her bow. She also enjoys guitar and teaches acoustic guitar. Clarinet and piano are her other talents and Rosemary also used to teach these, but, understandably, finds little time to do so now.
She would like more time for writing, but this is something that will have to be put off for a rainy day – again because of time.
Teaching takes it all, but Rosemary doesn’t mind.
She is impressed by the number of candidates in Scotland eager to sit exams, but even more impressed by the number of people who play the instrument.
“The standards are very high” she explains. “even among people who just play it for entertainment, in folk clubs for example. They obviously simply enjoy playing the instrument and don’t see the need to sit exams in it. Exams are not the be all and end all of tuition. They just provide a useful yardstick for progress.”
And Rosemary is no stranger to Scotland or the Scots. As already pointed out, she is a frequent visitor north of the Border and is also in fact half-Scottish, her mother hailing from Glasgow before she met husband Francis after the last war.
High Standards
Rosemary hesitated to predict what she would be doing in the next 10 or twenty years. There are plenty of options open to her and many things she would like to do. But at the moment she is happy in her work. As long as she stays there and maintains the high standards she has set the future of accordion music, in Britain and Malta, at least is assured.
Box & Fiddle Jan 1983
Year 06 No 05
Max Houliston
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Looking back, Max Houliston could be described as one of the saviours of Scottish accordion music. For it was in the mid-60’s, in the face of declining interest in the accordion, the spread of television and heyday of the Beatles and popular music, that Max, the likeable Dumfries pub licensee and businessman, decided to launch an idea previously unheard of – an Accordion Club.
From those early days, despite a disastrous first night, the movement has spread throughout the country, until now almost any community with an interest in the accordion can boast a Club. And Clubs too have given a lot back, encouraging youngsters, promoting new faces and maintaining interest in one of the finest instruments in the world.
Max himself is staggered by way the movement has taken off. He takes up the story :
“About 1965 I realised that even in the Dumfries area there must be about a dozen players sitting at home unable to find an audience. There was no demand for them. Almost every home had a television and demand for concert parties of singers and musicians had fallen.
“I thought these people deserved to be heard so I advertised in the local paper telling everyone who could play or who wanted to hear the accordion to come along to the ‘Hole I’ the Wa’ Inn’ (the Dumfries Pub that Max took on in 1963.)
That first night in April 1965 did not exactly set the heather on fire. Three players turned up, almost outnumbering the audience! Max thought it was the end but decided to give it another try in September this time announcing Glasgow fiddle player Bobby Harvey as a ‘guest artiste.’
The audience trebled and went on doing that month by month. Word spread that something was going on in the Hole I’ the Wa’ Inn until the lounge bar was packed every month.
“People were even coming from as far afield as Langholm” recalls Max. “They had never heard of an Accordion Club and thought they must come and hear what was going on.”
Those enthusiasts then started their own Club in Langholm and another was started in Gretna by Jimmy Norman and from there the rest is history. Straiton, Galston, Milgavie, Newton St Boswells, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen - Clubs spread northward throughout the country until today some of the best can be heard in the north, in places like the Orkneys and the Shetlands.
“An Accordion Club is marvelous for any youngster” says Max. “They can come along, see how it should be done and get the chance to perform themselves.”
He still can’t quite work out why no-one thought of the idea before. But he reckons he had all the ingredients – a place to perform and his own talent on the piano accordion. “I could start the thing off you see. The opening spot is the worst in any club. But I warmed up the audience and the other players could come on and enjoy themselves.”
Max certainly knows how important it is to be encouraged by others. Three people have featured significantly in his development as a player – his great hero Bobby MacLeod and his old friends and members of his band for almost 20 years, Ian Austin and Gordon Young, both ‘Doonhamers’ hike Max himself.
He began playing when he was ten. His father, Robert, had played button accordion but it was after a friend had given the family a present of a piano accordion that Max started taking lessons in Dumfries with Alex Carter, who died only recently. Carter also taught Max’s near neighbour and close friend Ian Holmes.
That accordion has since disappeared in the mists of time. But Max still plays the accordion – the Hohner Morino Domino V – he first picked up 20 years ago.
He wanted it because he saw Bobby MacLeod playing it one when he came to nearly Moniaive with his band.
“That was the big breakthrough for me” says Max. “After hearing Bobby, I remember leaving the dance hall and thinking ‘I must get home and start practicing right away,’ It was so marvelous to hear him. It was so alive. I just wanted to be like him. It was a magic evening that I will never forget. I thought if I couldn’t play like him I might as well get the same instrument.”
There is a dividing line down Scotland, says Max. The folk on the west still play like Bobby MacLeod and those on the east like Jimmy Shand. First impressions are obviously lasting impressions.
It was after Max came out of two years National Service (during which he played in the Royal Signals Corps Dance Band) that he met up with Ian Austin (now a full-time music teacher) and Gordon Young.
They opened Max’s eyes to the joys of arrangements.
“If I hadn’t met them I would probably have stayed with musicians who would have kept me at the same level.” He reveals. “We started up a band, and for once the leader was probably the poorest musician! They were a bit older than I was, knew the game inside out, and pointed me in the right direction.”
That, says Max, was the turning point. He realised there was more to playing than simply assembling a hotch-potch of musicians and hoping for the best. He also acknowledges a debt to the late Davie Whitehead, ex pianist with the Bobby MacLeod band, who taught him much about modern arrangements.
By 1965, the same year that Max began the Accordion Club, the band had passed an audition with the BBC and performed on the radio in a programme called ‘For Your Entertainment.’
From there they expanded into a six-piece and began broadcasting and touring on a regular basis, including trips to Canada and the south of England.
The band is still the same as it was then and playing better than ever. Max is first accordion, Ian Austin on piano and Gordon Young, bass. The three newcomers are Leadhills gamekeeper Kenny Wilson on fiddle, Billy Thom from Dunblane on drums and Archie Duncan, formerly a resident accordionist with the BBC, on second accordion.
But he has never considered turning professional. “Touring with David Webster down south and in Canada taught me that I just wasn’t suited to living out of a suitcase.” He says. “I’m much too happy with my home life.”
Music is not now the most important thing in Max’s life. He has plenty of other interests to occupy his time. Like, for example, a sports centre next to his sprawling 19th century home on the outskirts of Dumfries. Like the Hole I’ the Wa’ Inn and Oughton’s a former Reo Stakis Restaurant and the new venue for the Accordion Club.
Max still plays of course – four nights a week in the Hole I’ the Wa’ but he admits he just doesn’t have the time to practice as often as he would like.
The Accordion Clubs, he says, have greatly improved the standard of playing.
“It is way above what it was when I started. I don’t know anyone nowadays who goes into a studio without being able to read music. People go to teachers and realise that, if you want to be like the Jim Johnstones and the Paddy Nearys, you must learn the instrument and practice.
“to be quite honest, I find the standard frightening today. I go to Clubs and think ‘why did they invite me here?’ There are semi-professionals on the radio today who are as good as any professional, simply through dedication.”
Modest as ever, that’s our Max. But if it hadn’t been for him would things be as rosy today? That’s something you can talk over – maybe even at the next meeting of you local Accordion Club!
Box & Fiddle Jan 1983
Year 06 No 05
Bill Black
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Although, perhaps not one of the most famous names in Scottish dance music, Bill Black is one of the most respected button accordionists and fiddle players in the country.
Sturdy in stature and honest in nature, his outlook remains that of the modest shepherd he once was. The personification of the quiet, unassuming Scotsman. He would be the last person to admit he was a great player. Far more at home, being one of a company playing music for pleasure at a dance. Even after 32 years in the business he still bristles at the thought of playing the Accordion and Fiddle Clubs where he is the focus of undivided attention.
Former Champion
Bill is a former Champion, taking the Senior Scottish Accordion title at Perth in 1971, and in that same year winning the fiddle award at the Newcastleton Festival.
He is no one-man band, however. Unlike most people in the business he takes his family with him. He has to – they form the rest of the band. Wife Anne (keyboard), sons Robert (19) and Duncan (16) have been playing off and on for the past 10 years. Robert is now in the process of forming his own SDB and Bill recognises that some day soon the family will agree to a parting of the way.
Another member of the family is their only daughter Kathleen. A charming young girl despite natures cruelest fate, she is blind. Despite this affliction, she is an accomplished singer and pianist and accompanies the family at many of the concerts and charity functions throughout the length and breadth of the country. Black, Snr has no regrets. The past ten years have been good to the family and have left the public with a legacy of fine albums, among them ‘The Black Family Favourites’ and ‘Shepherd’s Choice.’
Music Daft
Born just outside Crieff 46 years ago, Bill was raised up on the land. His father Bob was a herd and farm manager and the young Black followed – literally in his footsteps working on the land till 1974, when he left to become an agricultural sales rep and five years later, setting-up partnership in a farming supply business. But he was always daft on music.
“I remember seeing bands like Ian Powrie, Angus Fitchet and The Olympians in my younger days” he recalls. “They had a great influence on me.”
It was the fiddle which first attracted him. In those days there was no electricity in the family home and Bill remembers sitting in the living-room driving his parents crazy with his scratchy attempts at perfecting the catgut.”
“Every penny I got was spent on music” he laughed. “Records were about 2s 6d in old money and that was bad news for the local rabbit population. He heard ‘The Jacqueline Waltz’ by Will Starr and was determined to buy it. So out he went with his snares, collected the goods the following morning. First to the butcher, than to the record shop.
Bill tried to learn through tutor books, but eventually began cycling into Callandar for lessons with Harold Thomson, but Bill was so advanced he ended up teaching the teacher.
His first job was playing ‘You Are My Sunshine’ to a neighbour who came to the door to borrow sugar. She gave him a penny, the first he even earned. “The first penny is the hardest” he chuckled.
Harold and Bill eventually got together in the Teithside Band with Kenny Beaton on button box. After that he joined the Glengarry Band, started by Arthur Easson, later to win fame as drummer in Ian Powrie’s Band.
Moved Out
That outfit broke up when Kenny Beaton, who was a forester, moved out of the area.
Bill too decided to move and ended up in Alyth where he met George Bell, who is blind and now has a broadcasting band. He played piano box and Bill the fiddle, although he eventually took on the button box and mastered it too.
His interest in the accordion actually developed from tinkering around on the melodeon. His involvement with George broke up after he spent a lengthy period in hospital. Bill then formed his own band in 1971, a year which proved a watershed for him.
He entered the Scottish Championship after a great deal of persuasion from Glenalmond’s Jimmy Lindsay. “I never thought I was good enough” he said “but I got through to the finals and finished fifth.”
Bill reached the finals again, finding himself competing against the likes of John Huband, Peter Bruce, Brian Griffin and Donald Ridley.
Having reached the finals in 1971, Jimmy told him to get away from the hall, go for a long walk and not come back until it was time for the finals. “I was really a bag of nerves but somehow I managed to pull it off” smiled Bill.
Selection
His winning selection included a march ‘Mr Michie’ by Angus Fitchet, a strathspey by Scott Skinner, ‘Mrs Martin’ and a new reel then by Tom Anderson ‘Pottinger’s Reel.’
Bill said “I thought that was the ultimate and just didn’t want to play solo any more. I started to get invited to Accordion and Fiddle Clubs after that and it was a nightmare for me. Sometimes I couldn’t eat or sleep for worrying how I would do.”
But he was encouraged to enter the Scottish Trio Championships again and with Jack Lindsay on fiddle and Joan Blue on piano, took the Trio title for the following three years.
By this time, young Robert was playing alongside father and worked his passage by playing solos. “The boys have been forced into playing, but obviously they have shown an interest and skill. They are much better players than I am and know far more about music.” Both boys have competed for and won a variety of championships.
His wife Anne, realised she would never see much of her husband unless she took part. She got stuck into the piano, getting lessons from George Bell. Writing the notes on the keyboard and keeping the household awake during the wee sma’ hours paid off and she has been a member of the band for the past ten years.
In Full Swing
“Being a family and playing together has made a big difference; it has made us very close” said Bill.
The Bill Black SDB were in full swing at this time, but Anne’s job as a nurse and irregular hours, meant they had to find a regular pianist. Bill Lockhart from Perth fitted in nicely and in 1973 the band made their first record – ‘Sounds of the Perthshire Glens.’ The band was Bill (lead box), Jack Ness (second box), Jim Rennie (fiddle), Bruce Wilson (bass) and Billy Anderson (drums).
After Jack Ness emigrated to Canada, Graeme Mitchell from Huntly played second box for the next five years. Bill has nothing but praise for Graeme, who did most of the arranging of the music.
“Graeme lived in Aberdeen then used to travel down every weekend to our dates which could have been as far south as the Borders. He would stay with us on the Saturday night and travel home on the Sunday. He eventually moved further north to Huntly. At this stage we both decided that the distance was just too much of an obstacle.”
Young Duncan, who was by this time an able second box player, joined the band and blended in splendidly.
This signaled a period when the other members of the band went their separate ways and the Black’s began to work together as a unit.
“An old friend of mine, Jim Howie, had been on at me for years to make an album with a picture of myself on the front with my dog and crook” said Bill, “with Peter Shepherd, the Producer, and Robbie Shepherd writing the sleeve notes. With my background it didn’t take much inspiration for a title –‘Shepherd’s Choice’ – and recoded on the Stebelin label C1002.”
Bill acknowledges a wide range of heroes and influences. Among them are Scott Skinner, Ian Powrie, Willie Hunter, Shetland, a tremendous player, and 16-year-old Judith Davidson, a champion fiddler and brilliant with it. She has just won the Senior Golden Fiddle Award after taking the Junior.
As for his own band, Bill, very much involved in business, can see the writing on the wall. Robert has now formed his own broadcasting band and sees himself eventually phasing out altogether. As for retirement, he reckons he’ll take things as they come.
Over the years, the Black Family have provided marvellous entertainment with some thoroughly enjoyable albums behind them and three fine youngsters ready, able and willing to take over and keep the Scottish flag flying.
It is little wonder they are writers’ own Family Favourites.
Box & Fiddle Mar 1983
Year 06 No 07
Accordions Galore Announcement
by Peter Paterson
Top of the bill at the 5th Accordions Galore Show in Motherwell is a young lad from Galashiels, Raymond Chuchuk. With two other lads he will feature the sound of the Raymond Chuchuk Trio.
The Jackie Gall Accordion Orchestra is the big accordion sound of the night. We have the Heather Lads from Ayr featuring Scottish singer Jim Hood ; the John Morgan Accordion Band from Slamanan, featuring Grace Douglas, singer ; Nadia Strock, Champion Highland Dancer ; the Burns Brothers, the 1982 winners of the Will Starr Shield Contest and the annual highlight of the show, the 1983 final of the Will Starr Memorial Shield Contest.
I would like to once again ask for contestants of any age, males or females, to take a chance and enter the eliminating audition for the 1983 Contest.
Over the past five years since the contest’s inception, we have been fortunate to showcase Ian Horsburgh (1979), Ian Skinner (1980), Dianne Armstrong (1981) and the Burns Brothers (1982). All deserving winners with a great injection of new blood and talent into the world of accordion music. I hope this year another new name and sound will be added to the list.
Box & Fiddle Oct 1983
Year 07 No 02
Sandy Watson Stars at Motherwell
by Peter Paterson
Accordions Galore certainly took Motherwell by storm at the Civic Centre Concert Hall. The event was on Friday, 18th November, and was the 5th Annual Concert in memory of the late master accordionist Will Starr.
The show kicked off at 7.40pm, ten minutes later than planned, but from then on it moved slickly and smoothly, whetting the appetites of the appreciative audience with a feat for great accordion music.
John Morgan and his Slamannan Accordion Band were first on stage. They gave a fine programme of varied types of music, leaving the audience asking for more at the end of their spot.
A braw piper took the stage, Doug Ferguson. He accompanied Nadia Strock, a brilliant eight-year-old champion Highland dancer. Her tiny, kilted figure and interpretation of her dance certainly appealed to the audience.
Next was the highlight of the show – the 1983 Will Starr Memorial Shield Contest. This year it featured Graeme Johnston from Coatbridge ; Sandy Watson from Armadale and Ewan Donald from Ayr. These three young lads certainly kept up the standard of contestants that have entered this contest since its inception in 1979.
They all played their various selections with style and confidence, making it hard as usual for the judges.
After the competition, John Morgan came on once again, this time to accompany Grace Douglas. Grace hails from Slamannan and does a fair amount of concerts with John appearing as compere and singer.
On that night, Grace took the role as singer only. She gave an excellent performance with her songs of Scotland.
John Morgan stayed on stage after Grace finished her spot. He certainly had the audience sit up and take notice as he sailed through his solo accordion routine. John, in my estimation, has, as in the tune title, ‘Dancing Fingers.’ All you Accordion Clubs give yourselves a treat by booking John Morgan to come along and entertain.
As John finished, after an encore, it was the turn of our top-of-the-bill the Raymond Chuchuk Trio. This featured Raymond on accordion, Brian Forrest on second box and Bill Gillie on drums. I’m sure they enjoyed the night as much as the audience did, soaking up the applause the audience gave out to this trio. It’s refreshing to hear a trio like this trying something different.
After the interval our accordion orchestra took the stand. This was led by Peter Gardiner from Holytown. Peter is well known in Holytown for his work in encouraging young accordion players in his own band.
The Holytown Band and the Bellmoss Band joined forces to form the orchestra for this show.
They had a tremendous reception during their act and had to do an encore, proving the effect their music had on all who listened.
Then it was the turn of the man himself, the man responsible for Peter Gardiner, John Morgan and the Bellmoss Band performers – Jackie Gall. Jackie Gall taught all of them and is, in fact, still teaching them.
Jackie, in my estimation, stole the show with his style of playing that is very rare these days. He romped through his spot with wartime favourites and marches and then his favourite music – jazz. How masterfully he plays this type of music. In left-hand work I have never seen or heard the equal. He took a couple of encores and could have taken more.
Jackie has been under-estimated over the years. Now being not so young, I still think he could be a great accordion star given the chance.
After Jackie it was the presentation of the Will Starr Memorial Shield for 1983. This year the contest went to Sandy Watson from Armadale, an outstanding performance with years ahead of him to only get better.
It was very close for second and third, but a decision had to be made.
So second was Graeme Johnston from Coatbridge. Graeme had a great attack in his style of playing.
Third, but by no means least, was Ewan Donald all the way from Ayr. Ewan had good stage presence and has confidence. I wish them all the luck in years to come. Keep up their standards.
Margaret Starrs presented the trophies as usual, and she is fairly getting used to this procedure. She looked resplendent in her tartan skirt to suit the occasion.
The individual trophies to the contestants were as usual donated by the Croy Social Club, a gesture which is much appreciated.
Next on stage was Jim Hood from Galston, accompanied by a fine lassie who played the organ. Jim gave us old and new Scottish songs in a fine style. Many thanks Jim.
Then it was the turn of the Burns Brothers from Cumbernauld. These two young men are really something. The harmonies they conjure up are a joy to listen to. Another great act for the Accordion Clubs. The Burns Brothers were the 1982 winners of the Shield.
Our final act once again was the Raymond Chuchuk Trio. Brilliant, excellent, all these adjectives I use to describe their talent. I must mention Brian Forrest. His wee comedy routines are a great boost to the act. Keep it up, Brian.
The Trio was so good I finally had to come on stage to let them finish. They could and would have played all night. The audience would not let them go.
With my usual ‘We’re no awa’ tae bide awa’’, the 1983 Accordions Galore Show moved into history….
Summing –up and from various reports, this show was reckoned to have been the slickest. No time lost, just continuous entertainment. I am certainly glad as this is what I try to achieve.
The proceeds of the show, as in other years, go to a charity. This year the money goes to Spina Bifida.
The 1984 Will Starr Memorial Shield contest is now open. It is open to all amateur accordion players of any age, male or female. At present I am getting the bream of our young accordion talent of which I am grateful.
How about some of the more mature players having a go? How about each accordion club sending one of its outstanding performers to try for next year’s contest?
I have been requested to do a series on Will Starr for the ‘B&F’. Would any reader who has a story to tell about Will, personal or any performance they enjoyed when Will Starr was playing to them?
Anything they would like to be included in the articles, please write to me, giving details, dates etc of the event.
The Will Starr Society would also like photographs of him from people who may have personal snaps of Will, or video recordings or 8mm film, any material or audio cassette recordings.
Box & Fiddle Dec 1983
Year 07 No 04
By Ian Smith
The Tait Hall, Kelso on 7th December, was the perfect venue for Jimmy Clinkscale’s production of No 2 Accordion Bonanza.
We have a lot to be grateful for to Jimmy Clinkscale and all those others who make tapes for us. Each tape is a piece of history. Bonanza No 1 had some great names and this concert, which was also taped, has a further group of star names.
The backing band was in the very capable hands of Iain MacPhail. The compere was Bill Torrance, one of Radio Forth’s greatest characters – comedian, singer, plays guitar, clarinet, penny whistle and moothie. A talented and jovial continuity expert who expertly kept the show cracking along at a good pace.
The show opened with rousing piping by Jimmy McRae and Stuart Robinson , members of Galashiels Pipe Band.
From then on it was a parade of accordion stars – Sandy MacArthur, Ian Wilkie, Robert Whitehead, Paddy Neary, Addie Harper Jnr, Ron Hodgson, Andrew Rankine, Bobby MacLeod with Jim Johnstone, the fabulous Jimmy Blair Quartet, John Carmichael, Gordon Pattullo, surprise guest Max Houliston and a local lad, 14-year-old Raymond Laidlaw, who played the Clinkscale Polka. Thus the first half ended.
The second half was much more relaxing, as the live taping had ended. Methinks the second half should have been taped secretly as the players went to town and thoroughly entertained a full house superbly.
The concert, well beyond its time, ended with a stramash. With such a gathering of famous personalities it was the stramash of a lifetime.
Come on Jimmy Clinkscale, how about Accordion Bonanza No3.
Box & Fiddle Jan 1981
Year 04 No 05
Paddy – Star of the Borders
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Paddy Neary has just finished another concert – an exhibition in the Scottish Borders – and the huddled audience of just over 200 are delighted.
“Incredible” says one man. “Did you see his fingers move?” says another, “They were just a blur!”
That’s the sort of reaction one of Ireland’s best known accordionists has known for most of his life now – and how he enjoys playing well!
“I hate giving a bad performance” says Paddy in that beautifully rounded Irish drawl. “It really depresses me. It’s like the whole world has collapsed around me. The fella who said you’re only as good as your last performance got it right. I feel sick when it happens and can’t wait for the next opportunity to do it all over again.
“It’s because I respect the music so much.”
Music and marriage are Paddy’s two great loves. He tied the knot with his wife June four years ago and feels his music has improved by leaps and bounds because of it.
“I only wish I’d married earlier” he says. He now has two young boys but would not like them to follow their father into a musical career.
“I’d like to see them enjoy music but not take it up professionally” he says.
It’s music that holds him together and his love, nay passion, for it emanates from every fibre of his body.
The man thinks, sleeps, eats and breathes the stuff, a love born out of his parents’ encouragement and his own innate ability. Without it the 33-year-old Irishman is like the shark that must always move in the water les it stagnates and dies.
Paddy was born into a musical background in Ardee, County Louth. His father, Mickey, was a farm labourer whose family had tilled the soil on the same estate for well over 100 years.
His mother loved the classics and Beethoven in particular and it was in this ground that the tended shoots of the young Neary’s budding musical career would take root and flourish. Paddy started plonking away on the piano before he was four, converting the sounds in his head into an elementary musical shape.
As he grew through childhood and listened to, and sometimes even joined in music sessions in the house, his education developed until, at the age of 11, he took up the accordion – a Christmas present from his dad.
He began playing in a three-piece band around the local hotels and also started composing his own tunes.
A capable pianist, even at that tender age, he swept the board with three composed Irish airs at the Newry Music Festival, beating a nearby piano teacher.
Even then he preferred slower, emotional pieces – songs like ‘The Dark Island’ or ‘Londonderry Air.’ “My favourite though is the slow movement from Tchaikovsky’s ‘Pathetique Symphony’”.
“I never play it though because I can hear the orchestra in the background and know what it should be sounding like. Mine is an awful little sound by comparison.”
It was only when Paddy moved to Scotland and purchased an electronic accordion that he began to enjoy playing it.
“It had strings you see, and I love strings. I really detested the accordion before that – it had no feeling or timbre like the piano.”
That was not the major turning point in his career however. Following a three year period in his late teens when he toured America and Germany with a showband, Paddy returned to Ireland and took the All-Ireland Accordion Championship.
He then went to University College, Dublin, and the Royal Irish Academy of Music – both at the same time. It was at the latter that he studied under DR A. J. Potter, a man who was to reveal to him what Paddy now recognises as one of the greatest gifts of music. The ability to approach music from within yourself.
“Before then I had always played a piece from the outside in,” he says “and any emotion which came in the tune was purely accidental. Dr Potter reshaped my whole musical education.”
Like many players, that realization has led him to continually strive to better his own musicianship but it inevitably promptsthe question ‘are you ever satisfied with you own ability?’
“Well my only real ambition is to improve my playing. I have always deeply admired the Norwegian player Toralf Tollefson who, in an age when there were no sophisticated accordions, could produce superb music which I have yet to hear bettered.
Paddy says that the only performance of his own that he would describe as definitive, a piece that he is entirely satisfied with, is ‘The Blue Danube’ by Strauss.
It was only when he moved to Scotland, however, that Paddy finally realised just how much enjoyment his music gave to people.
He came over in 1977 at the invitation of Alex MacArthur from Biggar who met Paddy while judging the All-Ireland Championships that same year. The initial visit consisted of a brief 10-day tour around some of the A&F Clubs, but Paddy was flabbergasted by the response.
“I couldn’t believe the appreciation for what I did”, he says “and made up my mind that I wanted to move to Scotland where there were so many marvellous people who wanted to hear my music.”
With an almost childlike innocence of the gifts he possessed, Paddy continued to impress Scots audiences settling down eventually in Auchterarder.
He says he’s a little bit disappointed with the way the scene has changed in his home country during that time, particularly on the East Coast.
“Most of the venues have become infiltrated with heavy pop music. Most of the time badly performed.
“As in most types of music there is good and bad, but a lot of it seems to be noise for noise’s sake.” He admits, however, to a healthy respect for Stevie Wonder. “He makes lovely music” adds Paddy.
Talking of the charts reminds Paddy that he does, after all, harbour an ambition. “I want to be the first accordionist to take the instrument – solo – to number one in the Hit Parade.”
“I have the tune but I am not going to tell you what it is!”
“What I would really love is to do for the accordion what James Galway has done for the flute. I’ve never met him but I wish I had his fingers” laughs Paddy.
Try telling that to the man in the Scottish Borders!
Box & Fiddle Dec 1981
Year 05 No 05
Robin Brock
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Robin Brock will turn 41 three days before Scotsman all over the world bring in the New Year, accompanied, no doubt, by the kind of music the East Lothian accordionist and double bass supreme has loved passionately for most of his life.
But Robin himself is taking life very easily at the moment.
He has to, having only recently been discharged from hospital following a gall bladder operation.
When asked jokingly if the old maxim about like beginning at 40 was true, he replied “I thought it was finished three weeks ago!”
The doctor has told him he has not to do anything for the next eight weeks, but, “Ach” says Robin “I don’t like just sitting about”.
He certainly has plenty to keep him going. The farm he bought just outside Penicuik just over seven years ago is thriving and has expanded to 175 acres. He employs 40 people and still operates the landscape contracting business he trained for, for over seven years.
Main Interest
Apart from all this, he co-presents ‘Pure Scotch’ with Steve Jack every Friday night on Radio Forth. The programme is a light-hearted, two hour Scottish request programme. However, his main interest every week is his very own programme called ‘Folks Around Robin.’ Every week Robin plays host to a band or well-known group of musicians and records their music. Each selection of music is interspersed with ‘informal blethers’ when the bandleader is invited to introduce members of the band, tunes they play and recount any interesting or amusing incidents from the past.
“There is anything from ten to twelve hours of hard graft involved in any programme” say Robin, “but I really enjoy it. I have been so many places, met so many marvellous people through Scottish music that I’m only to delighted to be able to put something back into it.”
Robin’s programme is obviously the apple of his eye. It is like another child to his apart from Russell (12) and Susan (9), children of his 15-year-marriage to wife Linda.
Credibility
He says he is trying to rid Scottish dance music of the ‘heather, haggis and hairy knees’ image. He is striving to give the music and the musicians the credibility he feels they deserve.
“It has been portrayed like that for far to long. I have believed, passionately, for a long, long time” he continues “that we have musicians here in Scotland who are as good in their chosen field as any other throughout the world”.
Robin’s aim, when initially approached to do the programme by Radio Forth Producer Sandy Wilkie two years ago, was to try something different. Introduce bandleaders to the public, put a personality to the name. Encourage other people to play.
“If as a result of my efforts I have encouraged people to begin playing again or make even one youngster pick up an accordion than I am well satisfied” he states.
He is particularly proud in respect of getting popular bandleader Angus Fitchet and Bobby MacLeod to do their first broadcast with their own bands for over 25 years. No mean achievement and one which speaks volumes for Robin’s dedication and respect in the Scottish dance scene.
He is delighted to sit and chat about the programme. After all, he is still a relative rookie on the other side of the little glass panel.
Robin is grateful to programme controller Tom Steel of Radio Forth for having enough faith in his suggestions to let him carry then through. He says he felt Scottish music was at its lowest ebb two years ago. Playing standards seemed to have fallen. Bands and production staff cared little how the sound came across.
But Robin is quick to qualify that forthright statement by saying “working with musicians from the lesser-known to the top names over the past few years, my faith in Scottish dane music has been restored ten-fold. I am delighted with the enthusiasm now and the huge talent coming through with the youngsters.
No Worries
“If that is what the general standard is like then Scottish dance music need have no worries about the future. But it’s a pity more youngsters are not joining bands instead of playing solo all the time.”
Most people, of course, are aware of Robin’s own particular talent and versatility. He is best known for his work on double bass and accordion, but says he can get a tune out of almost anything.
He has played alongside, for long spells, three of Scottish dance music biggest names – Jim Johnstone, Jimmy Shand and Jim MacLeod. “It is a privilege to have them as friends” he admits. He also had a spell playing for The Corries and has made countless appearances with many other bands and throughout the years has been very busy as a session musician in recording and television studios.
The days with Shand are recalled as “a dream come true.” His admiration for the man knows no bounds. “Without him Scottish dance music as we know it would not have existed” he says. “We own him a great deal.”
Robin joined the Jim Johnstone band when the Tranent born accordionist left Andrew Rankine. After all, Robin was born only a few miles away, at Thorntonloch, an agricultural community now lost for ever under the construction work for the nuclear power station at Torness.
Many Regrets
The Johnstone Band was exceptionally popular, bit it had its disadvantages. Jim was snapped up by Jimmy Shand for his Australian tours, but on his return it was Robin’s turn to join the legend.
Pressure of work in his landscaping business forced Robin, with many regrets, to call it a day.
“But as one door shut, another one opened” he says. Jim MacLeod asked him to do a radio series, ‘On Tour.’ After that most of his playing time was spent in Jim’s base at Dunblane Hydro.
Seven “very happy years” were spent with Jim. “It suited me just fine” Sys Robin “because with Shand it was Fife one night, Southampton the next. I just couldn’t do that. I like some stability and at least with Jim I knew where I would be playing anything up to a year ahead.”
But business commitments one again began to interfere. He had decided to go freelance again when he was approached by Jim Johnstone to do the ‘Songs of Scotland’ series. Robin played in that band for a second spell of almost three years before he again decided to give it a rest.
New Phase
Billy Craib was able to rejoin Jim’s Band and Robin returned to the peace and quiet of his beloved Mauricewood Farm. The good clean air kept him occupied for almost two years without playing a note professionally before a phone call from old friend Ian Holmes, asking his to do a spot on Radio forth, pulled him back to the studio.
That, as Robin was later to discover, would lead to a new phase in his career and the rest, as they say, is history.
Robin’s programme is now amongst the most popular in Scotland and selling well elsewhere. Radios London, Thames and Tay have all bought it and many others are expressing an interest.
So, having been in the main thrust of the revival, is he pleased with the present set-up in Scotland? What does he think of it now?
Revival
“Magnificent, But I would like to see more village halls opening their doors to Scottish dance music again. There seems to be a move into hotel lounges at the moment, but I think if people had the courage to promote dances in halls then the Scottish scene would boom again.”
And he is right. There is an undercurrent now. People genuinely want to dance to Scottish music again, halls are being booked and the promoters and the dance bands are as busy again as they ever were.
“Scottish music will go on forever” concludes Robin. And the programme? “Who knoe’s, even if it ends tomorrow, I can still look back and say that for a couple of years at least my efforts have done something to help revive the music I love.”
Hear, Hear!
Box & Fiddle Feb 1982
Year 05 No 06
Jim Johnstone – Man of Many Talents
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Born in Tranent 44 years ago and raised in an environment passionately obsessed with Scottish music, it was inevitable that the young Jim Johnstone would follow in his father’s footsteps.
But Jim has done more, much more, than simply follow the dictates of his own, particularly impressive, talent.
During a career in which he has appeared with anyone who is anyone in the Scottish Dance Band scene, Jim has played an integral part in furthering the public’s enjoyment of their own unique musical heritage.
Interesting
It is interesting to look back at those days of Jim’s early development as he was extraordinarily fortunate to have been weaned at the very heart of a loving and varied musical environment.
Five of his father’s seven brothers could play the accordion, while another could ca’ oot a tune on the trumpet.
Jim soon developed an interest in the accordion – what else – and was sent for lessons with local teacher Bobby Anderson at the age of nine. “My dad was worried I was learning bad habits” laughs Jim.
Bobby taught the youngster all he knew but after a year “he was realistic enough to realise he had gone far enough and it was time I went to someone else.”
The ‘someone else’ was to be Chrissie Leatham whom Jim recalls as a “great character with a marvelous sense of humour.”
Lessons were not the painful experience akin to a visit to the dentist for young Jim. He took an extra lesson at Chrissie’s Haddington home on the Sundays and so keen was Jim that he remembers his Mum saying “for God’s sake put that thing down!”
Progressing
Jim was by now progressing with such vast leaps and bounds that he was capable of his first broadcast at the age of 13. But it was only through a bet with his father that the strains of ‘Dundee City Police’, ‘’The Atholl Highlanders’ and the ‘Black Mask Waltz’ as performed by a wiry young teenager from Tranent were ever heard on the BBC airwaves.
“My father bet me £1 – it was a lot of money in those days – that I couldn’t pass an audition to appear on ‘Children’s Hour’. I won my pound!”
Jim was attending Preston Lodge School at this time and eventually formed his own band two years later.
They played around East Lothian and the Borders for a time – “great days” – before Jim was forced to leave for his two-year period of National Service in England.
He didn’t want to go – who would? – but his regular visits home at weekends kept him in touch with the family and with playing, as his Uncle John’s Band needed him for Saturday night concerts.
He played with that band for four years – working in Tranent as a mechanic with his father during the day – but Jim was getting restless and looking for a way to develop his career.
Opportunity
The opportunity soon arose when, much to his surprise, he was approached by Andrew Rankine.
Now Jim had always liked Rankine’s band – “they used to swing” – and the offer was one he just couldn’t refuse. The family didn’t like it though. After all, Jim had been a Johnstone player ever since he was a wee laddie.
But off he went.
“It was a step in the right direction” he admits. “My family were all ‘lug’ players, but Rankine’s band were all legitimate musicians. They could read music and play nice arrangements. I felt I should be getting into that.”
And get into it Jim did. Thrown in at the deep end he was forced to either sink or swim. Used to spending weeks with his uncles rehearsing for one concert, he now found himself going into broadcast, with Rankine himself the only one who knew the music which was to be played.
Jim left the band when Andrew announced he was considering emigrating to Australia.
He spent a lot of time forming his own band, gathering around him friends and musicians he had known for a long time. Jim was happy with that line-up – Bobby Colgan on drums, Alan Johnston on fiddle, pianist Davie Flockhart and bassist Robin Brock – but then came the offer from Jimmy Shand and a vastly accelerated lifestyle.
That broadcast in Edinburgh’s Queen Street studios was not Jim’s first encounter with Shand, however. Jimmy had been a regular caller at George Johnstone’s house in Tranent just before the War, at a time when Jim’s father and his Uncle John were themselves weel-kent names in the broadcasting scene.
He says he found touring exhausting. Travel was one of the aspects he disliked most about playing in bands.
“Jimmy Shand was the exception” he says. “He thrived on it. Jimmy was a big, strong man and he had tremendous stamina.”
Jim, of course, is referring to the tours of Australia and New Zealand while he was a member of the great man’s band.
He recalls the first time he played with him “I had my own band at the time, but Jimmy phoned up and asked if I could help him out one night. Naturally, I said I would. It was an honour. After the broadcast he took me aside and said “It’s not the way you play that I like, but you can read music!”
After the exhaustion of touring with the self-styled marathon man, Jim decided to further his experience yet again. This time with Jimmy Blue who had just taken over the Ian Powrie Band.
Increasing the pace to overdrive Jim soon found himself being asked by BBC Producer Iain MacFadyen to form his own band for ‘The White Heather Club’ tours.
Jim was now in constant demand and not just from legitimate ‘White Heather’ dates.
“There were a lot of ‘White Heather Club’ shows at that time” says Jim “but unless Robin Hall, Jimmy McGregor and Andy Stewart were going to be in them I refused to do them. I just said ‘no way’ as they weren’t authentic.”
Yet another example of the thick streak of integrity running through Jim.
Performed
Besides leading his own band, in between playing with Andrew Rankine, Jimmy Shand and Jimmy Blue to name but three, Jim was involved with the incredible successes of the ‘White Heather Club’ TV Shows and tours and is now arranging for, among others, Andy Stewart, Calum Kennedy and the BBC.
One would think from that catalogue of talent that Jim would have enough on his plate. But no, he’s a man of many parts. Not only does he now arrange and play around the dances, but Jim also holds down a highly active job as Entertainments Manager with East Lothian District Council.
It is a post Jim has been in for almost eight years and he obviously thrives on it.
His work in Musselburgh’s Brunton Halls isn’t exactly nine-to-five but the flexible hours allow Jim to control the other aspects of his life and career to his own satisfaction
Convinced
He is convinced he made the right decision all those years ago when faced with the prospect of applying for the job, opening a music shop in Musselburgh or taking on a six-month engagement in an Edinburgh Hotel with Larry Marshall.
“I don’t think it is possible in this day and age to maintain a full-time band, as for instance Jimmy Shand did. There are not so many theatres left in Scotland now and gone are the days when you could become a household name through records.”
It is something Jim – a delightfully warm, friendly and honest character – does not personally regret regarding his own band.
Currently happy with the way things have turned out, he is satisfied to play around the village halls. “Finances don’t worry me” he laughs. “I really enjoy playing to people I know and experiencing that close relationship.”
As for recording, Jim has no immediate plans to make another LP.
“The market is saturated at the moment” he says “it has not done the Scottish record market any good. Anyway I feel I just don’t have the material to warrant bringing out another one.”
That’s our loss and not Jim’s!
Box & Fiddle March 1982
Year 05 No 07
Welcome Addition from Iain
by Jimmy Clinkscale
The name of Iain MacPhail is synonymous with great Scottish Dance Music. Recently, the first Volume of some of his best-known compositions were released, and this will undoubtedly prove a welcome and invaluable addition to the collections of his many devotees.
For anyone who has grown to know his work over the years, the 42 tunes Iain has selected will be instantly recognisable, a collection of ear-catching numbers indelibly stamped with the unmistakable MacPhail trademark.
The Volume has been produced in response to the current demand for his work, and features such well-loved titles as ‘Mrs Mary Printy’ (dedicated to his grandmother), ‘Ray Milbourne’ and ‘Miss Elizabeth Purcell’s Favourite’.
Repayment
For the Argyllshire-born musician, who has firmly established himself among the top ranks of Scottish Dance Band leaders, the Volume is the culmination of 15 years work.
“It is an important milestone for me” he admits. “I write tunes for people. I have met and made so many good friends in my career, that it is one way of repaying kindness given to me.”
The towering six-footer will admit it – he is a great sentimentalist at heart.
Born in Campbeltown, Argyllshire, the young MacPhail was raised on the traditional music of his homeland. When he first began playing tentatively on the melodeon at the age of six, he probably never imagined that one day someone, somewhere would actually want to spend money on his music. But that is what happened.
Iain’s story has been one of hard work and dedication. That iron determination, born of an independent spirit caused by the death of his father when Iain was just seven, has always ensured that MacPhail will be cutting through the red tape, and doing things his way – although, it must be said, not at the expense of others.
After spells with the Jim Nicholson Band and the Strathedin SDB, Iain formed his own outfit in 1969. Five years later, he became Musical director of the Larry Marshall Scottish Cabaret in Edinburgh’s King James Hotel, and his popularity has just continued to grow with tourist and native alike.
And the latter have often grown restless, the traditionalists among them, criticising MacPhail for being what they are not – an experimentalist with imagination.
A passionate lover of traditional music, Iain has listened to the attacks, but contends “Scottish music is a wide open field and there is plenty of room for experiment. Certainly, I use jazz influences, but Duke Ellington once said there are only two types of music with swing – jazz and Scottish Dance music. Let’s face it, the music I am making now could well be regarded as traditional in 50 years’ time anyway.”
Fondly remembered
Tradition, almost ironically, plays a great part in his life. Almost all the tunes in his new book are named after people, either dead or alive, among them his father Dugald, a great melodeon player himself, and still fondly remembered in and around his native Kilberry.
Iain still has his father’s original melodeon – a 60-year-old Hohner DELuxe – proudly kept in tip-top condition and played occasionally. It has grown to be something of a family heirloom.
‘The Rowan Tree’ was the first tune Iain ever played on it, but it was the ‘Bluebell Polka’ popular at the time, which an audience first heard from Iain MacPhail. That was when he was ten at a school concert in Kilberry, a village with a “school, Post Office and a shop.”
From there, Iain moved to secondary school at Tarbert and then, at the age of 15, to Edinburgh. He played ‘diatonic’ at the time but changed to piano when he couldn’t find a teacher for the chromatic instrument – although he later discovered that Chrissie Leatham would have done the trick.
Whilst at school in Edinburgh, Iain met a man whom he says “motivated me to be different in my music.” That man was music teacher Ronald Stevenson, now an internationally famous pianist and composer.
“He played the ‘Laird of Cockpen’ and used ‘Greensleeves’ as a counter-melody” recalls Iain. “He showed me that music was not parochial, that it is a thing to be enjoyed and experienced by all. Stevenson gave me a lot to think about and encouraged me to bring my accordion along to the classes, which was unusual, as it was generally regarded as a very ‘downmarket’ instrument in those days.”
But it was not only Stevenson who influenced the eager to listen and learn MacPhail. The mustachioed maestro of the accordion lists scores of names who have helped him along the way. Among them, Andrew Rankine – “beautiful compositions and marvellous harmonies” , Jim Johnstone – “tremendous professionalism”, Ian Holmes – “magical playing”, Bobby MacLeod – “an emotive player”, Lindsay Ross and Ian Powrie.
Own Style
“They all had something different” Iain concedes. “I took something from them all until I had developed my own style”.
And that style is familiar to us all. A modern, swinging beat which sets the heart straining and the toes tapping.
As a broadcaster, he is highly popular, as a cabaret artiste a cast-iron, gold-plated success, particularly with the tourists, who wallow in a master craftsman’s art six nights a week throughout the summer.
It is a demanding schedule for Iain and his Trio, but they have been doing it for eight years now, so the show runs like clockwork. Prior to the show proper, Iain takes to the stage for a grueling 45-minute solo spot of ‘soup-music’ – and this at the end of a normal working day.
His job in Edinburgh, near Meadowbank Stadium, where he works as a Personnel Officer for the Scottish Prison Service. Iain likes the work, he likes people, but it is his music which makes him tick.
“I love music” he admits. “I enjoy arranging and composing. I must have written about 100 tunes, but I need to be in the mood to write. This is often dependent on the way the music is interpreted by other members of the band. The adrenalin has got to be flowing. All the best tunes are basically simple and written in two minutes – the harmonies take somewhat longer!”
His wife – and secretary – Viola, has, of course, grown used to sharing a marriage with music. Iain’s two children, Catriona, aged 4, and young Iain, aged 8, are also taking an interest, but Dad says he would never push them into a musical career. “Times are changing, and so different from my childhood. In some ways it is a harder field in which to be involved, and the dance scene has been altered by, for instance, the change in the Licensing Laws, which has meant short Saturday dances in the rural areas, or none at all, unfortunately.”
So how does he view the future of the music he loves?
“Well, excuse the pun, it’s in good hands. The standard of playing technically is very high, and it will get better if the youngsters can ally emotion to that. I’ll always go for the fellow who plays with the heart rather than the wrist.”
Anyone who listens to MacPhail, will soon realise he has practiced what he preaches!
Box & Fiddle Sept 1982
Year 06 No 01
Capacity Crowd thrill to Accordion Bonanza
By Aberdeen Press & Journal, Monday 4th October 1982
Jimmy Clinkscale’s ‘Accordion Bonanza’ came to the Capitol Theatre, Aberdeen, on Saturday night and the capacity crowd really lapped it up.
The title conjures up a mass of enthusiastic players dirlin’ out the reels and strathspeys but here he had a highly professional and thoroughly enjoyable show – if just a trifle on the long side. Those with late busses could well have had their problems.
From the strong local opening spot of the Willis Gerrard Accordion Band to the last ounce of applause at the finale, the show ran with scarcely a hitch and this was a mixture of full-time professionals and talented amateurs – some meeting for the first time.
The Accordion Band and also Graham Geddes and Ian Rennie as solo accordionists made sure that the talent of the North-East stood up to the best of them. But for the extra special performances the experience of Jim Johnstone and Paddy Neary shone through.
Jim Johnstone, with a relaxed style and snappy ad-libs, proved that the accordion has the ‘voice’ when properly controlled to hold the entire audience, and Paddy Neary, overcoming a wee technical problem, gave us a wide range of music, demonstrating so ably the attributes of the electronic box.
Don’t get the idea though that it was accordions all the way. Special guests were Alastair Macdonald and Anne Lorne Gillies who know how to woo a North-East audience. These two, along with the ‘Dunecht Loon’, Robbie Shepherd as compere, were in top form and provided the ideal balance to the galaxy of accordions.
Support also came from two young pipers of the 47th Company of Culter Boys’ Brigade, the Bonanza Dancers, and inspired backing from some of Scotland’s top session men led by John Carmichael.
Box & Fiddle Oct 1982
Year 06 No 02
The Story Behind Forth’s ‘Folks’
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Somewhere beneath the Reception area and offices of Radio Forth, in Edinburgh’s New Town, you will find, after being shown through a labyrinth of corridors not unlike a scene from television’s ‘Man from UNCLE,’ the unimposing surroundings of Studio ‘A’, a compact little room dotted with microphones, music stands, tables and recording equipment.
It is here, surrounded by switches, dials, faders and high technology that Robin Brock hosts his highly-popular, hour-long, weekly programme called ‘Folks Around Robin.’
‘Folks’ has been on the air for over three-and-a-half years now. An irresistible mixture of Scottish dance band music, chat and information. In that time Robin has featured a wide variety of bands and artistes, giving an estimated 20,000 listeners a week an insight into the lives and interests of the famous and the not-so-famous.
Robin, of course, is no mere interviewer. His extensive knowledge of Scottish dance band music is derived from a lifelong love of the genre, and experience o0f playing with some of the top names in the business, such as Jimmy Shand, Jim MacLeod and Jim Johnstone.
It is this background which is partly responsible for the programme’s appeal.
As Producer, Sandy Wilkie, points out “I don’t know of any other Scottish music programme that has a presenter who has been involved in the scene as much as Robin has.
“He has sympathy with the musicians. He doesn’t talk down to them and he doesn’t talk up to them. He is on the same level and they relax.”
I spent almost two hours chatting to Robin and Sandy about the programme on the recent visit to Radio Forth. One think that came through was their total dedication to ‘Folks’ and their near obsession with maintaining and improving on its already high standards.
Stirling-born Sandy is, to say the least, a perfectionist.
He has been with Radio Forth since it first took to the air on 22nd January, 1975, and was responsible for pushing up the faders which brought DJ Steve Hamilton’s voice into the homes of the listening public.
Before ‘Folks’ went on the air in February, 1979, the only programme catering for Scottish dance bands on Forth was ‘Pure Scotch,’ the brainchild of Bill Torrance and later hosted by Steve Jack.
However, a chance meeting with Sandy Wilkie in 1978 led to Robin joining ‘Pure Scotch’ for a few minutes a week to do a ‘What’s On’ piece. But I’ll let Sandy take up the story.
“Robin used to sit through the show because he liked it. He would do a few minutes before his spot and a few after and it just grew from there until he was eventually co-presenting the show.
“He was able to inject so much knowledge into it whereas before, Steve, who didn’t know that (clicks fingers) about Scottish music was given the show. And yet he put his whole heart into it and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
“Robin’s enthusiasm got Steve and I going. Honestly, I couldn’t have given tuppence for Scottish music four years ago. It was just another job, but now I can get goosepimples up and down my back when I hear a Scottish band.” And he laughs “I can now get as much of a kick out of Jim Johnstone as I can from listening to The Who.”
The keynote of each programme is undoubtedly the relaxed, informal atmosphere which comes across. But it does not just happen as easily as that. A lot of hard work goes into preparing each programme.
“Very few bands or artistes who come in here have ever been on radio before,” says Sandy. “Now, they don’t know what is going to happen to them when they come in. They are tense, but I can guarantee that anyone who comes in here is relaxed after 30 minutes.”
“No, it’s nothing to do with the valium we put in the coffee,” he jokes. “We have an attitude of mind downstairs that no matter what goes on behind the glass, no matter what technical hassles we have, they are never expressed to the band on the other side of it.
“Everything is A OK and we are having lots of fun.”
Robin, he points out, is largely responsible for that. Helping and advising with little problems that crop up. But he has one unusual method of gently bringing a ‘take’ that is not quite right to a close.
“He just puts on a cartridge of a dog howling,” says Sandy. “The band suddenly hears this dog yelping. They start looking round wondering what on earth is happening and realise that something is not quite right. It brings everything to a halt, but at least they can laugh about it.”
Robin is not beyond joking at the expense of his colleagues either. Sandy recalls one occasion when Robin was on the air with Steve Jack. Steve had just opened his mike when Robin turned his head away to turn back seconds later with his glasses on upside down and his teeth out.
“He just sat staring at Steve,” says Sandy “and the place fell apart.”
It is that kind of banter which brings the best out in Robin’s guests. John Ellis – who, incidentally, holds the record for recording a session in only 48 minutes – talked about racing pigeons, while Jim Johnstone revealed a love of sailing.
“It is like Desert Island Discs without the desert island,” quips Robin.
But the most important ingredient, of course, is the music itself. Robin feels it is vital that what is broadcast is given the nod by the bandleader himself.
“They complained for many years that the sound was not right on their broadcasts, but we always make a point of balancing it to their satisfaction. We treat it as a compliment now that many bands just say “We’ll leave it to you, Sandy.”
Sandy takes up the point “if they come up to me and say ‘no, too much fiddle, more piano’ that is exactly what they will get – whether we agree with it or not. It is their particular sound that we are trying to recreate. Jim Johnstone, for example, likes second box to be something that is felt and not heard.”
But no matter how impressive the recording equipment looks, just like a computer, if you put garbage in, garbage will come out.
“We cannot work miracles,” insists Robin. “We cannot make a Scottish dance band sound like Mantovani. But that’s one of the things that has really impressed me about this series. I can honestly say that 99.9% of the bands who come in here do a good job.”
After over three-and-a-half years ‘Folks Around Robin’ looks like going on forever. Its format has proved popular beyond either Sandy or Robin’s wildest dreams. Radio Tay now takes the programme and many more, even in England, have shown an interest.
Both men look forward to the future but they are refreshingly responsive to the needs of the listening public.
“They are our bosses at the end of the day,” says Robin. “If we are making a product they like, then they will keep listening. And in commercial radio that is the name of the game.
“We work to a formula of integrity and credibility. I once said to Sandy that if we had to compromise our standards I would leave right away. I put Scottish music above everything. I am technically irrelevant in a sense. It could have been Jim Johnstone, it could have been John Carmichael. I was just in the right place at the right time, and was able to take my place on the team.”
Box & Fiddle Oct 1982
Year 06 No 02
Englishman’s Love of Scottish Music
By Jimmy Clinkscale
Ron Hodgson may not be one of the more familiar names on the Scottish accordion scene, but he is up there with the best of them in his love for the music, its traditions and its future.
Being an Englishman, Ron has lived in what, he says, is almost a backwater for the instrument. “There is just not the same tradition surrounding the accordion south of the Border as there is further north of Gretna Green.”
Lone Furrow
He has never left his native Carlisle, where he has run an Accordion School since 1957. Ron has ploughed a lone furrow in that area for the past 24 years. So barren is the tract between Glasgow and Manchester that pupils come to him from as far afield as Preston, Jarrow, Dumfries and Whitehaven.
“Musically, there is a stone wall between England and Scotland” he says. “The accordion stops at Gretna Green. There are a few Clubs in England, but they are few and far between.”
Ron admits, wryly, that as a musician he wishes he had not been born a Sassenach. He loves the tradition of the Scottish Clubs and speaks of the accordion and Scotland in the same breath.
“It is the national instrument of Scotland” he says. “Nothing can approach the accordion playing of the Scottish boys, even today.”
As the recently appointed Chairman of the National Accordion Organisation of Great Britain, Ron, at 53 years old and with a lifetimes love of accordion music behind him, sees it as his solemn duty to break down barriers, widen the horizons of the instrument, go where no man has gone before.
He is immensely proud of his three-year appointment and sees it as his business to spread the gospel as far and as wide as possible within that period.
He says “The accordion is still looked down on in some circles because it was once a pub instrument. Admittedly there have been some steps forward – you can take the ‘O’ Grades in it now for example – but I want to see it accepted as a major musical instrument.”
Ron strongly believes it is about time the Music Colleges in the United Kingdom accepted the accordion on its merits. “The UK is now the only country in the world where this is not the case” he says.
By working actively on its behalf, Ron hopes to see the membership of the NAO blossom from its present total of around 4,000.
“I want to put the accordion on the map in Great Britain” he says. “It is a great shame, to my mind, that some of the great ambassadors of the accordion, such as Jimmy Shand and Toralf Tolleffson, have never been heard outside the accordion world.”
Great Hero
Tolleffson, in fact, is one of Ron’s great heroes. Ron met him backstage once at a concert in Dumfries, and calls him “The Gentleman of the Accordion World.”
The great Norwegian player was only one of Ron’s influences in those early days. The others, co-incidentally, were all Continental as well.
It was in his early teens that he developed an interest in the accordion. Born of a working class family in Carlisle – where his father was a train driver – Ron’s earliest ambition was to play the trumpet. Just like Harry James!
Understandably, mother Hodgson was somewhat aghast at the thought of her young son practising in the house, so she encouraged him to opt for a bike instead.
However, it was on his way with his mother to purchase that very commodity when Ron spied a shop with a ‘lovely accordion’ in the window.
He had never even heard the instrument before but knew he wanted it and the young Hodgson got his way. It was a small Midella.
But Ron was horrified when he realised he could not just put it on and play immediately. That meant lessons, and as there were no accordion instructors in Carlisle at the time, that meant lessons with an organist.
To cut a long story short, he did find another instructor – Billy Stewart – but His Majesty George VI intervened, and Ron was called up to serve in the Royal Army Service Corps.
It was during tours of duty in Northern Germany and Holland that Ron really became hooked on the accordion.
“It was there that I heard the accordion being played as it should be” he says. A visit to a restaurant in the Hook of Holland introduced him to the sounds of Art Van Damm – “a fantastic jazz player” – and it was from that point on that Ron knew his future lay in accordion music.
He passed an audition for the Combined Services Entertainmant Corps in 1949, but did nott have enough service left to warrant a transfer, so he was demobbed the same year.
After coming fourth in the British Championships, Ron joined the Northern Variety Orchestra in Manchester under the leadership of Alyn Ainsworth.
Although that was Ron’s first taste of professional work, he has never considered turning ‘pro’ full time. Now a Stores Officer with the Air Ministry in Carlisle, Ron’s range of work over the years has been impressive, including such glamorous positions as apprentice cobbler, plumber’s mate and assistant groundsman at the local cricket club!
Famous Protege
By 1957 Ron had started his own Accordion School and with his own Dance Band was playing all over the North of England. He and his Moffat-born wife Margaret used to play duets together before they were married in 1952, and Margaret still helps out with the administrative side of things at the school.
Although Ron has taught many aspiring young accordionists over the years, perhaps his most famous protégé is Max Houliston, who now runs ‘The Hole in the Wa’ Club’ in Dumfries.
In fact, Ron made a record with Max. It was called ‘On the Piazza’ with music arranged by Gordon Langford. Despite the fact that he appears on it, Ron, unabashed, regards the record, one of his rare appearances on vinyl, as “one of the finest Continental LPs ever made.” Ron also recorded a track on ‘Accordion Bonanza No 2’ live from the Tait Hall in Kelso, on the Stebelin label No C1003.
But these days there are two major apples of his eye. One is son Ivor (23) who recently appeared at the Proms playing bass with the BBC Concert Orchestra, and the other is his Accordion Orchestra – winners of the All-British championship on no less than two occasions.
“It is just like one big family” enthuses Ron, a barely perceptible glisten appearing in his eye.
“They are an Orchestra, not a band, and I write for them with this in mind. I like to try and get away from the old, hackneyed style of writing.”
His major ambition now is to see the Orchestra play in Carlisle’s twin town of Flensberg in Germany. “As soon as they are ready musically, they will go” he says. It is almost as if he hopes to give something back to the country which inspired him so many years ago.
For Ron has a tremendous respect for the musical achievement of other countries.
He recalls a trip to Russia for the World Youth Festival in 1957. Ron won the Silver Medal and was one of a three-member team representing Great Britain.
“A 22-year-old Russian won the competition” he says. “He played his own arrangement of Bach’s ‘Toccato in Fuque in D Minor’!
But he wasn’t just an accordion player. He could conduct, compose and he was a Professor of Music. Yet he was just one of hundreds over there. Hundreds just like him.”
And he concludes, “If people could only hear the type of players which are being produced over there, they wouldn’t believe it. I would like to see every accordion player in this country like that Russian. As Chairman of the NAO I am in an ideal position to do just that!”
Since our interview during the summer, Ron has been recommended by the Board of Administration, and its President, Mr Ivor J. Benyon, to the Governing Council of the British College of Accordionists for membership of the Board of Examiners of that august body.
Box & Fiddle Dec 1982
Year 06 No 04
Final Accordion Bonanza
by Ian Smith
The final Accordion Bonanza was held in the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, on 12th December, the perfect way to begin the Festive Season. This was also Christmas present time for the winners of the three competitions and for once the veterans of the music world stole a march as there wasn’t a youngster in sight.
Well done Alf Silk, Sandy Ingram and John Leslie, you can still show the youngsters a thing or two. This night there were no stars. There couldn’t be as they were all stars in their own right; indeed, each star could head his own show.
The concert got off to a fine start with the Borthwick and District Pipe Band being joined by John Carmichael and his five-piece SDB, accordion, two guitars, piano and drums and they too were joined by the agile Bonanza Dancers, two ladies and four pretty lassies. This was a slick way to start and the fun was kept going by the two comperes Robbie Shepherd and Bill Torrance with their bubbling humour.
Robert and Duncan Black appeared then and treated the audience to some great music, followed by Bill Torrance singing ‘Jock o’ Hazeldean’, with girls weaving a dream dance magic.
Another accordionist, this time Graham Geddes, who kept up the high standard. A change followed with the smooth fiddle of Angus Cameron, a treat for the fiddle conscious.
Bill Black with his button box then entertained as only Bill can.
A duet from Iain MacPhail and Brian Griffin who were joined once again by the Bonanza Dancers and so ended the first half.
The interval was necessary to enable everyone to come back to earth and get their breath back.
Second Half
Immediately the second half started, everyone was once again uplifted by the Jimmy Blair Accordion Orchestra. It was sheer delight to listen to this fine group of talented youngsters.
The results of the competitions came next and were presented by Jimmy Clinkscale. This was for new written music. The Angus Fitchet Trophy is for a traditional fiddle tune and this was won by Sandy Ingram from Forfar for his slow air ‘Peggy Scott’s Delight.’ The Bobby MacLeod Trophy is for a Continental or Musette style piece and this was won by one of life’s gentlemen - Alf Silk from Kilmarnock. A roar of approval went up when his name was announced. The third trophy is the Iain MacPhail Cup for a traditional accordion piece. This one was also a popular winner – John Leslie from Dunbar, with his tune ‘Mr and Mrs Leslie of Grant House’ The three winners were well received, especially when they all elected to play their tunes themselves.
These trophies will be held for one year then competed for again.
The concert was going at a fair pace, no time to breathe, as this magic continued. John Carmichael and his Band and once again the dream weaving of the dancers; a duet by Robbie and Bill had the audience reeling and once again Iain and Brian, all leading up to a crescendo and without hesitation out stepped the lovely Anne Lorne Gillies in a dream of a dress and cast her spell to perfection.
All too soon it was the turn of Jim Johnstone to end a perfect night for this capacity crowd.
Our thanks must go to Jimmy Clinkscale for putting this show together. It confirms that if the theatres put on shows like this they could fill the seats.
Box & Fiddle Jan 1983
Year 06 No 05
Rosemary Wright
by Jimmy Clinkscale
The British College of Accordionists has as its Vice-Principal Rosemary Wright, a woman who has made the accordion her life’s work. And life is the operative word, for Rosemary, still the right side of 30, cannot remember a time when she could not play or read music.
The daughter of music publisher, arranger, teacher and composer Francis Wright, himself Chairman of thje Board of Administration of the British College of Accordionists, that examining body covering the whole of the UK as well as Malta, Rosemary has, for as long as she can recall, been steeped in the music of the accordion.
By the time she was three she had started to play and by the time she was three-and-a-half she was reading music, before, in fact, she could even read the alphabet.
“I don’t remember learning how to play” laughs Rosemary, a Leicester lass through and through “it was just something I was always able to do.”
Solo Concert
At five years old, the stage when most children are just graduating to Primary School to learn the three ‘r’s’ Rosemary had given her first solo concert in Leicester’s Edward Wood Hall. One of her major influences, the great Charles Camilleri, was present to watch the youngster going through her paces.
As 14 she achieved her Licenciate of the British College of Accordionists (LBCA) and the following year started to teach after winning the British Junior Championship, playing her father’s composition ’Extravaganza’ without the benefit of sheet music and before an audience of over 3,000 at the Evening Gala concert.
At that time Rosemary only taught children; adults, no doubt, would have felt intimidated by this perky youngster telling them how it should be done! Passing her ABCA Teacher Diploma at the age of 17 and becoming the first accordionist to be awarded the arduous LBCA (TD) Diploma, Rosemary became an examiner with the College in 1975, since then travelling to most parts of the UK and also to Malta, teaching and conduction examinations.
“I enjoy teaching” she says. “I will instruct anyone who is willing to learn.” Rosemary says she finds girls easier to teach than boys, but as they grow older the male of the species become more persistent as girls find other things to distract them.
Teaching, she says, gives her job satisfaction.
“I enjoy imparting knowledge and I enjoy seeing the results coming from my efforts. What really frustrates me, however, is when someone has the talent but they do nothing about it, or are too lazy to want to do anything about it.”
Rosemary enjoys teaching as much as playing. She herself has given many splendid concert performances over the years, both solo and as leader of the BCA Orchestra, a position she has held since turning 20.
Incidentally, she was the first accordionist to perform with the free-bass at junior level and also the first to perform on the BBC’s local radio network, broadcasting on Radio Leicester only a few weeks after it took to the air as the Beeb’s first local radio station in 1967.
Area Champion
She was 15 at the time and can’t remember what she played, but was asked on to the programme as the East Midlands Area Champion.
During 1981, Rosemary was appointed Vice-Principal by the Governing Council of the College, joining her father Francis (who also by the way edits the revitalized ‘Accordion Times’) on the Board of Administration.
Since then she has added the A.Mus. TCL and the A.Mus. LCM to her extensive list of qualifications and continues to travel throughout the country as an examiner and adjudicator.
Standards of playing, she says, are definitely improving, but like many people who take their accordion seriously, she would like to see it treated with more respect, particularly by the universities.
Rosemary has examined in Scotland five times, and Malta twice. “People take it very seriously over there” she points out, “and standards are improving all the time.” Due, in part, no doubt, to Rosemary’s interest and commitment, although she is too modest to admit it.
She enjoys the accordion for its completeness within itself, for its variety and for its tone. But Rosemary has other strings to her bow. She also enjoys guitar and teaches acoustic guitar. Clarinet and piano are her other talents and Rosemary also used to teach these, but, understandably, finds little time to do so now.
She would like more time for writing, but this is something that will have to be put off for a rainy day – again because of time.
Teaching takes it all, but Rosemary doesn’t mind.
She is impressed by the number of candidates in Scotland eager to sit exams, but even more impressed by the number of people who play the instrument.
“The standards are very high” she explains. “even among people who just play it for entertainment, in folk clubs for example. They obviously simply enjoy playing the instrument and don’t see the need to sit exams in it. Exams are not the be all and end all of tuition. They just provide a useful yardstick for progress.”
And Rosemary is no stranger to Scotland or the Scots. As already pointed out, she is a frequent visitor north of the Border and is also in fact half-Scottish, her mother hailing from Glasgow before she met husband Francis after the last war.
High Standards
Rosemary hesitated to predict what she would be doing in the next 10 or twenty years. There are plenty of options open to her and many things she would like to do. But at the moment she is happy in her work. As long as she stays there and maintains the high standards she has set the future of accordion music, in Britain and Malta, at least is assured.
Box & Fiddle Jan 1983
Year 06 No 05
Max Houliston
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Looking back, Max Houliston could be described as one of the saviours of Scottish accordion music. For it was in the mid-60’s, in the face of declining interest in the accordion, the spread of television and heyday of the Beatles and popular music, that Max, the likeable Dumfries pub licensee and businessman, decided to launch an idea previously unheard of – an Accordion Club.
From those early days, despite a disastrous first night, the movement has spread throughout the country, until now almost any community with an interest in the accordion can boast a Club. And Clubs too have given a lot back, encouraging youngsters, promoting new faces and maintaining interest in one of the finest instruments in the world.
Max himself is staggered by way the movement has taken off. He takes up the story :
“About 1965 I realised that even in the Dumfries area there must be about a dozen players sitting at home unable to find an audience. There was no demand for them. Almost every home had a television and demand for concert parties of singers and musicians had fallen.
“I thought these people deserved to be heard so I advertised in the local paper telling everyone who could play or who wanted to hear the accordion to come along to the ‘Hole I’ the Wa’ Inn’ (the Dumfries Pub that Max took on in 1963.)
That first night in April 1965 did not exactly set the heather on fire. Three players turned up, almost outnumbering the audience! Max thought it was the end but decided to give it another try in September this time announcing Glasgow fiddle player Bobby Harvey as a ‘guest artiste.’
The audience trebled and went on doing that month by month. Word spread that something was going on in the Hole I’ the Wa’ Inn until the lounge bar was packed every month.
“People were even coming from as far afield as Langholm” recalls Max. “They had never heard of an Accordion Club and thought they must come and hear what was going on.”
Those enthusiasts then started their own Club in Langholm and another was started in Gretna by Jimmy Norman and from there the rest is history. Straiton, Galston, Milgavie, Newton St Boswells, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen - Clubs spread northward throughout the country until today some of the best can be heard in the north, in places like the Orkneys and the Shetlands.
“An Accordion Club is marvelous for any youngster” says Max. “They can come along, see how it should be done and get the chance to perform themselves.”
He still can’t quite work out why no-one thought of the idea before. But he reckons he had all the ingredients – a place to perform and his own talent on the piano accordion. “I could start the thing off you see. The opening spot is the worst in any club. But I warmed up the audience and the other players could come on and enjoy themselves.”
Max certainly knows how important it is to be encouraged by others. Three people have featured significantly in his development as a player – his great hero Bobby MacLeod and his old friends and members of his band for almost 20 years, Ian Austin and Gordon Young, both ‘Doonhamers’ hike Max himself.
He began playing when he was ten. His father, Robert, had played button accordion but it was after a friend had given the family a present of a piano accordion that Max started taking lessons in Dumfries with Alex Carter, who died only recently. Carter also taught Max’s near neighbour and close friend Ian Holmes.
That accordion has since disappeared in the mists of time. But Max still plays the accordion – the Hohner Morino Domino V – he first picked up 20 years ago.
He wanted it because he saw Bobby MacLeod playing it one when he came to nearly Moniaive with his band.
“That was the big breakthrough for me” says Max. “After hearing Bobby, I remember leaving the dance hall and thinking ‘I must get home and start practicing right away,’ It was so marvelous to hear him. It was so alive. I just wanted to be like him. It was a magic evening that I will never forget. I thought if I couldn’t play like him I might as well get the same instrument.”
There is a dividing line down Scotland, says Max. The folk on the west still play like Bobby MacLeod and those on the east like Jimmy Shand. First impressions are obviously lasting impressions.
It was after Max came out of two years National Service (during which he played in the Royal Signals Corps Dance Band) that he met up with Ian Austin (now a full-time music teacher) and Gordon Young.
They opened Max’s eyes to the joys of arrangements.
“If I hadn’t met them I would probably have stayed with musicians who would have kept me at the same level.” He reveals. “We started up a band, and for once the leader was probably the poorest musician! They were a bit older than I was, knew the game inside out, and pointed me in the right direction.”
That, says Max, was the turning point. He realised there was more to playing than simply assembling a hotch-potch of musicians and hoping for the best. He also acknowledges a debt to the late Davie Whitehead, ex pianist with the Bobby MacLeod band, who taught him much about modern arrangements.
By 1965, the same year that Max began the Accordion Club, the band had passed an audition with the BBC and performed on the radio in a programme called ‘For Your Entertainment.’
From there they expanded into a six-piece and began broadcasting and touring on a regular basis, including trips to Canada and the south of England.
The band is still the same as it was then and playing better than ever. Max is first accordion, Ian Austin on piano and Gordon Young, bass. The three newcomers are Leadhills gamekeeper Kenny Wilson on fiddle, Billy Thom from Dunblane on drums and Archie Duncan, formerly a resident accordionist with the BBC, on second accordion.
But he has never considered turning professional. “Touring with David Webster down south and in Canada taught me that I just wasn’t suited to living out of a suitcase.” He says. “I’m much too happy with my home life.”
Music is not now the most important thing in Max’s life. He has plenty of other interests to occupy his time. Like, for example, a sports centre next to his sprawling 19th century home on the outskirts of Dumfries. Like the Hole I’ the Wa’ Inn and Oughton’s a former Reo Stakis Restaurant and the new venue for the Accordion Club.
Max still plays of course – four nights a week in the Hole I’ the Wa’ but he admits he just doesn’t have the time to practice as often as he would like.
The Accordion Clubs, he says, have greatly improved the standard of playing.
“It is way above what it was when I started. I don’t know anyone nowadays who goes into a studio without being able to read music. People go to teachers and realise that, if you want to be like the Jim Johnstones and the Paddy Nearys, you must learn the instrument and practice.
“to be quite honest, I find the standard frightening today. I go to Clubs and think ‘why did they invite me here?’ There are semi-professionals on the radio today who are as good as any professional, simply through dedication.”
Modest as ever, that’s our Max. But if it hadn’t been for him would things be as rosy today? That’s something you can talk over – maybe even at the next meeting of you local Accordion Club!
Box & Fiddle Jan 1983
Year 06 No 05
Bill Black
by Jimmy Clinkscale
Although, perhaps not one of the most famous names in Scottish dance music, Bill Black is one of the most respected button accordionists and fiddle players in the country.
Sturdy in stature and honest in nature, his outlook remains that of the modest shepherd he once was. The personification of the quiet, unassuming Scotsman. He would be the last person to admit he was a great player. Far more at home, being one of a company playing music for pleasure at a dance. Even after 32 years in the business he still bristles at the thought of playing the Accordion and Fiddle Clubs where he is the focus of undivided attention.
Former Champion
Bill is a former Champion, taking the Senior Scottish Accordion title at Perth in 1971, and in that same year winning the fiddle award at the Newcastleton Festival.
He is no one-man band, however. Unlike most people in the business he takes his family with him. He has to – they form the rest of the band. Wife Anne (keyboard), sons Robert (19) and Duncan (16) have been playing off and on for the past 10 years. Robert is now in the process of forming his own SDB and Bill recognises that some day soon the family will agree to a parting of the way.
Another member of the family is their only daughter Kathleen. A charming young girl despite natures cruelest fate, she is blind. Despite this affliction, she is an accomplished singer and pianist and accompanies the family at many of the concerts and charity functions throughout the length and breadth of the country. Black, Snr has no regrets. The past ten years have been good to the family and have left the public with a legacy of fine albums, among them ‘The Black Family Favourites’ and ‘Shepherd’s Choice.’
Music Daft
Born just outside Crieff 46 years ago, Bill was raised up on the land. His father Bob was a herd and farm manager and the young Black followed – literally in his footsteps working on the land till 1974, when he left to become an agricultural sales rep and five years later, setting-up partnership in a farming supply business. But he was always daft on music.
“I remember seeing bands like Ian Powrie, Angus Fitchet and The Olympians in my younger days” he recalls. “They had a great influence on me.”
It was the fiddle which first attracted him. In those days there was no electricity in the family home and Bill remembers sitting in the living-room driving his parents crazy with his scratchy attempts at perfecting the catgut.”
“Every penny I got was spent on music” he laughed. “Records were about 2s 6d in old money and that was bad news for the local rabbit population. He heard ‘The Jacqueline Waltz’ by Will Starr and was determined to buy it. So out he went with his snares, collected the goods the following morning. First to the butcher, than to the record shop.
Bill tried to learn through tutor books, but eventually began cycling into Callandar for lessons with Harold Thomson, but Bill was so advanced he ended up teaching the teacher.
His first job was playing ‘You Are My Sunshine’ to a neighbour who came to the door to borrow sugar. She gave him a penny, the first he even earned. “The first penny is the hardest” he chuckled.
Harold and Bill eventually got together in the Teithside Band with Kenny Beaton on button box. After that he joined the Glengarry Band, started by Arthur Easson, later to win fame as drummer in Ian Powrie’s Band.
Moved Out
That outfit broke up when Kenny Beaton, who was a forester, moved out of the area.
Bill too decided to move and ended up in Alyth where he met George Bell, who is blind and now has a broadcasting band. He played piano box and Bill the fiddle, although he eventually took on the button box and mastered it too.
His interest in the accordion actually developed from tinkering around on the melodeon. His involvement with George broke up after he spent a lengthy period in hospital. Bill then formed his own band in 1971, a year which proved a watershed for him.
He entered the Scottish Championship after a great deal of persuasion from Glenalmond’s Jimmy Lindsay. “I never thought I was good enough” he said “but I got through to the finals and finished fifth.”
Bill reached the finals again, finding himself competing against the likes of John Huband, Peter Bruce, Brian Griffin and Donald Ridley.
Having reached the finals in 1971, Jimmy told him to get away from the hall, go for a long walk and not come back until it was time for the finals. “I was really a bag of nerves but somehow I managed to pull it off” smiled Bill.
Selection
His winning selection included a march ‘Mr Michie’ by Angus Fitchet, a strathspey by Scott Skinner, ‘Mrs Martin’ and a new reel then by Tom Anderson ‘Pottinger’s Reel.’
Bill said “I thought that was the ultimate and just didn’t want to play solo any more. I started to get invited to Accordion and Fiddle Clubs after that and it was a nightmare for me. Sometimes I couldn’t eat or sleep for worrying how I would do.”
But he was encouraged to enter the Scottish Trio Championships again and with Jack Lindsay on fiddle and Joan Blue on piano, took the Trio title for the following three years.
By this time, young Robert was playing alongside father and worked his passage by playing solos. “The boys have been forced into playing, but obviously they have shown an interest and skill. They are much better players than I am and know far more about music.” Both boys have competed for and won a variety of championships.
His wife Anne, realised she would never see much of her husband unless she took part. She got stuck into the piano, getting lessons from George Bell. Writing the notes on the keyboard and keeping the household awake during the wee sma’ hours paid off and she has been a member of the band for the past ten years.
In Full Swing
“Being a family and playing together has made a big difference; it has made us very close” said Bill.
The Bill Black SDB were in full swing at this time, but Anne’s job as a nurse and irregular hours, meant they had to find a regular pianist. Bill Lockhart from Perth fitted in nicely and in 1973 the band made their first record – ‘Sounds of the Perthshire Glens.’ The band was Bill (lead box), Jack Ness (second box), Jim Rennie (fiddle), Bruce Wilson (bass) and Billy Anderson (drums).
After Jack Ness emigrated to Canada, Graeme Mitchell from Huntly played second box for the next five years. Bill has nothing but praise for Graeme, who did most of the arranging of the music.
“Graeme lived in Aberdeen then used to travel down every weekend to our dates which could have been as far south as the Borders. He would stay with us on the Saturday night and travel home on the Sunday. He eventually moved further north to Huntly. At this stage we both decided that the distance was just too much of an obstacle.”
Young Duncan, who was by this time an able second box player, joined the band and blended in splendidly.
This signaled a period when the other members of the band went their separate ways and the Black’s began to work together as a unit.
“An old friend of mine, Jim Howie, had been on at me for years to make an album with a picture of myself on the front with my dog and crook” said Bill, “with Peter Shepherd, the Producer, and Robbie Shepherd writing the sleeve notes. With my background it didn’t take much inspiration for a title –‘Shepherd’s Choice’ – and recoded on the Stebelin label C1002.”
Bill acknowledges a wide range of heroes and influences. Among them are Scott Skinner, Ian Powrie, Willie Hunter, Shetland, a tremendous player, and 16-year-old Judith Davidson, a champion fiddler and brilliant with it. She has just won the Senior Golden Fiddle Award after taking the Junior.
As for his own band, Bill, very much involved in business, can see the writing on the wall. Robert has now formed his own broadcasting band and sees himself eventually phasing out altogether. As for retirement, he reckons he’ll take things as they come.
Over the years, the Black Family have provided marvellous entertainment with some thoroughly enjoyable albums behind them and three fine youngsters ready, able and willing to take over and keep the Scottish flag flying.
It is little wonder they are writers’ own Family Favourites.
Box & Fiddle Mar 1983
Year 06 No 07
Accordions Galore Announcement
by Peter Paterson
Top of the bill at the 5th Accordions Galore Show in Motherwell is a young lad from Galashiels, Raymond Chuchuk. With two other lads he will feature the sound of the Raymond Chuchuk Trio.
The Jackie Gall Accordion Orchestra is the big accordion sound of the night. We have the Heather Lads from Ayr featuring Scottish singer Jim Hood ; the John Morgan Accordion Band from Slamanan, featuring Grace Douglas, singer ; Nadia Strock, Champion Highland Dancer ; the Burns Brothers, the 1982 winners of the Will Starr Shield Contest and the annual highlight of the show, the 1983 final of the Will Starr Memorial Shield Contest.
I would like to once again ask for contestants of any age, males or females, to take a chance and enter the eliminating audition for the 1983 Contest.
Over the past five years since the contest’s inception, we have been fortunate to showcase Ian Horsburgh (1979), Ian Skinner (1980), Dianne Armstrong (1981) and the Burns Brothers (1982). All deserving winners with a great injection of new blood and talent into the world of accordion music. I hope this year another new name and sound will be added to the list.
Box & Fiddle Oct 1983
Year 07 No 02
Sandy Watson Stars at Motherwell
by Peter Paterson
Accordions Galore certainly took Motherwell by storm at the Civic Centre Concert Hall. The event was on Friday, 18th November, and was the 5th Annual Concert in memory of the late master accordionist Will Starr.
The show kicked off at 7.40pm, ten minutes later than planned, but from then on it moved slickly and smoothly, whetting the appetites of the appreciative audience with a feat for great accordion music.
John Morgan and his Slamannan Accordion Band were first on stage. They gave a fine programme of varied types of music, leaving the audience asking for more at the end of their spot.
A braw piper took the stage, Doug Ferguson. He accompanied Nadia Strock, a brilliant eight-year-old champion Highland dancer. Her tiny, kilted figure and interpretation of her dance certainly appealed to the audience.
Next was the highlight of the show – the 1983 Will Starr Memorial Shield Contest. This year it featured Graeme Johnston from Coatbridge ; Sandy Watson from Armadale and Ewan Donald from Ayr. These three young lads certainly kept up the standard of contestants that have entered this contest since its inception in 1979.
They all played their various selections with style and confidence, making it hard as usual for the judges.
After the competition, John Morgan came on once again, this time to accompany Grace Douglas. Grace hails from Slamannan and does a fair amount of concerts with John appearing as compere and singer.
On that night, Grace took the role as singer only. She gave an excellent performance with her songs of Scotland.
John Morgan stayed on stage after Grace finished her spot. He certainly had the audience sit up and take notice as he sailed through his solo accordion routine. John, in my estimation, has, as in the tune title, ‘Dancing Fingers.’ All you Accordion Clubs give yourselves a treat by booking John Morgan to come along and entertain.
As John finished, after an encore, it was the turn of our top-of-the-bill the Raymond Chuchuk Trio. This featured Raymond on accordion, Brian Forrest on second box and Bill Gillie on drums. I’m sure they enjoyed the night as much as the audience did, soaking up the applause the audience gave out to this trio. It’s refreshing to hear a trio like this trying something different.
After the interval our accordion orchestra took the stand. This was led by Peter Gardiner from Holytown. Peter is well known in Holytown for his work in encouraging young accordion players in his own band.
The Holytown Band and the Bellmoss Band joined forces to form the orchestra for this show.
They had a tremendous reception during their act and had to do an encore, proving the effect their music had on all who listened.
Then it was the turn of the man himself, the man responsible for Peter Gardiner, John Morgan and the Bellmoss Band performers – Jackie Gall. Jackie Gall taught all of them and is, in fact, still teaching them.
Jackie, in my estimation, stole the show with his style of playing that is very rare these days. He romped through his spot with wartime favourites and marches and then his favourite music – jazz. How masterfully he plays this type of music. In left-hand work I have never seen or heard the equal. He took a couple of encores and could have taken more.
Jackie has been under-estimated over the years. Now being not so young, I still think he could be a great accordion star given the chance.
After Jackie it was the presentation of the Will Starr Memorial Shield for 1983. This year the contest went to Sandy Watson from Armadale, an outstanding performance with years ahead of him to only get better.
It was very close for second and third, but a decision had to be made.
So second was Graeme Johnston from Coatbridge. Graeme had a great attack in his style of playing.
Third, but by no means least, was Ewan Donald all the way from Ayr. Ewan had good stage presence and has confidence. I wish them all the luck in years to come. Keep up their standards.
Margaret Starrs presented the trophies as usual, and she is fairly getting used to this procedure. She looked resplendent in her tartan skirt to suit the occasion.
The individual trophies to the contestants were as usual donated by the Croy Social Club, a gesture which is much appreciated.
Next on stage was Jim Hood from Galston, accompanied by a fine lassie who played the organ. Jim gave us old and new Scottish songs in a fine style. Many thanks Jim.
Then it was the turn of the Burns Brothers from Cumbernauld. These two young men are really something. The harmonies they conjure up are a joy to listen to. Another great act for the Accordion Clubs. The Burns Brothers were the 1982 winners of the Shield.
Our final act once again was the Raymond Chuchuk Trio. Brilliant, excellent, all these adjectives I use to describe their talent. I must mention Brian Forrest. His wee comedy routines are a great boost to the act. Keep it up, Brian.
The Trio was so good I finally had to come on stage to let them finish. They could and would have played all night. The audience would not let them go.
With my usual ‘We’re no awa’ tae bide awa’’, the 1983 Accordions Galore Show moved into history….
Summing –up and from various reports, this show was reckoned to have been the slickest. No time lost, just continuous entertainment. I am certainly glad as this is what I try to achieve.
The proceeds of the show, as in other years, go to a charity. This year the money goes to Spina Bifida.
The 1984 Will Starr Memorial Shield contest is now open. It is open to all amateur accordion players of any age, male or female. At present I am getting the bream of our young accordion talent of which I am grateful.
How about some of the more mature players having a go? How about each accordion club sending one of its outstanding performers to try for next year’s contest?
I have been requested to do a series on Will Starr for the ‘B&F’. Would any reader who has a story to tell about Will, personal or any performance they enjoyed when Will Starr was playing to them?
Anything they would like to be included in the articles, please write to me, giving details, dates etc of the event.
The Will Starr Society would also like photographs of him from people who may have personal snaps of Will, or video recordings or 8mm film, any material or audio cassette recordings.
Box & Fiddle Dec 1983
Year 07 No 04