Lindsay Ross - A Life Less Ordinary
By Malcolm Ross
Black Watch Corporal George Ross was born right in the heart of Angus, on West Drums farm, Aberlemno, and at eighteen he was sent with his Battalion to fight at Ypres in Belgium. Being one of the lucky ones to return from WWI, he settled in ‘the wee red toon’ of Kirriemuir with his wife Ellen taking a job as a postman. Inside a few years the couple had five daughters and a son – Georgina, Elma, Irene, Nan, Marjorie and son Lindsay. Sadly Nan was to die aged five.
Having all these sisters around, the young Lindsay Ross was spoiled to the point that it was said “before his feet hit the floor in the morning someone had his shoelaces tied for him”. Money being tight in the period between the wars, their parents must be given credit for putting all the children to ‘proper’ music lessons – violin and piano for the girls and accordion for Lindsay.
Circa 1942 Norman Guild of Forfar was the teacher to go to, and he also taught Angus Cameron the violin and Davie Stewart the accordion. Encouraged to play by Polish soldiers billeted in Kirriemuir, the young Lindsay was soon proficient enough to form his own band, aged just 12, his sisters also playing a part with Irene in violin, Elma on piano along with her future husband Nor Barrie on drums, and eldest sister Georgina’s husband Harry Whittet on violin too. This line up wouldn’t change till the band’s first BBC Broadcast in 1951, with youngest sister Marjorie playing piano, her future husband Dave Barclay on bass, Jim Sturrock on violin, George Sturrock on drums and nineteen year old Lindsay on lead accordion.
Just prior to this period the family moved to just outside Friockheim in Angus, just along from Guthrie Castle and Lindsay served his time as a joiner with Will Rae of Letham, joiners and millwrights, a trade he would later have to give up as the band got busier. The 1950’s, right up to the ‘beat boom’ was a golden period for this band and many others, with engagements flooding in from London to Unst, Benbecula to Dundee. Twelve to fifteen broadcasts a year were normal and three in one month not unknown. Amazingly with the proceeds of a successful band Lindsay was able to buy four new Bedford ‘dormobile’ minibuses for the band at that time, collecting them from the factory each time, so that no-one would ‘hash’ them in the crucial ‘running-in’ period.
Deferred National Service in the R.A.F. from 1954-56 was problematic in the sense of trying to keep a successful band going. However Lindsay was luckier than most and got a ‘soft posting’ locally at Edzell Base in Angus, where he gradually exhausted all available excuses to get away to do gigs, including having teeth removed. Jim Sturrock’s mother had a smallholding called ‘the Knowe’ near Forfar and ‘helping with the harvest’ was used once too often. An inspector arrived from the R.A.F. and said... “if you hand me a sythe I will cut it myself in five minutes” Still, Lindsay looked back with fondness his two year stint as a wireless operator.
Appearing in the Jimmy Logan Show for a season at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen in 1957 and being on BBC TV’s ‘The Kilt is my Delight’ in 1960, were two of the highlights for the band in this era. Interestingly too, the band played at the Glasgow Islay Association Annual Gathering in 1957 at the St Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow – definitely a case of ‘East meets West’ it could be said.
Around this time Lindsay had two music shops, one in Brechin and one in Forfar and in 1960 he decided to buy a new Hohner Gola for the sum of £330, a large sum at that time as a modest new bungalow could be had for £1,100. However this was to prove to be a great decision as at last it gave him his signature sound. Forever experimenting with ways to ‘mellow’ the sound of earlier accordions he believed that in ‘instrumental’ music the ‘voice’ of the instrument was crucial, hence blotting paper was placed inside the grill and on one occasion he even pawkily placed a front page from the Oban Times behind the grill to get the ‘West Coast Sound’ he was often asked for!
Allowing the violin to be heard created a nice blend, he was renowned for his ability in flat keys, and recording with the likes of Angus Cameron, Ron Gonella, Angus Fitchet, Syd Chalmers and Ron Kerr made great pairings. Lindsay credited Will Cameron (father of Angus) for teaching him how to play strathspeys, Syd Chalmers for pushing him to play tricky reels and Angus Fitchet for stealing coal. (As a teenager Lindsay would play with the Fitchet Band and they would be in freezing digs, so the youngster would be sent to nab a couple of lumps of coal when the landlady had gone for a quarter of spam for the tea!
During the early sixties the band recorded over a dozen singles with ‘Parlophone EMI’ with Sir George Martin, some in London and some in Dundee at the old Palace Theatre. The Lindsay Ross Band met the ‘Beatles’ before Sir George, when at the Northern Meeting Rooms, Inverness, on 21st May 1960, when they played to over 600 revellers downstairs, while upstairs the Beatles played to penny numbers.
Players who recorded with the band over the years were, on bass, Dave Barclay, Billy Craib and Alec Cameron (brother of Angus) who did all the broadcasts from 1963 to 1974. Billy Craib made the 1967 Polydor album. Will Cameron, Angus and Alec’s father, died a few days before this recording and Billy Craib and Ron Gonnella stepped in at the last minute. Drummers were George Sturrock from 1951 to 1965, Bill Jarvis 1965 to 1971 and myself from 1971. My Aunt Marjorie was on piano on all the recordings.
As the sixties progressed however the ‘beat boom’ took hold and this spelled the end of having a large band on the road for Lindsay. Places like the Spa Pavillion, Strathpeffer where the band had been a regular hit, now had the popular ‘Melotones’ etc playing. Being a professional musician for some time now, Lindsay had to diversify into running shows, dances, bringing the Bertram Mills Circus to Arbroath, famous ‘Twist Marathons’ at the Aberdeen Music Hall, putting on weekly dances at Killin, Edzell and Largoward (still remarkably going after 50 years).
A new era came with the ‘Cordovox’, his good friend Andrew Rankine and himself being among the first to have one. Lindsay’s one I can date to February 1966 and I recall sitting on the power pack watching ‘Blue Peter’ when a guy came on playing one. “This is the only electronic accordion in the UK” John Noakes said and a great sense of injustice was felt by this six year old. The Scottish Dance Band was now just something to be revived for the odd broadcast and recording, and in 1967 Polydor gave the band a chance to record an album, which thrilled Lindsay since he was a fan on one of the directors, the band leader Bert Kaempfert, Bert’s music was always on at home. The decision to make the band a six piece using the talents of Davie Stewart on second accordion, was one that took a long time to consider as he felt that the 5 piece was his thing, however he realised that the second accordion modernized the band and Davie did a sterling job. Back then this album would often be played on national BBC Radio 2.
In 1969 Lindsay formed a duo with Dundee based guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Mathers and completed a summer season at Silver Sands, Lossiemouth, playing mostly modern music and this would be the start of a new direction. In order to keep working a more versatile trio to do gigs like weddings, dances and shows with dad on accordion, myself on drums and we were privileged to have Nigel Jelks, originally from Ilford, on guitar, mandolin, vibes and lap steel guitar and finally Jamie Hutchinson on guitar and vocals. Phil McLeod followed Nigel and was guitarist /vocalist for around 4 years in the seventies. We opened the new British Legion in Kirkwall in 1975 with that trio.
Nigel later kindly put together a book of dad’s compositions. Despite being away from the traditional Scottish dance band genre, Lindsay would have loved to make a traditional six piece band record again but many attempts to interest some of the ‘lower league’ record companies fell on deaf ears. Nine years later Polydor came up trumps and in 1976 the record was made with the tracks that got so much airplay, such as The Gold and Silver Waltz, the Stein Song and the Whistler and his Dog, Donald Iain Rankine and the Wind that Shak’s the Piggery and many more. The set of jigs made it into the BBC Scotland top 100 Traditional tracks in 2007.
Away from the music, Lindsay restored four Grade B Listed cottages in the historic village of St Vigeans, on the outskirts of Arbroath, under the auspices of Historic Buildings Scotland and for which he received a Civic Award, posthumously, as he passed away aged 48 in August 1980.
Box and Fiddle
February 2013
Having all these sisters around, the young Lindsay Ross was spoiled to the point that it was said “before his feet hit the floor in the morning someone had his shoelaces tied for him”. Money being tight in the period between the wars, their parents must be given credit for putting all the children to ‘proper’ music lessons – violin and piano for the girls and accordion for Lindsay.
Circa 1942 Norman Guild of Forfar was the teacher to go to, and he also taught Angus Cameron the violin and Davie Stewart the accordion. Encouraged to play by Polish soldiers billeted in Kirriemuir, the young Lindsay was soon proficient enough to form his own band, aged just 12, his sisters also playing a part with Irene in violin, Elma on piano along with her future husband Nor Barrie on drums, and eldest sister Georgina’s husband Harry Whittet on violin too. This line up wouldn’t change till the band’s first BBC Broadcast in 1951, with youngest sister Marjorie playing piano, her future husband Dave Barclay on bass, Jim Sturrock on violin, George Sturrock on drums and nineteen year old Lindsay on lead accordion.
Just prior to this period the family moved to just outside Friockheim in Angus, just along from Guthrie Castle and Lindsay served his time as a joiner with Will Rae of Letham, joiners and millwrights, a trade he would later have to give up as the band got busier. The 1950’s, right up to the ‘beat boom’ was a golden period for this band and many others, with engagements flooding in from London to Unst, Benbecula to Dundee. Twelve to fifteen broadcasts a year were normal and three in one month not unknown. Amazingly with the proceeds of a successful band Lindsay was able to buy four new Bedford ‘dormobile’ minibuses for the band at that time, collecting them from the factory each time, so that no-one would ‘hash’ them in the crucial ‘running-in’ period.
Deferred National Service in the R.A.F. from 1954-56 was problematic in the sense of trying to keep a successful band going. However Lindsay was luckier than most and got a ‘soft posting’ locally at Edzell Base in Angus, where he gradually exhausted all available excuses to get away to do gigs, including having teeth removed. Jim Sturrock’s mother had a smallholding called ‘the Knowe’ near Forfar and ‘helping with the harvest’ was used once too often. An inspector arrived from the R.A.F. and said... “if you hand me a sythe I will cut it myself in five minutes” Still, Lindsay looked back with fondness his two year stint as a wireless operator.
Appearing in the Jimmy Logan Show for a season at His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen in 1957 and being on BBC TV’s ‘The Kilt is my Delight’ in 1960, were two of the highlights for the band in this era. Interestingly too, the band played at the Glasgow Islay Association Annual Gathering in 1957 at the St Andrew’s Hall, Glasgow – definitely a case of ‘East meets West’ it could be said.
Around this time Lindsay had two music shops, one in Brechin and one in Forfar and in 1960 he decided to buy a new Hohner Gola for the sum of £330, a large sum at that time as a modest new bungalow could be had for £1,100. However this was to prove to be a great decision as at last it gave him his signature sound. Forever experimenting with ways to ‘mellow’ the sound of earlier accordions he believed that in ‘instrumental’ music the ‘voice’ of the instrument was crucial, hence blotting paper was placed inside the grill and on one occasion he even pawkily placed a front page from the Oban Times behind the grill to get the ‘West Coast Sound’ he was often asked for!
Allowing the violin to be heard created a nice blend, he was renowned for his ability in flat keys, and recording with the likes of Angus Cameron, Ron Gonella, Angus Fitchet, Syd Chalmers and Ron Kerr made great pairings. Lindsay credited Will Cameron (father of Angus) for teaching him how to play strathspeys, Syd Chalmers for pushing him to play tricky reels and Angus Fitchet for stealing coal. (As a teenager Lindsay would play with the Fitchet Band and they would be in freezing digs, so the youngster would be sent to nab a couple of lumps of coal when the landlady had gone for a quarter of spam for the tea!
During the early sixties the band recorded over a dozen singles with ‘Parlophone EMI’ with Sir George Martin, some in London and some in Dundee at the old Palace Theatre. The Lindsay Ross Band met the ‘Beatles’ before Sir George, when at the Northern Meeting Rooms, Inverness, on 21st May 1960, when they played to over 600 revellers downstairs, while upstairs the Beatles played to penny numbers.
Players who recorded with the band over the years were, on bass, Dave Barclay, Billy Craib and Alec Cameron (brother of Angus) who did all the broadcasts from 1963 to 1974. Billy Craib made the 1967 Polydor album. Will Cameron, Angus and Alec’s father, died a few days before this recording and Billy Craib and Ron Gonnella stepped in at the last minute. Drummers were George Sturrock from 1951 to 1965, Bill Jarvis 1965 to 1971 and myself from 1971. My Aunt Marjorie was on piano on all the recordings.
As the sixties progressed however the ‘beat boom’ took hold and this spelled the end of having a large band on the road for Lindsay. Places like the Spa Pavillion, Strathpeffer where the band had been a regular hit, now had the popular ‘Melotones’ etc playing. Being a professional musician for some time now, Lindsay had to diversify into running shows, dances, bringing the Bertram Mills Circus to Arbroath, famous ‘Twist Marathons’ at the Aberdeen Music Hall, putting on weekly dances at Killin, Edzell and Largoward (still remarkably going after 50 years).
A new era came with the ‘Cordovox’, his good friend Andrew Rankine and himself being among the first to have one. Lindsay’s one I can date to February 1966 and I recall sitting on the power pack watching ‘Blue Peter’ when a guy came on playing one. “This is the only electronic accordion in the UK” John Noakes said and a great sense of injustice was felt by this six year old. The Scottish Dance Band was now just something to be revived for the odd broadcast and recording, and in 1967 Polydor gave the band a chance to record an album, which thrilled Lindsay since he was a fan on one of the directors, the band leader Bert Kaempfert, Bert’s music was always on at home. The decision to make the band a six piece using the talents of Davie Stewart on second accordion, was one that took a long time to consider as he felt that the 5 piece was his thing, however he realised that the second accordion modernized the band and Davie did a sterling job. Back then this album would often be played on national BBC Radio 2.
In 1969 Lindsay formed a duo with Dundee based guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Mathers and completed a summer season at Silver Sands, Lossiemouth, playing mostly modern music and this would be the start of a new direction. In order to keep working a more versatile trio to do gigs like weddings, dances and shows with dad on accordion, myself on drums and we were privileged to have Nigel Jelks, originally from Ilford, on guitar, mandolin, vibes and lap steel guitar and finally Jamie Hutchinson on guitar and vocals. Phil McLeod followed Nigel and was guitarist /vocalist for around 4 years in the seventies. We opened the new British Legion in Kirkwall in 1975 with that trio.
Nigel later kindly put together a book of dad’s compositions. Despite being away from the traditional Scottish dance band genre, Lindsay would have loved to make a traditional six piece band record again but many attempts to interest some of the ‘lower league’ record companies fell on deaf ears. Nine years later Polydor came up trumps and in 1976 the record was made with the tracks that got so much airplay, such as The Gold and Silver Waltz, the Stein Song and the Whistler and his Dog, Donald Iain Rankine and the Wind that Shak’s the Piggery and many more. The set of jigs made it into the BBC Scotland top 100 Traditional tracks in 2007.
Away from the music, Lindsay restored four Grade B Listed cottages in the historic village of St Vigeans, on the outskirts of Arbroath, under the auspices of Historic Buildings Scotland and for which he received a Civic Award, posthumously, as he passed away aged 48 in August 1980.
Box and Fiddle
February 2013