Perth Diamond Jubilee
Diamond Jubilee of The Perth All Scotland Accordion & Fiddle Festival
by Bill Wilkie
B&F September 2009
The Perth All Scotland Accordion & Fiddle Festival, as we know it now, was derived from my stage shows. When I returned to Perth following the war years I produced a show called ’The Gay Gilliards’. Please understand that the word ‘gay’ had a very different meaning in those days from what it does now!
The show was a fast-moving revue with scenery and comedy sketches as well as solo acts. I soon found that the more accordion and fiddle I introduced, the greater the audience we attracted. I called this form of entertainment ‘Accordion Variety’.
We packed The Perth Theatre (capacity 960) and The Alhambra Cinema (capacity 1,450). We had to turn hundreds away, so I moved to The City Hall, which held about 2,000, and we packed that as well.
The National Accordion Organisation of Great Britain then approached me to run their North East Scotland Contests, which I did, but this was for classical and light classical music. Being a London-based organisation they weren’t interested in catering for the traditional Scottish musician. I decided to remedy that. I introduced Scottish sections, including ‘The Senior Scottish’ which developed into ‘The Open Solo All Scotland Championship’.
I went to see Jimmy Shand to seek his advice. He suggested a march, strathspey and reel for test pieces. He also gave me tremendous encouragement by saying, “Go and get a good trophy and I will pay for it.” Hence The Jimmy Shand Shield.
Accordionists came in droves from every part of Scotland, from the towns and cities and from tiny, remote villages. It was like Hogmanay! Friends meeting friends, the exciting atmosphere of joy and friendship was fantastic. Because of the Festival, Perth was known to many as the accordion capital of Scotland.
My late wife, Ena, was the heart and soul of the Festival. Her kind, warm personality put everyone at ease and resolved many problems. We had dozens of willing helpers but Ena compiled the concert programme – an almost impossible task! Just imagine, as in 1973, when we had a total of 486 entries and five halls running all day long. A competitor could be in several sections; perhaps in the Junior Scottish in The City Hall and in the Under 14s in The Salutation Hotel, which was running at the same time. If you switched him you created a problem for some other player. Sometimes we had to rely on the ingenuity of the Stage Manager to get us out of difficulties. Kind people donated a galaxy of handsome challenge trophies, which are still competed for every year.
I was careful to engage the very best adjudicators money could buy, bringing musicians like Graham Romani and Jack Emblow all the way from London.
I will always be so grateful to our own friends and colleagues who gave so generously of their time and energy as stage managers, secretaries, front of house staff etc. To name them all would take pages and I would be sure to miss out someone causing disappointment and offence. I would like to mention however Carol Davidson, who has been General Secretary for many years, and her assistant, Rhoda Wallace, and of course Mickie Ainsworth, who has stage managed the Scottish sections in The City Hall for longer than I can remember, and his assistant Vic Wallace.
Another name that springs to mind is Mo Rutherford, who has helped in so many ways, not only in the contests but also on stage in the show with her many musical talents. I must mention john Cruickshank, who has served longer than most in the front of house in many halls including The City Hall.
To get back to the phenomenal entries….on one occasion we had 66 in The Senior Scottish, and on another occasion this section over-ran to such an extent that we were only half way through it in The City Hall when the show was due to start! We marched the remaining contestants down to the YMCA Hall and continued the contest, meantime the show went on! When we had the finalists, we marched them back to the City Hall to compete for the Championship.
At one time the accordion came under unfair adverse criticism from some classical musicians who didn’t take the trouble to understand it. They declared it wasn’t a musical instrument, which maddened me, so I started being to my shows the greatest exponents from all over the world to prove the incredible potential of the instrument: Toralf Tollefsen from Norway, Jorgan Sundquist from Sweden, Oleg Sharof and Roman Ibanov from Russia, Marcel Azzola, Danielle Pauly and Dominique Emorine from France, Marcosignori, Wolmer Beltrami and Angelo Cardinaly from Italy and others.
This didn’t please some of the purely Scottish audience, but it was necessary to uphold the status of our instrument and these virtuoso players were just out of this world – and so was the music.
I featured in my shows all the top Scottish bands of that time – Jimmy Shand, Ian Powrie, Jim Cameron, Bobby MacLeod, Angus Fitchet, Jim MacLeod and all the other great bands too numerous to mention.
I also brought Scotland’s greatest names in variety, Dave Willis, Jack Milroy, Chic Murray, Johnny Beattie, Robert Wilson, Calum Kennedy, Will Starr and dozens of other artistes not so well known who were terrific entertainment.
At one time The All Britain NAO Championships were held in different parts of the UK each year and, in 1973, I was asked to organize The All Britain Contests in Perth. I pulled out all the stops with a civic reception on Friday for officials, adjudicators, artistes etc, and a special dinner in The George Hotel on Sunday where our Lord Provost presided. Of course it gave me the opportunity of presenting one of my most spectacular shows on Saturday evening with Marcosignori, Jack Emblow, etc, etc. Another great highlight in the Festival history was our 40th Anniversary. I thought that after forty years this would probably be my last, so I decided to put on a week of events, the climax of which would be a gigantic parade through the City of Perth.
Led by the Pipe Band, followed by majorettes and by the Festival Queen and her attendants in a pony and trap, we had floats with Scottish bands and dancers, bothy night scenes, jazz bands, you name it we had it!!
Because of an article in The Scots Magazine, we had reporters from Switzerland, journalists from London and many parts of Scotland.
It was a memorable event and here we are at our Diamond Jubilee, which I am sure will be exciting and equally memorable. The two shows are already well on their way to being sold out. I would like to pay tribute here to Billy Coburn, my son-in-law and manager, who now handles all the contest side of the Festival. He was also in charge of the sound system and much of the stage management in The City Hall and now in The Concert Hall. Of course he and by daughter Di have been partners in the business of Wilkie’s Music House for some years now.
The show was a fast-moving revue with scenery and comedy sketches as well as solo acts. I soon found that the more accordion and fiddle I introduced, the greater the audience we attracted. I called this form of entertainment ‘Accordion Variety’.
We packed The Perth Theatre (capacity 960) and The Alhambra Cinema (capacity 1,450). We had to turn hundreds away, so I moved to The City Hall, which held about 2,000, and we packed that as well.
The National Accordion Organisation of Great Britain then approached me to run their North East Scotland Contests, which I did, but this was for classical and light classical music. Being a London-based organisation they weren’t interested in catering for the traditional Scottish musician. I decided to remedy that. I introduced Scottish sections, including ‘The Senior Scottish’ which developed into ‘The Open Solo All Scotland Championship’.
I went to see Jimmy Shand to seek his advice. He suggested a march, strathspey and reel for test pieces. He also gave me tremendous encouragement by saying, “Go and get a good trophy and I will pay for it.” Hence The Jimmy Shand Shield.
Accordionists came in droves from every part of Scotland, from the towns and cities and from tiny, remote villages. It was like Hogmanay! Friends meeting friends, the exciting atmosphere of joy and friendship was fantastic. Because of the Festival, Perth was known to many as the accordion capital of Scotland.
My late wife, Ena, was the heart and soul of the Festival. Her kind, warm personality put everyone at ease and resolved many problems. We had dozens of willing helpers but Ena compiled the concert programme – an almost impossible task! Just imagine, as in 1973, when we had a total of 486 entries and five halls running all day long. A competitor could be in several sections; perhaps in the Junior Scottish in The City Hall and in the Under 14s in The Salutation Hotel, which was running at the same time. If you switched him you created a problem for some other player. Sometimes we had to rely on the ingenuity of the Stage Manager to get us out of difficulties. Kind people donated a galaxy of handsome challenge trophies, which are still competed for every year.
I was careful to engage the very best adjudicators money could buy, bringing musicians like Graham Romani and Jack Emblow all the way from London.
I will always be so grateful to our own friends and colleagues who gave so generously of their time and energy as stage managers, secretaries, front of house staff etc. To name them all would take pages and I would be sure to miss out someone causing disappointment and offence. I would like to mention however Carol Davidson, who has been General Secretary for many years, and her assistant, Rhoda Wallace, and of course Mickie Ainsworth, who has stage managed the Scottish sections in The City Hall for longer than I can remember, and his assistant Vic Wallace.
Another name that springs to mind is Mo Rutherford, who has helped in so many ways, not only in the contests but also on stage in the show with her many musical talents. I must mention john Cruickshank, who has served longer than most in the front of house in many halls including The City Hall.
To get back to the phenomenal entries….on one occasion we had 66 in The Senior Scottish, and on another occasion this section over-ran to such an extent that we were only half way through it in The City Hall when the show was due to start! We marched the remaining contestants down to the YMCA Hall and continued the contest, meantime the show went on! When we had the finalists, we marched them back to the City Hall to compete for the Championship.
At one time the accordion came under unfair adverse criticism from some classical musicians who didn’t take the trouble to understand it. They declared it wasn’t a musical instrument, which maddened me, so I started being to my shows the greatest exponents from all over the world to prove the incredible potential of the instrument: Toralf Tollefsen from Norway, Jorgan Sundquist from Sweden, Oleg Sharof and Roman Ibanov from Russia, Marcel Azzola, Danielle Pauly and Dominique Emorine from France, Marcosignori, Wolmer Beltrami and Angelo Cardinaly from Italy and others.
This didn’t please some of the purely Scottish audience, but it was necessary to uphold the status of our instrument and these virtuoso players were just out of this world – and so was the music.
I featured in my shows all the top Scottish bands of that time – Jimmy Shand, Ian Powrie, Jim Cameron, Bobby MacLeod, Angus Fitchet, Jim MacLeod and all the other great bands too numerous to mention.
I also brought Scotland’s greatest names in variety, Dave Willis, Jack Milroy, Chic Murray, Johnny Beattie, Robert Wilson, Calum Kennedy, Will Starr and dozens of other artistes not so well known who were terrific entertainment.
At one time The All Britain NAO Championships were held in different parts of the UK each year and, in 1973, I was asked to organize The All Britain Contests in Perth. I pulled out all the stops with a civic reception on Friday for officials, adjudicators, artistes etc, and a special dinner in The George Hotel on Sunday where our Lord Provost presided. Of course it gave me the opportunity of presenting one of my most spectacular shows on Saturday evening with Marcosignori, Jack Emblow, etc, etc. Another great highlight in the Festival history was our 40th Anniversary. I thought that after forty years this would probably be my last, so I decided to put on a week of events, the climax of which would be a gigantic parade through the City of Perth.
Led by the Pipe Band, followed by majorettes and by the Festival Queen and her attendants in a pony and trap, we had floats with Scottish bands and dancers, bothy night scenes, jazz bands, you name it we had it!!
Because of an article in The Scots Magazine, we had reporters from Switzerland, journalists from London and many parts of Scotland.
It was a memorable event and here we are at our Diamond Jubilee, which I am sure will be exciting and equally memorable. The two shows are already well on their way to being sold out. I would like to pay tribute here to Billy Coburn, my son-in-law and manager, who now handles all the contest side of the Festival. He was also in charge of the sound system and much of the stage management in The City Hall and now in The Concert Hall. Of course he and by daughter Di have been partners in the business of Wilkie’s Music House for some years now.