Box and Fiddle
Year 18 No 01
September 1994
Rob Gordon – An Appreciation
by Ian Cruickshanks (Kirriemuir)
On 24th April this year the Scottish and Old Time Dance world lost a respected and very experienced dance band leader with the untimely death of Rob Gordon at the relatively young age of 55.
Rob was born in Wallasey on Merseyside in 1938 and was a self-taught musician. He formed his first band in 1955 and round about that time broadcast (solo) on a B.B.C. talent show called ‘What Makes A Star?’ from Manchester.
His first broadcast with his band was in the 60’s on Radio Erin, then when he moved top Scotland in 1970 he auditioned for Radio Scotland and subsequently broadcast many times. His first recording was in the late 60’s on Saga label and he did a further 18 L.P.s plus two double albums and one E.P. during his career. Two of these albums were only ever sold in Canada. He also featured on five compilation albums and did an L.P with Angus Fitchet’s Band.
He played extensively throughout the U.K., initially for Scottish Country Dancing but also for Irish Dancing and Old Time and Modern Sequence Dancing. Latterly he also traveled with his band to play in Bangkok for St. Andrew’s dances and also Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Holland, Malta and Spain.
His style of playing, and his band’s, developed from his appreciation of the music of Jimmy Shand and his Band and he followed Jimmy and his Band a lot in the 50’s and 60’s at dances all over the North of England. Jimmy’s fiddler at the time was the legendary Syd Chalmers from Forfar. Syd moved to Birkenhead in about 1966 and a chance encounter with Rob led to Syd playing extensively with Rob and his band for a number of years and also recording four or five L.P.s with Rob. One of these was solely for Irish Dancing (Irish Coffee) and featured Rob playing his unique button accordion on a couple of tracks. This was a small ‘Shand Morino’ from which Rob removed the diatonic reeds and got Hohner to put on Hohner Atlantic reeds to his own specification so it became a three row Continental box basically, but with a unique melodic pattern to the keyboard. Rob later sold the box and I believe Clinkscale converted it back to British Chromatic some years ago. Round about 1972, Rob bought a pre-war Morino and had the tuning changed to what he wanted. To me this was the box that gave him and his band such a distinctive sound. This box, incidentally, is to be offered for sale, as it was Rob’s wish and the family’s that it should continue to be played (hopefully by a competent player) rather than sit in the house and deteriorate.
Whilst Rob’s band was very popular for Scottish Country, I would say his forte was playing for Old Time Dancing as his style of playing so suited the lovely melodies associated with this type of dancing. His broadcasts often featured Old Time numbers as well as Scottish Country, until 1988 that is, when he was compelled by the B.B.C. to keep to Scottish Country which he did for the next three broadcasts. A great shame I think, because he had a great wealth of material for Old Time which he used at dances but never broadcast, and after all, I believe that considerably more people in Scotland dance ‘Old Time’ than ‘Scottish Country’.
Fortunately, ‘Lismor’ had the foresight to record Rob Gordon and his Band and produce not only a double album of ‘Scottish Country’ but also a double album of ‘Old Time’ including lancers, quadrilles and waltz cotillion (all with instructions) saunters, one-steps, two-steps etc. Four of the tracks featured Bob Rae on second piano! This was to be Rob Gordon’s last recording.
Among the many musicians who worked with Rob through nearly 40 years of band work, fiddlers always played a prominent part, particularly Syd Chalmers, Angus Fitchet and latterly Ron Kerr. Ron Gonella did one L.P. with him (Heather Mixture). Gus Scott (Arbroath) did one L.P. and played extensively with the band as did Jack Lindsay (Dundee). Jimmy Ritchie and Frank Robb also played with him. Pat, his wife, played and recorded with the band (on piano) in the early days, as did Gerry Jones (Wallasey) but one of the longest serving members must be Peter Straughan of Auchtermuchty who played with him from the early 70’s until the present day. Hamish Smith (second box), Mickie Ainsworth, Norman Runge (Shand Morino), Willie Mann and myself all played extensively with the band. Davie Stewart did one L.P. and the last few broadcasts.
Bass players were Vin Ford (Wallasey) who played with Rob for some 12 years, Archie Oliphant, Sandy Beattie, Dave Barclay and John Sinton. Drummers included Bob Scott, Tommy Hill (both Merseyside), Rab Stark and Ian Wilson. Another long serving band member was Stan Peacock from Bridge of Earn, and finally Garry Brand of Blairgowrie.
Rob was always happiest playing for dancing, he didn’t like guesting at Accordion and Fiddle Clubs (although he did quite a few) as, being self-taught he always felt his fingering technique was poor in comparison to the younger players of today (his words). Having sat next to him at many, many dances, I can assure you that he could handle the most intricate of ‘original’ tunes, particularly Strathspeys, if it suited him to do so.
He was also a prolific composer of dance tunes, named after family and friends from all over the country. James Kerr published two books of his tunes in the 70’s. Rob also introduced a lot of good tunes to the public through his research and collecting of music and records.
His knowledge of Old Time Dances was very impressive and he did quite a few dances down south for the Old Time societies. These were usually quite splendid affairs with all the dancers dressed formally and it was a treat to watch from the stage. Tempos were always considerably slower at these events as they were very good dancers and they had been used to dancing to the famous Old Time Dance Orchestras such as Harry Davidson and Sydney Thomson in former times, but they were always very complimentary to Rob concerning his tempos. Lancers, Gavottes, Tangos, Marine Four-Step, The Maxina, Latchford Scottische, Dinky One-Step and Gainsborough Glide are just a sample of dances from these Old Time Balls. He latterly also played for a lot of Modern Sequences, Rumba, Samba, Cha-Cha, Jive, plus of course, Quicksteps, Modern Waltzes, Tango and Slow Foxtrot, and he was lucky to have Peter Straughan and Stan Peacock who were both as much at home with these rhythms as they were with reels and jigs etc.
These dances always had a couple to lead off the dancing and they were professional dancers so the tempo had to be right! Incidentally, at an Old Time Dance Festival that we played at in Leeds in 1988, Stan Peacock, the drummer in the band led off one of the dances (The Western Scottische I think) thereby losing his amateur status and becoming a professional dancer, which caused Rob to introduce Stan as drummer and professional dancer after that! If ever there was an argument about tempo after that, Stan would always remind Rob that he was the professional dancer in the band, so he should know!
Tempo’s apart, his harmonies and arrangements were always tasteful, never elaborate but just what was needed. The younger bands of today probably thought of Rob Gordon’s Band as dull and uninteresting but they could learn a lot from his style, his tempos, his arrangements, and his professionalism.
As Stan Peacock said when interviewed by Robbie Shepherd, by way of a tribute to Rob, “He was a difficult man to work for”, well I can vouch for that, as can Peter Straughan and I’m sure many other musicians, but having fronted his band since last August, I have some to understand the pressures he had to work under, i.e. travel hundreds of miles to a dance and deliver the goods to the public. He was the one who had to worry, we just sat and played. He took the job very seriously and that is probably why he had such a good band. I know from his meticulous preparation of his broadcasts, not only the music but the background of the music and the dances, that Robbie Shepherd and Ken Mutch had a comparatively easy time of it when it was Rob Gordon’s turn to broadcast. I recollect Rob telling me that when Robert Crawford was the Producer for the B.B.C. some years ago, the band would go into the studio, do a sound check and after they recorded the first dance, the producer would just leave the tape running and go and do something else, such was his confidence in Rob and his band!
Possessed of a mischievous sense of humour, we all had a lot of laughs on the road, usually at someone else’s expense. Reminiscing recently with Ron Kerr, Ron mentioned a tour of England he did with Rob about 10 years ago, and he cannot ever recall laughing as much before or since, during that week!
Away from the music, Rob’s main interest in the last decade was Free Masonry and he achieved much respect and many high offices in this field, as well as many more friends. When I informed a mutual Masonic friend of ours of the seriousness of Rob’s illness last year, he remarked, “What a loss to Masonry”, to which I replied “A bigger loss to Scottish music”. He certainly made his mark in both.
Rob is survived by his wife, Pat, daughter, Janet, and sons, Robbie and Alisdair.
At the funeral service at Perth Crematorium, long-time friend and pianist in the band, Peter Straughan, played the organ for the service and included some of the Legato Strathspeys that Rob played so well. Hamish McLaren gave a talk on Rob’s Masonic achievements and Robbie Shepherd gave a talk on his musical background and achievements. Rob always played to full houses at his dances, and it was a full house that day too.
Box and Fiddle
Year 19 No 01
September 1995
Some month’s ago you reported the death of Rob Gordon in the ‘B&F’.
1) Has the band carried on playing under another name?
2) Have the band members split up?
3) Did the band have many engagements to fulfill at the time of his death?
4) Rob had a special accordion made by Hohner. Has this instrument been sold or is it still with the Gordon family?
Alex Thomson (Kirkcaldy)
Reply to Alex
Rob’s band carried on under my name. Rob only really worked with a four-piece band augmented by fiddle, double bass and third accordion for records and broadcasts. The band as such still plays down south for Country Dances with myself on button box, plus keyboard and drums. The last job we actually did under Rob’s name was in Birmingham, December 1994, some seven months after his death.
With two exceptions, all the Scottish Societies stayed loyal to the band and re-booked us annually.
The special accordion referred to could apply to two of Rob’s boxes. The first one was a small (40 key) Shand Morino 3-row button box which Rob acquired in the 60’s and took the Diatonic Reeds out of (and later sold them to Jimmy Blue and I believe Jimmy had them put in his last Morino which was one of the modern one’s built in the 70’s) and Hohner put reeds in from a Hohner Atlantic Piano box to Rob’s specification, i.e. coupling the reeds to a pattern on the keyboard devised by Rob, producing a unique 3-row Continental chromatic which only Rob could play. He recorded four or five tracks with this box, waltzes and marches, but it still didn’t sound like a Shand Morino!
The second box was of course his beloved pre-war (1938) Morino piano accordion which was just sold recently to an old friend of Rob’s on Merseyside. Rob bought one of these in about 1970 and then bought this one just after and sold the other one, keeping the better of the two. The first time I ever saw Rob, he was playing a Morino V in Angus Fitchet’s Band with the David Webster Show down south. Having only ever heard a button box before (played by Jimmy Shand in the same show in previous years) I wasn’t impressed by the Morino V. However, the following year I saw the same show, this time with Rob’s own band and he was playing the pre-war Morino, and that impressed me! Over the years that I knew Rob he had the tuning changed on that box several times, always in search of some elusive sound, happy with it for a while and then he would hear one of the old Shand Morino’s at a Club and he would be after that sound on his box. A lovely box though, far better than most of the modern ones.
Ian Cruickshanks (Kirriemuir)
by Ian Cruickshanks (Kirriemuir)
On 24th April this year the Scottish and Old Time Dance world lost a respected and very experienced dance band leader with the untimely death of Rob Gordon at the relatively young age of 55.
Rob was born in Wallasey on Merseyside in 1938 and was a self-taught musician. He formed his first band in 1955 and round about that time broadcast (solo) on a B.B.C. talent show called ‘What Makes A Star?’ from Manchester.
His first broadcast with his band was in the 60’s on Radio Erin, then when he moved top Scotland in 1970 he auditioned for Radio Scotland and subsequently broadcast many times. His first recording was in the late 60’s on Saga label and he did a further 18 L.P.s plus two double albums and one E.P. during his career. Two of these albums were only ever sold in Canada. He also featured on five compilation albums and did an L.P with Angus Fitchet’s Band.
He played extensively throughout the U.K., initially for Scottish Country Dancing but also for Irish Dancing and Old Time and Modern Sequence Dancing. Latterly he also traveled with his band to play in Bangkok for St. Andrew’s dances and also Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam), Holland, Malta and Spain.
His style of playing, and his band’s, developed from his appreciation of the music of Jimmy Shand and his Band and he followed Jimmy and his Band a lot in the 50’s and 60’s at dances all over the North of England. Jimmy’s fiddler at the time was the legendary Syd Chalmers from Forfar. Syd moved to Birkenhead in about 1966 and a chance encounter with Rob led to Syd playing extensively with Rob and his band for a number of years and also recording four or five L.P.s with Rob. One of these was solely for Irish Dancing (Irish Coffee) and featured Rob playing his unique button accordion on a couple of tracks. This was a small ‘Shand Morino’ from which Rob removed the diatonic reeds and got Hohner to put on Hohner Atlantic reeds to his own specification so it became a three row Continental box basically, but with a unique melodic pattern to the keyboard. Rob later sold the box and I believe Clinkscale converted it back to British Chromatic some years ago. Round about 1972, Rob bought a pre-war Morino and had the tuning changed to what he wanted. To me this was the box that gave him and his band such a distinctive sound. This box, incidentally, is to be offered for sale, as it was Rob’s wish and the family’s that it should continue to be played (hopefully by a competent player) rather than sit in the house and deteriorate.
Whilst Rob’s band was very popular for Scottish Country, I would say his forte was playing for Old Time Dancing as his style of playing so suited the lovely melodies associated with this type of dancing. His broadcasts often featured Old Time numbers as well as Scottish Country, until 1988 that is, when he was compelled by the B.B.C. to keep to Scottish Country which he did for the next three broadcasts. A great shame I think, because he had a great wealth of material for Old Time which he used at dances but never broadcast, and after all, I believe that considerably more people in Scotland dance ‘Old Time’ than ‘Scottish Country’.
Fortunately, ‘Lismor’ had the foresight to record Rob Gordon and his Band and produce not only a double album of ‘Scottish Country’ but also a double album of ‘Old Time’ including lancers, quadrilles and waltz cotillion (all with instructions) saunters, one-steps, two-steps etc. Four of the tracks featured Bob Rae on second piano! This was to be Rob Gordon’s last recording.
Among the many musicians who worked with Rob through nearly 40 years of band work, fiddlers always played a prominent part, particularly Syd Chalmers, Angus Fitchet and latterly Ron Kerr. Ron Gonella did one L.P. with him (Heather Mixture). Gus Scott (Arbroath) did one L.P. and played extensively with the band as did Jack Lindsay (Dundee). Jimmy Ritchie and Frank Robb also played with him. Pat, his wife, played and recorded with the band (on piano) in the early days, as did Gerry Jones (Wallasey) but one of the longest serving members must be Peter Straughan of Auchtermuchty who played with him from the early 70’s until the present day. Hamish Smith (second box), Mickie Ainsworth, Norman Runge (Shand Morino), Willie Mann and myself all played extensively with the band. Davie Stewart did one L.P. and the last few broadcasts.
Bass players were Vin Ford (Wallasey) who played with Rob for some 12 years, Archie Oliphant, Sandy Beattie, Dave Barclay and John Sinton. Drummers included Bob Scott, Tommy Hill (both Merseyside), Rab Stark and Ian Wilson. Another long serving band member was Stan Peacock from Bridge of Earn, and finally Garry Brand of Blairgowrie.
Rob was always happiest playing for dancing, he didn’t like guesting at Accordion and Fiddle Clubs (although he did quite a few) as, being self-taught he always felt his fingering technique was poor in comparison to the younger players of today (his words). Having sat next to him at many, many dances, I can assure you that he could handle the most intricate of ‘original’ tunes, particularly Strathspeys, if it suited him to do so.
He was also a prolific composer of dance tunes, named after family and friends from all over the country. James Kerr published two books of his tunes in the 70’s. Rob also introduced a lot of good tunes to the public through his research and collecting of music and records.
His knowledge of Old Time Dances was very impressive and he did quite a few dances down south for the Old Time societies. These were usually quite splendid affairs with all the dancers dressed formally and it was a treat to watch from the stage. Tempos were always considerably slower at these events as they were very good dancers and they had been used to dancing to the famous Old Time Dance Orchestras such as Harry Davidson and Sydney Thomson in former times, but they were always very complimentary to Rob concerning his tempos. Lancers, Gavottes, Tangos, Marine Four-Step, The Maxina, Latchford Scottische, Dinky One-Step and Gainsborough Glide are just a sample of dances from these Old Time Balls. He latterly also played for a lot of Modern Sequences, Rumba, Samba, Cha-Cha, Jive, plus of course, Quicksteps, Modern Waltzes, Tango and Slow Foxtrot, and he was lucky to have Peter Straughan and Stan Peacock who were both as much at home with these rhythms as they were with reels and jigs etc.
These dances always had a couple to lead off the dancing and they were professional dancers so the tempo had to be right! Incidentally, at an Old Time Dance Festival that we played at in Leeds in 1988, Stan Peacock, the drummer in the band led off one of the dances (The Western Scottische I think) thereby losing his amateur status and becoming a professional dancer, which caused Rob to introduce Stan as drummer and professional dancer after that! If ever there was an argument about tempo after that, Stan would always remind Rob that he was the professional dancer in the band, so he should know!
Tempo’s apart, his harmonies and arrangements were always tasteful, never elaborate but just what was needed. The younger bands of today probably thought of Rob Gordon’s Band as dull and uninteresting but they could learn a lot from his style, his tempos, his arrangements, and his professionalism.
As Stan Peacock said when interviewed by Robbie Shepherd, by way of a tribute to Rob, “He was a difficult man to work for”, well I can vouch for that, as can Peter Straughan and I’m sure many other musicians, but having fronted his band since last August, I have some to understand the pressures he had to work under, i.e. travel hundreds of miles to a dance and deliver the goods to the public. He was the one who had to worry, we just sat and played. He took the job very seriously and that is probably why he had such a good band. I know from his meticulous preparation of his broadcasts, not only the music but the background of the music and the dances, that Robbie Shepherd and Ken Mutch had a comparatively easy time of it when it was Rob Gordon’s turn to broadcast. I recollect Rob telling me that when Robert Crawford was the Producer for the B.B.C. some years ago, the band would go into the studio, do a sound check and after they recorded the first dance, the producer would just leave the tape running and go and do something else, such was his confidence in Rob and his band!
Possessed of a mischievous sense of humour, we all had a lot of laughs on the road, usually at someone else’s expense. Reminiscing recently with Ron Kerr, Ron mentioned a tour of England he did with Rob about 10 years ago, and he cannot ever recall laughing as much before or since, during that week!
Away from the music, Rob’s main interest in the last decade was Free Masonry and he achieved much respect and many high offices in this field, as well as many more friends. When I informed a mutual Masonic friend of ours of the seriousness of Rob’s illness last year, he remarked, “What a loss to Masonry”, to which I replied “A bigger loss to Scottish music”. He certainly made his mark in both.
Rob is survived by his wife, Pat, daughter, Janet, and sons, Robbie and Alisdair.
At the funeral service at Perth Crematorium, long-time friend and pianist in the band, Peter Straughan, played the organ for the service and included some of the Legato Strathspeys that Rob played so well. Hamish McLaren gave a talk on Rob’s Masonic achievements and Robbie Shepherd gave a talk on his musical background and achievements. Rob always played to full houses at his dances, and it was a full house that day too.
Box and Fiddle
Year 19 No 01
September 1995
Some month’s ago you reported the death of Rob Gordon in the ‘B&F’.
1) Has the band carried on playing under another name?
2) Have the band members split up?
3) Did the band have many engagements to fulfill at the time of his death?
4) Rob had a special accordion made by Hohner. Has this instrument been sold or is it still with the Gordon family?
Alex Thomson (Kirkcaldy)
Reply to Alex
Rob’s band carried on under my name. Rob only really worked with a four-piece band augmented by fiddle, double bass and third accordion for records and broadcasts. The band as such still plays down south for Country Dances with myself on button box, plus keyboard and drums. The last job we actually did under Rob’s name was in Birmingham, December 1994, some seven months after his death.
With two exceptions, all the Scottish Societies stayed loyal to the band and re-booked us annually.
The special accordion referred to could apply to two of Rob’s boxes. The first one was a small (40 key) Shand Morino 3-row button box which Rob acquired in the 60’s and took the Diatonic Reeds out of (and later sold them to Jimmy Blue and I believe Jimmy had them put in his last Morino which was one of the modern one’s built in the 70’s) and Hohner put reeds in from a Hohner Atlantic Piano box to Rob’s specification, i.e. coupling the reeds to a pattern on the keyboard devised by Rob, producing a unique 3-row Continental chromatic which only Rob could play. He recorded four or five tracks with this box, waltzes and marches, but it still didn’t sound like a Shand Morino!
The second box was of course his beloved pre-war (1938) Morino piano accordion which was just sold recently to an old friend of Rob’s on Merseyside. Rob bought one of these in about 1970 and then bought this one just after and sold the other one, keeping the better of the two. The first time I ever saw Rob, he was playing a Morino V in Angus Fitchet’s Band with the David Webster Show down south. Having only ever heard a button box before (played by Jimmy Shand in the same show in previous years) I wasn’t impressed by the Morino V. However, the following year I saw the same show, this time with Rob’s own band and he was playing the pre-war Morino, and that impressed me! Over the years that I knew Rob he had the tuning changed on that box several times, always in search of some elusive sound, happy with it for a while and then he would hear one of the old Shand Morino’s at a Club and he would be after that sound on his box. A lovely box though, far better than most of the modern ones.
Ian Cruickshanks (Kirriemuir)