Box and Fiddle
Year 17 No 06
March 1994
Willie Hunter - Obituary
by ?
It was standing room only at Lerwick’s St. Columba’s Church in the largest attended funeral ever held in Shetland as friends gathered to pay their last respects to one of the islands’ most popular sons – Willie Hunter. Leading figures from the Scottish music scene braved bitter winter weather in traveling from the mainland to join islanders in tribute to a man whose personality and unique musical talent had spanned Continents.
Willie was born and raised in Lerwick and apprenticed to his father, Willie Hunter Snr., both as a blacksmith and a fiddler – father was ‘The Modest Fiddler’ which inspired A.S. Robertson’s composition. Willie’s playing was also to be influenced early on by lessons from local fiddler / composer Gideon Stove and overlaid with technique picked up from classical violinist, Geoffrey De Mercado, who lived and taught in the islands for some years.
Post war Shetland, with a shattered economy and chronic unemployment, was nothing like the prosperous community of today and, after completing National Service in the R.A.F., Willie had to join the migrant trail South to earn a living. He chose the London area where he worked in the motor trade for some years, playing for Scottish Country Dancing, evenings and weekends.
By the early 1960s, he was able to return ‘home’ in improving economic circumstances, readily finding work and eventually partnering his sister, Lorna, and husband in a laundry and dry cleaning business.
Family commitments and work demands meant music-making was restricted, largely to informal house sessions, usually in Billy Kay’s home.
Billy Kay, a Lerwick businessman, extraordinary piano and organ player, as well as all-round genius, devoted a great deal of his spare time – and latterly almost all of his retirement – to supporting, teaching and generally encouraging local musicians. A life-long friend of Willie’s, they met weekly with the likes of Peerie Willie, Drew Robertson and Frank Sinclair to play jazz in Billy’s music room cum recording studio. Of course, living next door to that other legend, Ronnie Cooper, meant that Willie also maintained his Shetland/Scottish repertoire.
When the Powrie and Johnstone bands ‘discovered’ Shetland in the mid-1960s, based in Frank Chadwick’s Hayfield Hotel, Willie, Ronnie and Jim Halcrow were regular guests at the post-concert sessions and many of the friendships made during this time were to endure and prosper. Willie’s playing continued to be mainly home-based throughout this period and he made only rare guest appearances with local bands.
However, the informal Hayfield sessions had planted the germ of an idea from whence grew ‘The Hamefarers’ Band which made such an impact during their first short tour of Scotland in 1975. Their exciting blend of own composition Shetland music interlaced with Irish, Scottish and Scandinavian so splendidly arranged and played was thankfully captured on the record ‘Breath o’ Shetland’, which became a bestseller – the very first commercial recording Willie made with a band. The Hamefarers were to make only one more tour before Ronnie died suddenly and, whilst the boys remained close friends, they never reformed the band.
Willie’s band career continued however. An impromptu tune with the Jeemie Burgess Band in Lerwick’s Masonic Club one Saturday night was mistaken for a recruitment audition and he became a regular player until the band broke up through players’ other commitments.
More recently, Willie played with the Cullivoe Band, one of the most popular and busiest around – Willie always happy to oblige with a solo spot on demand.
Almost all Willie’s public solo playing was reserved for his friends at the Shetland A&F Club which he, and a handful of friends, had helped form in 1978. A committee member during the first five years of the Club, his impeccable playing on his Shetland made fiddle, backed by Ronnie and Violet, became a beacon for other fiddlers. And so they came to listen and watch, some traveling half way round the world – Sean McGuire from Ireland, Graham Townsend and Rudi Meeks, as well as The Cape Breton Symphony from Canada, Rodney Millar and The New Hampshire Fiddlers ; Knut Bauen, the Hardanger fiddler ; Danish ace, Jes Kroman ; and American maestro Mark O’Connor, to name but a few of the better known. Henry Henderson, whose front room accommodated them all at one time or another recalls, not only the wonderful music they made together, but the fellowship and exchange of music, views and technique – it took Willie an afternoon to teach Mark O’Connor the ‘dancing bow’ technique.
As a composer, Willie was not so prolific as his pal, Ronnie, but his melodies have a quality all of their own and will most certainly endure ‘Leaving Lerwick Harbour’, written for an emigrant aunt, is as bonnie a slow air as any, and the reel which won the Club’s forst tune competition ‘Peerie Willie’, is a favourite with musicians.
I am happy to report that all the compositions will be published later this year, thanks to Judith Nicolson who undertook much of the transcribing.
In the late 1980s, Willie’s restless soul seemed to find a new contentment and his musical interests broadened as he moved into teaching as well as touring and some broadcasting.
He sold out his business interests when his parents retired only to find the Education Authority hurriedly beating a path to his door to sign him on the teaching strength. He taught fiddle to around eighty pupils in eight schools in the islands. These pupils will, I believe, be his lasting musical monument, some of them already established performers displaying that indefinable ‘Hunter’ quality. Willie had that rare ability to communicate with young people and inspire them ; all of them seemed to be as much pals as pupils ; they pretty well dominated the annual Young Fiddler Competition although Willie confided that some whom he considered superior players never made the prize list – hopefully talent to come. He took a quiet pride in their achievements and enjoyed introducing them to the Club.
He always stayed well clear of the occasionally murky world of Shetland fiddling politics, commanding universal respect. Despite a steady stream of invitations, he shunned public office and appointments, with one significant exception – the Presidency of the Shetland fiddlers’ Society, an office he held until his death.
Willie was a first class footballer and all-round sportsman in his youth, a keen golfer in later life. He was a handsome man who retained the natural athlete’s grace of movement – together they gave him great presence and style.
Possessed of a lively intelligence and an infectious sense of humour, he also had a fund of hilarious anecdotes, often involving himself, which made him great company and fun to be around.
He recorded an EP with Ronnie back in the 1970s and an LP with Violet in 1982 – a meager legacy from such a talent. However, a precise, even meticulous, person, Willie, in the knowledge that his time was strictly limited, put all of his life’s affairs in order (even to arranging with the minister the key signature for the final hymn at the funeral).
With the encouragement of his wife, Pat, and with the unswerving support of Violet and Billy Kay, he recorded sufficient material for a CD which will be released later this year on the Greentrax label and Billy has sufficient archive footage of ‘sessions’ which will also be compiled and released on a CD and entitled ‘Hunter’s Sessions’.
Everyone who knew Willie will have their own fond and favourite memory of him, but I suppose that it is as a solo fiddler that most musicians will want to remember him – he surely must rank amongst the very finest anywhere in the world. The dapper figure taking the stage, bowing a few exploratory bars to check the tuning, then, with a final tuck of the chinrest and a flash of the lower teeth, he would be off, coaxing the very soul bolts from a slow air giving full value to each and every note ; then, with a flick of the head, the change of mood as the dashing brilliance of his bowing teased the sweetness out of a reel and left the listener refreshed.
There will undoubtedly be great fiddlers to come, many inspired by Willie, but perhaps it was the thought that we would probably never hear quite his like again, that moistened the eyes as we made our sad passage to the kirkyard as much as the biting January wind.
by ?
It was standing room only at Lerwick’s St. Columba’s Church in the largest attended funeral ever held in Shetland as friends gathered to pay their last respects to one of the islands’ most popular sons – Willie Hunter. Leading figures from the Scottish music scene braved bitter winter weather in traveling from the mainland to join islanders in tribute to a man whose personality and unique musical talent had spanned Continents.
Willie was born and raised in Lerwick and apprenticed to his father, Willie Hunter Snr., both as a blacksmith and a fiddler – father was ‘The Modest Fiddler’ which inspired A.S. Robertson’s composition. Willie’s playing was also to be influenced early on by lessons from local fiddler / composer Gideon Stove and overlaid with technique picked up from classical violinist, Geoffrey De Mercado, who lived and taught in the islands for some years.
Post war Shetland, with a shattered economy and chronic unemployment, was nothing like the prosperous community of today and, after completing National Service in the R.A.F., Willie had to join the migrant trail South to earn a living. He chose the London area where he worked in the motor trade for some years, playing for Scottish Country Dancing, evenings and weekends.
By the early 1960s, he was able to return ‘home’ in improving economic circumstances, readily finding work and eventually partnering his sister, Lorna, and husband in a laundry and dry cleaning business.
Family commitments and work demands meant music-making was restricted, largely to informal house sessions, usually in Billy Kay’s home.
Billy Kay, a Lerwick businessman, extraordinary piano and organ player, as well as all-round genius, devoted a great deal of his spare time – and latterly almost all of his retirement – to supporting, teaching and generally encouraging local musicians. A life-long friend of Willie’s, they met weekly with the likes of Peerie Willie, Drew Robertson and Frank Sinclair to play jazz in Billy’s music room cum recording studio. Of course, living next door to that other legend, Ronnie Cooper, meant that Willie also maintained his Shetland/Scottish repertoire.
When the Powrie and Johnstone bands ‘discovered’ Shetland in the mid-1960s, based in Frank Chadwick’s Hayfield Hotel, Willie, Ronnie and Jim Halcrow were regular guests at the post-concert sessions and many of the friendships made during this time were to endure and prosper. Willie’s playing continued to be mainly home-based throughout this period and he made only rare guest appearances with local bands.
However, the informal Hayfield sessions had planted the germ of an idea from whence grew ‘The Hamefarers’ Band which made such an impact during their first short tour of Scotland in 1975. Their exciting blend of own composition Shetland music interlaced with Irish, Scottish and Scandinavian so splendidly arranged and played was thankfully captured on the record ‘Breath o’ Shetland’, which became a bestseller – the very first commercial recording Willie made with a band. The Hamefarers were to make only one more tour before Ronnie died suddenly and, whilst the boys remained close friends, they never reformed the band.
Willie’s band career continued however. An impromptu tune with the Jeemie Burgess Band in Lerwick’s Masonic Club one Saturday night was mistaken for a recruitment audition and he became a regular player until the band broke up through players’ other commitments.
More recently, Willie played with the Cullivoe Band, one of the most popular and busiest around – Willie always happy to oblige with a solo spot on demand.
Almost all Willie’s public solo playing was reserved for his friends at the Shetland A&F Club which he, and a handful of friends, had helped form in 1978. A committee member during the first five years of the Club, his impeccable playing on his Shetland made fiddle, backed by Ronnie and Violet, became a beacon for other fiddlers. And so they came to listen and watch, some traveling half way round the world – Sean McGuire from Ireland, Graham Townsend and Rudi Meeks, as well as The Cape Breton Symphony from Canada, Rodney Millar and The New Hampshire Fiddlers ; Knut Bauen, the Hardanger fiddler ; Danish ace, Jes Kroman ; and American maestro Mark O’Connor, to name but a few of the better known. Henry Henderson, whose front room accommodated them all at one time or another recalls, not only the wonderful music they made together, but the fellowship and exchange of music, views and technique – it took Willie an afternoon to teach Mark O’Connor the ‘dancing bow’ technique.
As a composer, Willie was not so prolific as his pal, Ronnie, but his melodies have a quality all of their own and will most certainly endure ‘Leaving Lerwick Harbour’, written for an emigrant aunt, is as bonnie a slow air as any, and the reel which won the Club’s forst tune competition ‘Peerie Willie’, is a favourite with musicians.
I am happy to report that all the compositions will be published later this year, thanks to Judith Nicolson who undertook much of the transcribing.
In the late 1980s, Willie’s restless soul seemed to find a new contentment and his musical interests broadened as he moved into teaching as well as touring and some broadcasting.
He sold out his business interests when his parents retired only to find the Education Authority hurriedly beating a path to his door to sign him on the teaching strength. He taught fiddle to around eighty pupils in eight schools in the islands. These pupils will, I believe, be his lasting musical monument, some of them already established performers displaying that indefinable ‘Hunter’ quality. Willie had that rare ability to communicate with young people and inspire them ; all of them seemed to be as much pals as pupils ; they pretty well dominated the annual Young Fiddler Competition although Willie confided that some whom he considered superior players never made the prize list – hopefully talent to come. He took a quiet pride in their achievements and enjoyed introducing them to the Club.
He always stayed well clear of the occasionally murky world of Shetland fiddling politics, commanding universal respect. Despite a steady stream of invitations, he shunned public office and appointments, with one significant exception – the Presidency of the Shetland fiddlers’ Society, an office he held until his death.
Willie was a first class footballer and all-round sportsman in his youth, a keen golfer in later life. He was a handsome man who retained the natural athlete’s grace of movement – together they gave him great presence and style.
Possessed of a lively intelligence and an infectious sense of humour, he also had a fund of hilarious anecdotes, often involving himself, which made him great company and fun to be around.
He recorded an EP with Ronnie back in the 1970s and an LP with Violet in 1982 – a meager legacy from such a talent. However, a precise, even meticulous, person, Willie, in the knowledge that his time was strictly limited, put all of his life’s affairs in order (even to arranging with the minister the key signature for the final hymn at the funeral).
With the encouragement of his wife, Pat, and with the unswerving support of Violet and Billy Kay, he recorded sufficient material for a CD which will be released later this year on the Greentrax label and Billy has sufficient archive footage of ‘sessions’ which will also be compiled and released on a CD and entitled ‘Hunter’s Sessions’.
Everyone who knew Willie will have their own fond and favourite memory of him, but I suppose that it is as a solo fiddler that most musicians will want to remember him – he surely must rank amongst the very finest anywhere in the world. The dapper figure taking the stage, bowing a few exploratory bars to check the tuning, then, with a final tuck of the chinrest and a flash of the lower teeth, he would be off, coaxing the very soul bolts from a slow air giving full value to each and every note ; then, with a flick of the head, the change of mood as the dashing brilliance of his bowing teased the sweetness out of a reel and left the listener refreshed.
There will undoubtedly be great fiddlers to come, many inspired by Willie, but perhaps it was the thought that we would probably never hear quite his like again, that moistened the eyes as we made our sad passage to the kirkyard as much as the biting January wind.