Year 7 No 1 September 1983
Our Club put on a special night in August in conjunction with the East Kilbride Arts Festival.
Our guest for the evening was the Wee Wizard himself, Walter Perrie. Every time I hear Walter play he seems to get faster, he certainly produced some foot-tapping music. ‘Haste ye back’ Walter.
We welcomed our new MC for the session, Marion Gebbie, who kept the evening flowing smoothly. Our previous MC Iain Henderson, had his new hobby to keep him busy, Iain made a video recording of the Club night.
It was nice to see players from nearby clubs Jack Gray (Lesmahagow), Gregor Lowrie (Bridge of Allan), Chic Kirkwood (Dunblane), Annie Robertson and John Houston (Lesmahagow). Our regular players were Gordon Gracie, Grant Crawford, Iain Henderson, Hugh Gebbie, Justine Tennant and Graeme Johnston.
Our Club is changing premises next month for the session. We will now meet in the King’s Park Hotel, Mill Street, Rutherglen. The first night there is on Wednesday, 25th September, when we have Fraser McGlynn as guest artiste. See you all there.
Paul Johnstone
Year 7 No 2 October 1983
Stay with us people for just a minute – we have a story to tell.
Our new Club venue id the King’s Park Hotel (formerly the Mill Hotel) in Mill Street, Rutherglen, near the junction with King’s Park Avenue. It is only 15 minutes from the centre of Glasgow, 10 minutes from East Kilbride, approximately 30 minutes from Milngavie, same from Lesmahagow, and 20 minutes from Motherwell.
You will see we are fairly central and the new premises are very nice indeed.
‘We now need people’ and would appreciate a little more support and visitations from other Clubs to get us started in our new venue – so how about it, folks, a couple of visits from you would be a great help and we can assure you of a very warm welcome. We also make it a rule that visitors will get a turn at playing, in preference to our own players (where possible.)
Thank you for reading our story
And now :
Our thanks to those who turned up for the opening (September) night, and to Fraser McGlynn and his Band who finally made it after losing his way from Anniesland Cross to Ru’glen. He now knows the countryside around Glasgow and hopes to be an official guide some day! His is now the only band who play their last selection first??
Marion Gebbie introduced our players for the evening in her own nice way. She is our MC now for the season.
Our players were :-
On fiddle – Justine Tennant, who brings her roadie Bill with her; Iain Henderson, who now has a new camera and video outfit and records our night ; Jim Devlin, a great player ; and Eddie Gallagher (with Bill Sinclair on keyboard), giving a good Irish selection.
On accordions – Seamus O’Sullivan gave us a smashing selection of Irish tunes and changed over to piano and then back to the ‘box’. It was his first visit to the Club and we would welcome him back anytime. Graeme Johnston, who is now going great guns and is improving with each Club night. Davie Millar (frae Forth) still refuses to sing! Jimmy Divers, who still comes up with some nice selections. Colin McDonald, another first timer to the Club, hope to see him back soon, perhaps with his band next time. Nelson Callan with his usual good stuff. Allister Russell and Dave Stewart gave us a smashing duet, Andrew Dunbar, who plays his heart out, but finds it hard to comprehend that he is now the Club’s grandfather! Jennifer Forrest, what a grand player she is, nice to see her again. Grant Crawford did good work on keyboard and Hugh Gebbie did his usual stint on drums. Paul Johnstone was greetin’ because he didna get a ‘wee tune’!
Many thanks to Fraser McGlynn and his Band who gave us a grand selection of tunes and we did appreciate all his ‘patter’ with our audience. He was most certainly ‘on form’. Trust he did not get lost on the way home!
Hope to see a good turnout for the next Club night when Jim Johnstone and his Band will be our guests on Thursday, 27th October.
Dianne Armstrong is our guest on Thursday, 24th November.
Paul Johnstone
Year 7 No 3 November 1983
EK A&F Club had their October meeting of the season in the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen, when Jim Johnstone and his Band were guests for the evening.
We started with a grand stramash led by Grant Crawford, who stayed on stage to give us our first solo spot. This he did with some lovely, well played pipe tunes. Next was Gordon Thomson from the Cleland Club giving us a nice, well played selection.
Gordon Gracie followed with a lively set. Over this time to fiddle and Eddie Gallagher, with Bill Sinclair on piano, played a selection of Irish melodies.
Back again to accordion – this time to ‘Grandpapi’ Dunbar (Andrew) for some Country and Western (ye-ha!!) with Paul Johnstone second box and Hugh Gebbie drums. Graeme Johnston was next to play. Just watch this lad in a couple of years time. Una Bryson then came on and played to her usual high standard. Nice to see her back with us again.
Charlie Todd and Peter Wood (second box) gave us a good set before it was time for the guest band.
What do you say about Jim Johnstone that has not already been said – is ‘magic’ the word? Only one thing – Jim has promised to get a new ‘filing system!’
We had a short interval for stovies and getting our raffle tickets sold. Our thanks to the folks who donated the gifts for prizes.
Now to the second half and for openers we had Charlie Kirkpatrick setting our feet a-going. We followed this with Morag Robertson, Adrian Hannah (second box) and Findlay Robertson on drums.
Heather Bain (accordion) was next and changed the scene to Grant Crawford (keyboard), Neil McMillan (double bass) and Hugh Gebbie on drums.
Norrie Williams (N.Y.W. of M.A.F.I.A. fame) was ‘on’ with Neil and Hugh. He really read the ‘dots’ from a sheet of paper this time (most unusual!!!) and not from the ceiling!!
Peter Wood got his ‘wanted men’ together – Adrian (second box), Grant (keyboard), Neil and Hugh and away he went with another grant set.
Next was young Niall Kirkpatrick, another lad to look out for in a few years time – going great guns since we last heard him.
Our last player was Colin McDonald who says he will bring the band some night.
We had to close the list of players at this point as we had run out of time. May we offer our apologies to those who did not get a ‘wee shot’. We appreciate the understanding way players accept this.
We closed the second half with our guests again giving out with some great stuff. Bobby Brown had everybody going with him and to finish the evening we had a good old ‘Singalongajim’.
Thanks lads for a super night and more thanks to everyone who came along to support us. Thanks to our MC Marion Gebbie who did a grand job once again.
Paul Johnstone is still ‘greetin’ because once again ‘nae wee tunie’ for him. (Sorry Paul, Club rules say visitors first where possible).
Our next meeting is Thursday, 24th November, when that young lass and great wee player Dianne Armstrong is our guest. If you have not heard her play, then you don’t know what you are missing. Come along – hear her – support us.
Paul Johnstone
Year 7 No 4 December 1983
EK A&F Club held their November meeting in the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen, when the guest artiste was that delightful young lady, Dianne Armstrong.
Once again we did not have a very large turn-out of people, which makes us, at EK Club, wonder if we have the ‘plague’ or some other form of dangerous disease!!
However, if the turnout was small, the playing of everyone was just a pure treat.
We opened with our usual stramash, led by Grant Crawford, who probably wished, by the end of the evening, he hadn’t come – he was so busy!
First on to break the ice was our own Justine Tennant from Cambuslang with some nice fiddle music. Her ‘roadie’ Bill, says he is now her ‘musical director’ – promotion comes quick in this game!!
Next was a young man whom we reckon is just about the youngest and smallest person we have had on in the Club for a long time. Derek Tolmie by name – he may be small but boy can he make his fingers move. Come back soon Derek.
Eddie Gallagher (fiddle) and Bill Sinclair (keyboard) then gave us some good Irish selections.
Back to accordion and this time Alisdair Currie, backed by Alisdair Russell (keyboard) and Hugh Gebbie (drums), rattled off some stirring Scottish Jigs and reels.
Graeme Johnston (second in the Will Starr competition) was next with a nice and easy style, giving us some singalong tunes and good old toe-tappers.
Colin McDonald then squeezed out some modern dance tunes on the electronic box.
‘Nae greetin’ this time from Paul Johnstone – we managed at long last to get him on stage for a ‘wee tunie’ with Grant Crawford and Hugh Gebbie doing the backing.
Then we had Hugh straight from drums to his accordion to give us a few tunes – then it was back to drums, to back Grant with Colin on second box for his usual high standard of playing.
Grant was a busy boy as stand-in MC for the night because our usual MC Marion Gebbie had to go to night class end-of-term German lesson!! Achtung!! All will be announced in German next Club night. Think about it, folks – ‘A German Ceilidh’!!
Our guest artiste for the evening, Dianne Armstrong, 14 years of age, sorry Dianne, forgot one should not tell a lady’s age, was absolutely super – what a pity more people didn’t turn out to hear her selections of all types of music from Scottish, classic, modern and her own compositions. We will certainly have her back at the EK Club.
Hope you make it to the school disco this year Dianne!!
We finished the night as we started, with a grand stramash.
Our thanks to all who donated prizes for the raffle and all who supported us.
We do not have a Club night in December. Our next meeting is Wednesday, 25th January, 1984, for our Burns Night Ceilidh with the Iain Peterson Trio and supporting artistes. Tickets, priced £1.50 are now available.
Tatties, neeps and haggis will be served, so come along, bring your accordion/fiddle etc and join in the fun. Floor space for dancing if you wish.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Paul Johnstone
Year 7 No 6/7 Feb/March 1984
To those of you who missed our January Burns Night Ceilidh ‘hard luck’ – we had a super night.
With so many players, I think my first duty is to offer apologies to those people who did not get playing. Time simply caught up with us.
The Iain Peterson Trio – our guest band for the evening – were in great form, perhaps even better than their last visit to EK Club. Our supporting artistes were also in good form.
We started as usual with a real good going stramash led by our Secretary, Paul Johnstone.
First solo player of the evening was our old faithful, Justine Tennant , on fiddle (encouraged one more by her manager Bill) (Oor Wullie). Nice to see her play again after breaking her collar bone, and playing well too.
Graeme Johnston, accordion, was next, showing us how he is improving with each Club night. He certainly must put in a lot of practice.
Annie Robertson and John Houston, all the way from Kirkfieldbank, with fiddles and backed by Paul Johnstone, gave forth some good music. Nice to have them visit us again, don’t make it too long before you come back folks.
As this was a special night, outwith the usual Club format, our next spot was an invitation to dance the Gay Gordons to our Club Band for the evening – Paul Johnstone (accordion), Iain Henderson (fiddle), Grant Crawford (keyboard) and Hugh Gebbie (drums). We may now consider this as part of our club night in future.
Bill Queen was next, he borrowed Hugh’s box and proceeded to give us a nice selection, well done. Change again – this time to our MC Marion Gebbie to sing ‘Ye Banks and Braes’ and very nice it was too. She was accompanied on accordion by her ‘better half’ (that should bring forth a comment or two!!), Hugh.
Back now to accordion and Gordon Gracie, with Hugh on drums, gave us some Iain Peterson compositions nicely played.
We change the scene again from our usual Club night – Miss Rhona Dowds, our Highland dancer (in mini kilt) showed us how to do the Highland Fling, with Paul doing the musical side.
Are you still with us folks? What a lot of talent and a great night we’ve had up to now.
Now it’s the turn of our guest band – Iain Peterson (fiddle) – Alf McConnachie (keyboard) – and Donald Burns (accordion) and I can tell you they were in top form, what a smashing selection of tunes they played.
No sooner had they finished, than Iain had to get his pipes tunes up and did us the honour pf piping in the haggis – with our audience all upstanding and clapping in time to the music. Our young dancer Rhona was given the job of stabbing ‘The Beastie’. We then sat down to a good helping of tatties, neeps and haggis.
We must thank our good friend Ian Rae, the hotel manager, for all the help he gave us and for the help in the past few months, it is much appreciated.
We started the second half with a dance, the Canadian Barn Dance, with Audrey McQuillan (from Grangemouth) this time on keyboard as Grant Crawford was next on with the accordion.
He invited the folks to carry on dancing to a quickstep, followed by a Boston Two Step. Och, its all grand stuff.
We also thank Grant for helping at times doing MC.
It was now time for another song, and we had Mrs Isla McTaggart, resplendent in full Highland outfit giving us that lovely song ‘Mary Morrison’ and following with some lovely Gaelic airs which I would not even attempt to name.
Accordion time again and Gordon Thomson invited Jennifer Forrest to play piano for him. What a lovely duet this turned out to be. Well done folks.
Eddie Gallagher and Bill Sinclair then gave us a couple of sets – played in their own nice style.
Our dancer Rhona (still in mini kilt) came on and gave us what I can only describe as as a form of disco dance – great stuff. Paul and Hugh did the musical backing.
Oh boy, the night is getting even better.
The tempo had to be slowed down next turn, because our ‘Grandpappy Dunbar’ (Andrew) was on. He does cope very well considering his age! He gave us a good selection, backed by the ‘young squad’ Paul, Audrey and Hugh. Nice playing Andrew – you know we were kidding (or were we!!!)
Jennifer Forrest, what a player, then came on stage with Alf on piano and asked for her second daddy to play drums (everyone knows its Hugh), her real daddy is Ian. She played through a selection of jigs and reels – all terrific stuff.
It was nor our last player of the evening – young? Jimmy Divers from Cleland – he fairly rattles out the tunes on that button box of his.
And so back to our guest trio once more and to confirm their first half spot of super playing they did the same again. Thanks boys – we certainly did enjoy it all.
We finished the evening with the lads playing for a closing dance – Strip the Willow. I think if we hadn’t forced a halt to the proceedings it would have gone on forever (like this report!!)
To everyone who attended – thank you – and once more apologies to those who did not get ‘a shot’. Hopefully next time you’ll be on.
To folks who attend Clubs regularly, if ours was a bit noisy on the night, we say sorry – but from the word go we did not intend to have it any other way. We promise to return to normal quietness next meeting which is on Thursday, 23rd February, same Hotel, King’s Park, when our guests are that brilliant accordion duo – Kerry and David.
See you then
Hugh Gebbie
also
Our monthly meeting on 23rd February, was again in the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen, when our guests for the evening were Kerry and David.
Players for the evening were as follows : Eddie Gallagher (fiddle) and Bill Sinclair (keyboard) opened the night with a nice selection of tunes backed by Hugh Gebbie on drums. Derek Tolmie was next with his usual ‘quick fingers’ – what a great wee player he is. Jimmy Divers came on to give us some nice march and waltz tunes and played very nicely too, Hugh backing again.
Hugh remained on the stool to back our next player on box – Nelson Callan – who had Grant Crawford on keyboard. This was a nice sound indeed (once Nelson got his tunes sorted out!!!). Old faithful Justine Tennant (yes again with manager Wullie!) finished the first half with her usual high standard playing on the fiddle.
It was now time for our guests, David and Kerry. What do you say about them? I think our MC Marion Gebbie said it all when she described them as the Torvill and Dean of the accordion world. Super playing folks.
Time now for the stovies and raffle. And our thanks to all who donated the prizes. It was also nice at the interval to see people greet each other and have a good chat before the second half starts.
Hugh Gebbie started the second half, this time on accordion. At the end of his first selection, five friends ??? stood up, cards in hand, and gave him a perfect score for technical merit -5 x 0s, however they gave him 5 x 6s, a perfect score for presentation. All taken as good clean fun we think (we think?)
Graeme Johnston once again showed us by his playing how much he improves each month, well done Graeme.
Heather Bain on accordion accompanied by Grant Crawford on keyboard played through a good selection of marches. This is another player who is improving, under the watchful eye of Grant.
Gordon Gracie, next on, comes up with tunes that one doesn’t hear too often – must ask where he ‘digs them up’?
Grant was next, with a band – himself on lead accordion, Paul Johnstone, second box, Pay ? on keyboard, Iain Henderson fiddle and Hugh on drums. The tunes and sound very much appreciated by the audience. Well done Grant.
Iain stayed on stage and finished the half with a rousing fiddle selection.
We ended our evening with guests Kerry and David once more proving what super players they are. Thank you both.
Our next club night, Thursday, 29th March, at the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen. Come along, be assured of a warm welcome and listen to our guests, The Oakbank Sound.
Hugh Gebbie
Year 7 No 8 April 1984
Our March meeting was held again in the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen, when our guest band for the evening, The Oakbank Sound, played some super selections. We also had quiet a few new faces on the night – let’s hope we see them back.
Marion Gebbie was MC once more, and again made a grand job of it. She introduced the following players – on fiddle, Justine Tennant, Eddie Gallacher, Willie Hunter, Jim Devlin and Iain Henderson.
On accordions – Nelson Callan, Graeme Johnstone, Derek Tolmie, Heather Bain, Liam Howatt, Lawrence Monaghan, Jim Divers, Guy Biagi, Charlie Todd, Paul Johnstone, Norman Williams and Lorna McWhinney.
On keyboard – Grant Crawford and Pat McNulty.
On drums – Hugh Gebbie and John Wiggins.
We would like to apologies to those who did not get a turn at playing, we simply had not enough time.
Thank you to those who handed in raffle prizes. We appreciate this kind gesture.
To The Oakbank Sound we thank you for giving us a lovely selection of well-played tunes which I’m sure everyone enjoyed. Special thanks to Catherine Wilson for her classic piece (after the show!)
Our next meeting is on Thursday, 26th April, same venue, when our guests will be the well-known Blair Accordion Orchestra. We hope to see you at the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen. See you there.
Hugh Gebbie
Our Club put on a special night in August in conjunction with the East Kilbride Arts Festival.
Our guest for the evening was the Wee Wizard himself, Walter Perrie. Every time I hear Walter play he seems to get faster, he certainly produced some foot-tapping music. ‘Haste ye back’ Walter.
We welcomed our new MC for the session, Marion Gebbie, who kept the evening flowing smoothly. Our previous MC Iain Henderson, had his new hobby to keep him busy, Iain made a video recording of the Club night.
It was nice to see players from nearby clubs Jack Gray (Lesmahagow), Gregor Lowrie (Bridge of Allan), Chic Kirkwood (Dunblane), Annie Robertson and John Houston (Lesmahagow). Our regular players were Gordon Gracie, Grant Crawford, Iain Henderson, Hugh Gebbie, Justine Tennant and Graeme Johnston.
Our Club is changing premises next month for the session. We will now meet in the King’s Park Hotel, Mill Street, Rutherglen. The first night there is on Wednesday, 25th September, when we have Fraser McGlynn as guest artiste. See you all there.
Paul Johnstone
Year 7 No 2 October 1983
Stay with us people for just a minute – we have a story to tell.
Our new Club venue id the King’s Park Hotel (formerly the Mill Hotel) in Mill Street, Rutherglen, near the junction with King’s Park Avenue. It is only 15 minutes from the centre of Glasgow, 10 minutes from East Kilbride, approximately 30 minutes from Milngavie, same from Lesmahagow, and 20 minutes from Motherwell.
You will see we are fairly central and the new premises are very nice indeed.
‘We now need people’ and would appreciate a little more support and visitations from other Clubs to get us started in our new venue – so how about it, folks, a couple of visits from you would be a great help and we can assure you of a very warm welcome. We also make it a rule that visitors will get a turn at playing, in preference to our own players (where possible.)
Thank you for reading our story
And now :
Our thanks to those who turned up for the opening (September) night, and to Fraser McGlynn and his Band who finally made it after losing his way from Anniesland Cross to Ru’glen. He now knows the countryside around Glasgow and hopes to be an official guide some day! His is now the only band who play their last selection first??
Marion Gebbie introduced our players for the evening in her own nice way. She is our MC now for the season.
Our players were :-
On fiddle – Justine Tennant, who brings her roadie Bill with her; Iain Henderson, who now has a new camera and video outfit and records our night ; Jim Devlin, a great player ; and Eddie Gallagher (with Bill Sinclair on keyboard), giving a good Irish selection.
On accordions – Seamus O’Sullivan gave us a smashing selection of Irish tunes and changed over to piano and then back to the ‘box’. It was his first visit to the Club and we would welcome him back anytime. Graeme Johnston, who is now going great guns and is improving with each Club night. Davie Millar (frae Forth) still refuses to sing! Jimmy Divers, who still comes up with some nice selections. Colin McDonald, another first timer to the Club, hope to see him back soon, perhaps with his band next time. Nelson Callan with his usual good stuff. Allister Russell and Dave Stewart gave us a smashing duet, Andrew Dunbar, who plays his heart out, but finds it hard to comprehend that he is now the Club’s grandfather! Jennifer Forrest, what a grand player she is, nice to see her again. Grant Crawford did good work on keyboard and Hugh Gebbie did his usual stint on drums. Paul Johnstone was greetin’ because he didna get a ‘wee tune’!
Many thanks to Fraser McGlynn and his Band who gave us a grand selection of tunes and we did appreciate all his ‘patter’ with our audience. He was most certainly ‘on form’. Trust he did not get lost on the way home!
Hope to see a good turnout for the next Club night when Jim Johnstone and his Band will be our guests on Thursday, 27th October.
Dianne Armstrong is our guest on Thursday, 24th November.
Paul Johnstone
Year 7 No 3 November 1983
EK A&F Club had their October meeting of the season in the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen, when Jim Johnstone and his Band were guests for the evening.
We started with a grand stramash led by Grant Crawford, who stayed on stage to give us our first solo spot. This he did with some lovely, well played pipe tunes. Next was Gordon Thomson from the Cleland Club giving us a nice, well played selection.
Gordon Gracie followed with a lively set. Over this time to fiddle and Eddie Gallagher, with Bill Sinclair on piano, played a selection of Irish melodies.
Back again to accordion – this time to ‘Grandpapi’ Dunbar (Andrew) for some Country and Western (ye-ha!!) with Paul Johnstone second box and Hugh Gebbie drums. Graeme Johnston was next to play. Just watch this lad in a couple of years time. Una Bryson then came on and played to her usual high standard. Nice to see her back with us again.
Charlie Todd and Peter Wood (second box) gave us a good set before it was time for the guest band.
What do you say about Jim Johnstone that has not already been said – is ‘magic’ the word? Only one thing – Jim has promised to get a new ‘filing system!’
We had a short interval for stovies and getting our raffle tickets sold. Our thanks to the folks who donated the gifts for prizes.
Now to the second half and for openers we had Charlie Kirkpatrick setting our feet a-going. We followed this with Morag Robertson, Adrian Hannah (second box) and Findlay Robertson on drums.
Heather Bain (accordion) was next and changed the scene to Grant Crawford (keyboard), Neil McMillan (double bass) and Hugh Gebbie on drums.
Norrie Williams (N.Y.W. of M.A.F.I.A. fame) was ‘on’ with Neil and Hugh. He really read the ‘dots’ from a sheet of paper this time (most unusual!!!) and not from the ceiling!!
Peter Wood got his ‘wanted men’ together – Adrian (second box), Grant (keyboard), Neil and Hugh and away he went with another grant set.
Next was young Niall Kirkpatrick, another lad to look out for in a few years time – going great guns since we last heard him.
Our last player was Colin McDonald who says he will bring the band some night.
We had to close the list of players at this point as we had run out of time. May we offer our apologies to those who did not get a ‘wee shot’. We appreciate the understanding way players accept this.
We closed the second half with our guests again giving out with some great stuff. Bobby Brown had everybody going with him and to finish the evening we had a good old ‘Singalongajim’.
Thanks lads for a super night and more thanks to everyone who came along to support us. Thanks to our MC Marion Gebbie who did a grand job once again.
Paul Johnstone is still ‘greetin’ because once again ‘nae wee tunie’ for him. (Sorry Paul, Club rules say visitors first where possible).
Our next meeting is Thursday, 24th November, when that young lass and great wee player Dianne Armstrong is our guest. If you have not heard her play, then you don’t know what you are missing. Come along – hear her – support us.
Paul Johnstone
Year 7 No 4 December 1983
EK A&F Club held their November meeting in the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen, when the guest artiste was that delightful young lady, Dianne Armstrong.
Once again we did not have a very large turn-out of people, which makes us, at EK Club, wonder if we have the ‘plague’ or some other form of dangerous disease!!
However, if the turnout was small, the playing of everyone was just a pure treat.
We opened with our usual stramash, led by Grant Crawford, who probably wished, by the end of the evening, he hadn’t come – he was so busy!
First on to break the ice was our own Justine Tennant from Cambuslang with some nice fiddle music. Her ‘roadie’ Bill, says he is now her ‘musical director’ – promotion comes quick in this game!!
Next was a young man whom we reckon is just about the youngest and smallest person we have had on in the Club for a long time. Derek Tolmie by name – he may be small but boy can he make his fingers move. Come back soon Derek.
Eddie Gallagher (fiddle) and Bill Sinclair (keyboard) then gave us some good Irish selections.
Back to accordion and this time Alisdair Currie, backed by Alisdair Russell (keyboard) and Hugh Gebbie (drums), rattled off some stirring Scottish Jigs and reels.
Graeme Johnston (second in the Will Starr competition) was next with a nice and easy style, giving us some singalong tunes and good old toe-tappers.
Colin McDonald then squeezed out some modern dance tunes on the electronic box.
‘Nae greetin’ this time from Paul Johnstone – we managed at long last to get him on stage for a ‘wee tunie’ with Grant Crawford and Hugh Gebbie doing the backing.
Then we had Hugh straight from drums to his accordion to give us a few tunes – then it was back to drums, to back Grant with Colin on second box for his usual high standard of playing.
Grant was a busy boy as stand-in MC for the night because our usual MC Marion Gebbie had to go to night class end-of-term German lesson!! Achtung!! All will be announced in German next Club night. Think about it, folks – ‘A German Ceilidh’!!
Our guest artiste for the evening, Dianne Armstrong, 14 years of age, sorry Dianne, forgot one should not tell a lady’s age, was absolutely super – what a pity more people didn’t turn out to hear her selections of all types of music from Scottish, classic, modern and her own compositions. We will certainly have her back at the EK Club.
Hope you make it to the school disco this year Dianne!!
We finished the night as we started, with a grand stramash.
Our thanks to all who donated prizes for the raffle and all who supported us.
We do not have a Club night in December. Our next meeting is Wednesday, 25th January, 1984, for our Burns Night Ceilidh with the Iain Peterson Trio and supporting artistes. Tickets, priced £1.50 are now available.
Tatties, neeps and haggis will be served, so come along, bring your accordion/fiddle etc and join in the fun. Floor space for dancing if you wish.
We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Paul Johnstone
Year 7 No 6/7 Feb/March 1984
To those of you who missed our January Burns Night Ceilidh ‘hard luck’ – we had a super night.
With so many players, I think my first duty is to offer apologies to those people who did not get playing. Time simply caught up with us.
The Iain Peterson Trio – our guest band for the evening – were in great form, perhaps even better than their last visit to EK Club. Our supporting artistes were also in good form.
We started as usual with a real good going stramash led by our Secretary, Paul Johnstone.
First solo player of the evening was our old faithful, Justine Tennant , on fiddle (encouraged one more by her manager Bill) (Oor Wullie). Nice to see her play again after breaking her collar bone, and playing well too.
Graeme Johnston, accordion, was next, showing us how he is improving with each Club night. He certainly must put in a lot of practice.
Annie Robertson and John Houston, all the way from Kirkfieldbank, with fiddles and backed by Paul Johnstone, gave forth some good music. Nice to have them visit us again, don’t make it too long before you come back folks.
As this was a special night, outwith the usual Club format, our next spot was an invitation to dance the Gay Gordons to our Club Band for the evening – Paul Johnstone (accordion), Iain Henderson (fiddle), Grant Crawford (keyboard) and Hugh Gebbie (drums). We may now consider this as part of our club night in future.
Bill Queen was next, he borrowed Hugh’s box and proceeded to give us a nice selection, well done. Change again – this time to our MC Marion Gebbie to sing ‘Ye Banks and Braes’ and very nice it was too. She was accompanied on accordion by her ‘better half’ (that should bring forth a comment or two!!), Hugh.
Back now to accordion and Gordon Gracie, with Hugh on drums, gave us some Iain Peterson compositions nicely played.
We change the scene again from our usual Club night – Miss Rhona Dowds, our Highland dancer (in mini kilt) showed us how to do the Highland Fling, with Paul doing the musical side.
Are you still with us folks? What a lot of talent and a great night we’ve had up to now.
Now it’s the turn of our guest band – Iain Peterson (fiddle) – Alf McConnachie (keyboard) – and Donald Burns (accordion) and I can tell you they were in top form, what a smashing selection of tunes they played.
No sooner had they finished, than Iain had to get his pipes tunes up and did us the honour pf piping in the haggis – with our audience all upstanding and clapping in time to the music. Our young dancer Rhona was given the job of stabbing ‘The Beastie’. We then sat down to a good helping of tatties, neeps and haggis.
We must thank our good friend Ian Rae, the hotel manager, for all the help he gave us and for the help in the past few months, it is much appreciated.
We started the second half with a dance, the Canadian Barn Dance, with Audrey McQuillan (from Grangemouth) this time on keyboard as Grant Crawford was next on with the accordion.
He invited the folks to carry on dancing to a quickstep, followed by a Boston Two Step. Och, its all grand stuff.
We also thank Grant for helping at times doing MC.
It was now time for another song, and we had Mrs Isla McTaggart, resplendent in full Highland outfit giving us that lovely song ‘Mary Morrison’ and following with some lovely Gaelic airs which I would not even attempt to name.
Accordion time again and Gordon Thomson invited Jennifer Forrest to play piano for him. What a lovely duet this turned out to be. Well done folks.
Eddie Gallagher and Bill Sinclair then gave us a couple of sets – played in their own nice style.
Our dancer Rhona (still in mini kilt) came on and gave us what I can only describe as as a form of disco dance – great stuff. Paul and Hugh did the musical backing.
Oh boy, the night is getting even better.
The tempo had to be slowed down next turn, because our ‘Grandpappy Dunbar’ (Andrew) was on. He does cope very well considering his age! He gave us a good selection, backed by the ‘young squad’ Paul, Audrey and Hugh. Nice playing Andrew – you know we were kidding (or were we!!!)
Jennifer Forrest, what a player, then came on stage with Alf on piano and asked for her second daddy to play drums (everyone knows its Hugh), her real daddy is Ian. She played through a selection of jigs and reels – all terrific stuff.
It was nor our last player of the evening – young? Jimmy Divers from Cleland – he fairly rattles out the tunes on that button box of his.
And so back to our guest trio once more and to confirm their first half spot of super playing they did the same again. Thanks boys – we certainly did enjoy it all.
We finished the evening with the lads playing for a closing dance – Strip the Willow. I think if we hadn’t forced a halt to the proceedings it would have gone on forever (like this report!!)
To everyone who attended – thank you – and once more apologies to those who did not get ‘a shot’. Hopefully next time you’ll be on.
To folks who attend Clubs regularly, if ours was a bit noisy on the night, we say sorry – but from the word go we did not intend to have it any other way. We promise to return to normal quietness next meeting which is on Thursday, 23rd February, same Hotel, King’s Park, when our guests are that brilliant accordion duo – Kerry and David.
See you then
Hugh Gebbie
also
Our monthly meeting on 23rd February, was again in the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen, when our guests for the evening were Kerry and David.
Players for the evening were as follows : Eddie Gallagher (fiddle) and Bill Sinclair (keyboard) opened the night with a nice selection of tunes backed by Hugh Gebbie on drums. Derek Tolmie was next with his usual ‘quick fingers’ – what a great wee player he is. Jimmy Divers came on to give us some nice march and waltz tunes and played very nicely too, Hugh backing again.
Hugh remained on the stool to back our next player on box – Nelson Callan – who had Grant Crawford on keyboard. This was a nice sound indeed (once Nelson got his tunes sorted out!!!). Old faithful Justine Tennant (yes again with manager Wullie!) finished the first half with her usual high standard playing on the fiddle.
It was now time for our guests, David and Kerry. What do you say about them? I think our MC Marion Gebbie said it all when she described them as the Torvill and Dean of the accordion world. Super playing folks.
Time now for the stovies and raffle. And our thanks to all who donated the prizes. It was also nice at the interval to see people greet each other and have a good chat before the second half starts.
Hugh Gebbie started the second half, this time on accordion. At the end of his first selection, five friends ??? stood up, cards in hand, and gave him a perfect score for technical merit -5 x 0s, however they gave him 5 x 6s, a perfect score for presentation. All taken as good clean fun we think (we think?)
Graeme Johnston once again showed us by his playing how much he improves each month, well done Graeme.
Heather Bain on accordion accompanied by Grant Crawford on keyboard played through a good selection of marches. This is another player who is improving, under the watchful eye of Grant.
Gordon Gracie, next on, comes up with tunes that one doesn’t hear too often – must ask where he ‘digs them up’?
Grant was next, with a band – himself on lead accordion, Paul Johnstone, second box, Pay ? on keyboard, Iain Henderson fiddle and Hugh on drums. The tunes and sound very much appreciated by the audience. Well done Grant.
Iain stayed on stage and finished the half with a rousing fiddle selection.
We ended our evening with guests Kerry and David once more proving what super players they are. Thank you both.
Our next club night, Thursday, 29th March, at the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen. Come along, be assured of a warm welcome and listen to our guests, The Oakbank Sound.
Hugh Gebbie
Year 7 No 8 April 1984
Our March meeting was held again in the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen, when our guest band for the evening, The Oakbank Sound, played some super selections. We also had quiet a few new faces on the night – let’s hope we see them back.
Marion Gebbie was MC once more, and again made a grand job of it. She introduced the following players – on fiddle, Justine Tennant, Eddie Gallacher, Willie Hunter, Jim Devlin and Iain Henderson.
On accordions – Nelson Callan, Graeme Johnstone, Derek Tolmie, Heather Bain, Liam Howatt, Lawrence Monaghan, Jim Divers, Guy Biagi, Charlie Todd, Paul Johnstone, Norman Williams and Lorna McWhinney.
On keyboard – Grant Crawford and Pat McNulty.
On drums – Hugh Gebbie and John Wiggins.
We would like to apologies to those who did not get a turn at playing, we simply had not enough time.
Thank you to those who handed in raffle prizes. We appreciate this kind gesture.
To The Oakbank Sound we thank you for giving us a lovely selection of well-played tunes which I’m sure everyone enjoyed. Special thanks to Catherine Wilson for her classic piece (after the show!)
Our next meeting is on Thursday, 26th April, same venue, when our guests will be the well-known Blair Accordion Orchestra. We hope to see you at the King’s Park Hotel, Rutherglen. See you there.
Hugh Gebbie