2000
Bobby Crowe
(1933 - 2014)
It was Bobby, from Balmullo in Fife, together with Dougie Maxwell Jnr who formed The Olympians Dance Band. The band passed an audition at the BBC at the first attempt and made its first broadcast in May 1952. It was to be one of the last survivors in a long tradition of using brass in a Scottish Dance Band. After National Service Bobby formed his own band which passed its audition in 1961 but throughout his playing career he was a member of various bands including Cameron Kerr, Angus Fitchet and the Cavendish Band – in all of which, unusually, he played lead. In 1970 Jimmy Shand was unable to appear through illness and fiddler Angus Fitchet asked Bobby to play at a dance at The Argyll Gathering Hall in Oban. Bobby, who had a real appreciation of the value of a good fiddler, discovered that they had a natural affinity and for many years they appeared as a duo at Accordion & Fiddle Clubs. Bobby played lead accordion on Angus’s LP Fitchet’s Fancy.
Bobby Crowe
(1933 - 2014)
It was Bobby, from Balmullo in Fife, together with Dougie Maxwell Jnr who formed The Olympians Dance Band. The band passed an audition at the BBC at the first attempt and made its first broadcast in May 1952. It was to be one of the last survivors in a long tradition of using brass in a Scottish Dance Band. After National Service Bobby formed his own band which passed its audition in 1961 but throughout his playing career he was a member of various bands including Cameron Kerr, Angus Fitchet and the Cavendish Band – in all of which, unusually, he played lead. In 1970 Jimmy Shand was unable to appear through illness and fiddler Angus Fitchet asked Bobby to play at a dance at The Argyll Gathering Hall in Oban. Bobby, who had a real appreciation of the value of a good fiddler, discovered that they had a natural affinity and for many years they appeared as a duo at Accordion & Fiddle Clubs. Bobby played lead accordion on Angus’s LP Fitchet’s Fancy.