Anda Campbell – Guest of Honour
by Charlie Kirkpatrick
B&F May 2020
What have the tunes Argyll Arms Ceilidh by the late Colin Finlayson and the Bunessan Barbeque by Graeme Mitchell have in common? The answer is that both tunes refer to a gentleman named Angus John Campbell who at one time owned the Argyll Arms Hotel in Bunessan, Isle of Mull and also hosted the Bunessan Barbeque. Angus John Campbell is, of course, universally known to his many friends as Anda Campbell.
Anda was born and brought up on the island of Mull where his father, Angus, ran the local Post Office in Bunessan while his mother Marion was busy bringing up a family of four girls, Jessie, Lexie, Anne and Elizabeth, in addition to the token boy Anda. There was always music in the home as Anda’s father, who played the British chromatic accordion, played at all the dances, ceilidhs etc on the south end of Mull, known locally as the Ross of Mull. With all this music about it is therefore not surprising that Anda became a musician.
All Anda’s schooling was at Bunessan where the local school served as a primary and also a junior secondary school. After leaving school, Anda worked with the Forestry Commission where his work colleague for some time was Angus Grant, the well-known left handed fiddler from Lochaber. In fact Anda has a lot to thank Angus for because if it hadn’t been for him Anda may never have met his wife. The story goes that Anda and Angus were at a function at Salen, Mull and at the end, despite the fact they had consumed a fair amount of drink, Angus suggested they should go to the Badminton Club – no trainers or fancy athletic gear, just wellies and dungarees. At the Badminton Club was a young teacher, Helen Ross, who came from Bonawe and who had begun teaching in Salen Primary School. Anda and Helen got on like a house on fire. The rest, as they say, is history and they celebrate 50 years of marriage next year.
After leaving the Forestry Commission, Anda changed career and for the next fifteen years worked as an engineer with the Hydro board dealing with everything electrical such as breakdowns, installations and meter readings on the islands of Mull and Iona, and occasionally Tiree and Coll. A further career change beckoned when Anda and Helen bought the Argyll Arms Hotel in Bunessan but more of that later. Having now ‘retired’, Anda passes his time by driving buses on the beautiful island of Mull.
On the musical front, when he was about eleven years old Anda’s parents bought him an acoustic guitar, and a student who was working locally during the summer months gave him a few lessons. At that time, Anda was greatly interested in Scottish folk music with Joe Gordon, who starred in the White Heather Club TV show with the Joe Gordon Folk Four, being a particular hero. When interest in the guitar waned, Anda decided that he would like to learn the bagpipes and who better to ask than the great piper Calum McPherson, who stayed in the village. Off he went for lessons only to be greeted with the words, “Yes, delighted my boy – but you’ll bring down that banjo first and we’ll make a fire of it, then we’ll start the chanter lessons.” Well, the guitar stayed put and, needless to say, the bagpipe lessons never started.
When he was about sixteen years of age Anda started going to dances in the north end of the island, listening to Bobby MacLeod and Calum MacLean who both played 5-row Continental accordions. Although he had previously tried his father’s British chromatic accordion without success, Anda decided that the 5-row instrument was the one for him, and in a relatively short time he was playing along with his father at local dances. In due course, he joined up with Robert MacLeod (Bobby’s son) and also occasionally with Pibroch MacKenzie, playing at various functions on the island.
Over the years Anda has enjoyed tunes and played at many functions with different musicians. He remembers in the early 1970s Alan Kitchen coming to work as a barman in the local hotel and also playing piano to entertain the guests. After finishing his stint in the hotel Alan would come along to the hall and join in with the band. Although classically trained, Alan quickly became hooked on Scottish dance music and played many gigs with Anda. He is now a well-known face on the Scottish dance music scene. In the late 1970s Helen’s cousin Richard Ross came to visit with his young son Richard who played the accordion. This, of course, is an understatement as Richard went on to win the Scottish Accordion Championship at Perth on two occasions and now plays with the West Telferton SDB. Anda and Helen quickly ‘adopted’ young Richard who spent every summer during the school holidays playing at gigs with ‘Uncle Anda’ all over the island and beyond. Others who have graced the bandstand along with Anda include his old friend, drummer Richard Hughes from Tobermory, the late Davie Flockhart who lived in Tobermory for a while, accordion virtuoso the late John Huband from Dundee, and also Jimmy Reid on guitar and vocals.
In 1983 Anda and Helen were persuaded by the late Colin Finlayson to buy the Argyll Arms and then, as Anda says, the fun really began. The first band to play at the newly opened hotel was Robert Black, who thus set the standard for all who followed. Musicians arrived at the hotel in droves with some of the best young players and bands appearing regularly. It would be very difficult to name them all, but to be visited by many of the older well-established bands was a great thrill for Anda as well as for his regulars in the bar. To have visits from Bill Black, Jimmy Blue, Bobby Crowe, Alasdair Downie, Eric Goodfellow, Dochie McCallum and Fraser McGlynn, to name but a few, really brought the hotel to the forefront of the Scottish dance music scene. Next door neighbour Alasdair MacIntyre (Ally Mack) was always first on the scene when the musicians arrived so they were never short of a drummer. Ally went on to play with several bands on the mainland until his untimely death Another ever-present at these musical evenings was a very small Ross Wilson, Anda’s nephew. He would happily play the drums all night if he was allowed and he has now gone on to be a full time musician playing keyboards with the band Tidelines.
Anda remembers the talented Ballochmyle Ceilidh Band being very popular when they played during the season and he also stayed true to his early love of folk music by having Gaberlunzie and The Clydesiders appear at regular intervals. Every summer ‘the Blues and the Crowes’ – Jimmy and Joan Blue along with bobby and Agnes Crowe – would appear and great hilarity ensued for the rest of the week. The band would play in the evenings and during the day they would go fishing with Anda or get up to other exploits – but if anyone sees Joan Blue, ask her about the Iona Coo!
During Anda’s time at the hotel, two LPs were sponsored: one by colin Dewar, and another call The Argyll Arms Ceilidh featuring Colin Finlayson and his band with supporting artistes, singer Elizabeth Campbell (Anda’s sister), piper Iain Donaldson (Anda’s nephew) and local singer Attie McKechnie. It also included tracks by Anda himself featuring Ally Mack on drums. The tune The Argyll Arms Ceilidh was of course written as the title track of the LP.
All good things come to an end and in 1997 Anda and Helen sold the hotel, but they still keep in touch with and are close friends with many of the musicians who came to the hotel, such as Graeme and Elaine Mitchell, Jennifer & Brian Cruickshank, Neil & Fiona MacMillan and Neil & Angie MacEachern. They still visit regularly and it was during one such visit and subsequent ceilidh into the wee small hours that Busessan Barbeque was composed. No tale about Anda would be complete without mention of ‘Hutchie’ – Robert Hutcheson – a lifelong friend of Anda’s who was involved in many of the exploits and who, of course, is the subject of the great reel entitled Hutchie’s Bash by Graeme Mitchell.
That then is Anda Campbell who has done so much to further our music, either through his playing or through just being a good friend to so many people, and he well merits being a Guest of Honour at our coming Celebrity Luncheon at Invercarse Hotel, Dundee.
From Alasdair MacLeod
Anda Campbell – the very name makes you smile. He is best known for his ownership of the Argyll Arms Hotel, Bunessan, where he created a unique atmosphere of warmth, friendship, fun, laughter, harmony and even nonsense, all built on the love of our music, and fuelled by his unbounded enthusiasm, and for being a larger than life character with a partaking of the odd dram. The Argyll Arms camaraderie is still going strong.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that not only does he play the 5-row accordion excellently, but he is also one of the staunchest supporters of our music, and has been all in life. I would love to tell you about the cup and saucer, the leather jacket, the lady in the wheelchair or the Musselburgh pub, etc. I consider myself very fortunate to have been involved in his journey for a very long time.
Congratulations, my good friend.
From Richard Ross
It’s really difficult to sum up the experience that I had staying with Anda and Helen. As soon as school finished I was on my way by boat, train and bus to stay the full summer. I was almost in tears at the thought of going home. Money can’t buy the joy that I experienced. I would play at ceilidhs and dances with Anda the whole summer, for example with Richard Hughes on drums and Alan Kitchen on piano, for the Bunessan Show Dance. He was great at encouraging me and that support helped to shape my playing. It was a wonderful period in my life and my life has been enriched by being part of Helen’s and Anda’s life in my teenage years. Helen was a first cousin of my dad so I felt part of a great family on Mull as soon as I set foot there.
There isn’t one word that I can use to describe Anda because he has so many great qualities. He helped to put Bunessan on the map during the Mull Festival. Anda owned the Argyll Arms Hotel and the Festival weekend is legendary for the brilliant music and the many great bands playing there.
From Joan Blue
With our great friends Bobby and Agnes Crowe, and sometimes our ‘plus one’, Jack Cooper, Jimmy and I could not wait for August to come round every year when we set off for yet another adventure in Bunessan with the incorrigible Anda Campbell and his wonderful wife, Helen. Anda would time the annual fishing competition to coincide with our visit and he, Jimmy and Bobby would set out in the boat to catch enough fish of every species imaginable to win the contest. The Bunessan village hall’s closure after many years also coincided with our holiday and no-one who attended that night will ever forget the farewell concert and dance with Betty singing and Jeanie sitting on the cakes! And we were delighted to be invited back for the opening of the new hall two years later.
Although quiet and unassuming, Anda had a gift for making things happen – not necessarily the way they were planned, but always memorably. The saga of the ‘Iona Coo’ would need a page to itself! Another unforgettable day was when the Britannia was sighted outside the bay. Very quickly Anda had the boat out and we bravely set sail towards the beach where the Royal family liked to picnic, a helicopter hovering overhead. We were just too late – the last group, including Princes Margaret, was on its way back to the Royal yacht – but that didn’t stop Bobby playing The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh on his accordion which he had taken with him! So many memories!
And, of course, beside the man id Helen, a wonderful lady who can put on a meal for sixteen at short notice and still be serene and smiling. Anda and Helen are a great couple who make all welcome, and I am delighted that Anda, who put Bunessan on the Scottish music map, is being honoured by the NAAFC.
Anda was born and brought up on the island of Mull where his father, Angus, ran the local Post Office in Bunessan while his mother Marion was busy bringing up a family of four girls, Jessie, Lexie, Anne and Elizabeth, in addition to the token boy Anda. There was always music in the home as Anda’s father, who played the British chromatic accordion, played at all the dances, ceilidhs etc on the south end of Mull, known locally as the Ross of Mull. With all this music about it is therefore not surprising that Anda became a musician.
All Anda’s schooling was at Bunessan where the local school served as a primary and also a junior secondary school. After leaving school, Anda worked with the Forestry Commission where his work colleague for some time was Angus Grant, the well-known left handed fiddler from Lochaber. In fact Anda has a lot to thank Angus for because if it hadn’t been for him Anda may never have met his wife. The story goes that Anda and Angus were at a function at Salen, Mull and at the end, despite the fact they had consumed a fair amount of drink, Angus suggested they should go to the Badminton Club – no trainers or fancy athletic gear, just wellies and dungarees. At the Badminton Club was a young teacher, Helen Ross, who came from Bonawe and who had begun teaching in Salen Primary School. Anda and Helen got on like a house on fire. The rest, as they say, is history and they celebrate 50 years of marriage next year.
After leaving the Forestry Commission, Anda changed career and for the next fifteen years worked as an engineer with the Hydro board dealing with everything electrical such as breakdowns, installations and meter readings on the islands of Mull and Iona, and occasionally Tiree and Coll. A further career change beckoned when Anda and Helen bought the Argyll Arms Hotel in Bunessan but more of that later. Having now ‘retired’, Anda passes his time by driving buses on the beautiful island of Mull.
On the musical front, when he was about eleven years old Anda’s parents bought him an acoustic guitar, and a student who was working locally during the summer months gave him a few lessons. At that time, Anda was greatly interested in Scottish folk music with Joe Gordon, who starred in the White Heather Club TV show with the Joe Gordon Folk Four, being a particular hero. When interest in the guitar waned, Anda decided that he would like to learn the bagpipes and who better to ask than the great piper Calum McPherson, who stayed in the village. Off he went for lessons only to be greeted with the words, “Yes, delighted my boy – but you’ll bring down that banjo first and we’ll make a fire of it, then we’ll start the chanter lessons.” Well, the guitar stayed put and, needless to say, the bagpipe lessons never started.
When he was about sixteen years of age Anda started going to dances in the north end of the island, listening to Bobby MacLeod and Calum MacLean who both played 5-row Continental accordions. Although he had previously tried his father’s British chromatic accordion without success, Anda decided that the 5-row instrument was the one for him, and in a relatively short time he was playing along with his father at local dances. In due course, he joined up with Robert MacLeod (Bobby’s son) and also occasionally with Pibroch MacKenzie, playing at various functions on the island.
Over the years Anda has enjoyed tunes and played at many functions with different musicians. He remembers in the early 1970s Alan Kitchen coming to work as a barman in the local hotel and also playing piano to entertain the guests. After finishing his stint in the hotel Alan would come along to the hall and join in with the band. Although classically trained, Alan quickly became hooked on Scottish dance music and played many gigs with Anda. He is now a well-known face on the Scottish dance music scene. In the late 1970s Helen’s cousin Richard Ross came to visit with his young son Richard who played the accordion. This, of course, is an understatement as Richard went on to win the Scottish Accordion Championship at Perth on two occasions and now plays with the West Telferton SDB. Anda and Helen quickly ‘adopted’ young Richard who spent every summer during the school holidays playing at gigs with ‘Uncle Anda’ all over the island and beyond. Others who have graced the bandstand along with Anda include his old friend, drummer Richard Hughes from Tobermory, the late Davie Flockhart who lived in Tobermory for a while, accordion virtuoso the late John Huband from Dundee, and also Jimmy Reid on guitar and vocals.
In 1983 Anda and Helen were persuaded by the late Colin Finlayson to buy the Argyll Arms and then, as Anda says, the fun really began. The first band to play at the newly opened hotel was Robert Black, who thus set the standard for all who followed. Musicians arrived at the hotel in droves with some of the best young players and bands appearing regularly. It would be very difficult to name them all, but to be visited by many of the older well-established bands was a great thrill for Anda as well as for his regulars in the bar. To have visits from Bill Black, Jimmy Blue, Bobby Crowe, Alasdair Downie, Eric Goodfellow, Dochie McCallum and Fraser McGlynn, to name but a few, really brought the hotel to the forefront of the Scottish dance music scene. Next door neighbour Alasdair MacIntyre (Ally Mack) was always first on the scene when the musicians arrived so they were never short of a drummer. Ally went on to play with several bands on the mainland until his untimely death Another ever-present at these musical evenings was a very small Ross Wilson, Anda’s nephew. He would happily play the drums all night if he was allowed and he has now gone on to be a full time musician playing keyboards with the band Tidelines.
Anda remembers the talented Ballochmyle Ceilidh Band being very popular when they played during the season and he also stayed true to his early love of folk music by having Gaberlunzie and The Clydesiders appear at regular intervals. Every summer ‘the Blues and the Crowes’ – Jimmy and Joan Blue along with bobby and Agnes Crowe – would appear and great hilarity ensued for the rest of the week. The band would play in the evenings and during the day they would go fishing with Anda or get up to other exploits – but if anyone sees Joan Blue, ask her about the Iona Coo!
During Anda’s time at the hotel, two LPs were sponsored: one by colin Dewar, and another call The Argyll Arms Ceilidh featuring Colin Finlayson and his band with supporting artistes, singer Elizabeth Campbell (Anda’s sister), piper Iain Donaldson (Anda’s nephew) and local singer Attie McKechnie. It also included tracks by Anda himself featuring Ally Mack on drums. The tune The Argyll Arms Ceilidh was of course written as the title track of the LP.
All good things come to an end and in 1997 Anda and Helen sold the hotel, but they still keep in touch with and are close friends with many of the musicians who came to the hotel, such as Graeme and Elaine Mitchell, Jennifer & Brian Cruickshank, Neil & Fiona MacMillan and Neil & Angie MacEachern. They still visit regularly and it was during one such visit and subsequent ceilidh into the wee small hours that Busessan Barbeque was composed. No tale about Anda would be complete without mention of ‘Hutchie’ – Robert Hutcheson – a lifelong friend of Anda’s who was involved in many of the exploits and who, of course, is the subject of the great reel entitled Hutchie’s Bash by Graeme Mitchell.
That then is Anda Campbell who has done so much to further our music, either through his playing or through just being a good friend to so many people, and he well merits being a Guest of Honour at our coming Celebrity Luncheon at Invercarse Hotel, Dundee.
From Alasdair MacLeod
Anda Campbell – the very name makes you smile. He is best known for his ownership of the Argyll Arms Hotel, Bunessan, where he created a unique atmosphere of warmth, friendship, fun, laughter, harmony and even nonsense, all built on the love of our music, and fuelled by his unbounded enthusiasm, and for being a larger than life character with a partaking of the odd dram. The Argyll Arms camaraderie is still going strong.
It shouldn’t be forgotten that not only does he play the 5-row accordion excellently, but he is also one of the staunchest supporters of our music, and has been all in life. I would love to tell you about the cup and saucer, the leather jacket, the lady in the wheelchair or the Musselburgh pub, etc. I consider myself very fortunate to have been involved in his journey for a very long time.
Congratulations, my good friend.
From Richard Ross
It’s really difficult to sum up the experience that I had staying with Anda and Helen. As soon as school finished I was on my way by boat, train and bus to stay the full summer. I was almost in tears at the thought of going home. Money can’t buy the joy that I experienced. I would play at ceilidhs and dances with Anda the whole summer, for example with Richard Hughes on drums and Alan Kitchen on piano, for the Bunessan Show Dance. He was great at encouraging me and that support helped to shape my playing. It was a wonderful period in my life and my life has been enriched by being part of Helen’s and Anda’s life in my teenage years. Helen was a first cousin of my dad so I felt part of a great family on Mull as soon as I set foot there.
There isn’t one word that I can use to describe Anda because he has so many great qualities. He helped to put Bunessan on the map during the Mull Festival. Anda owned the Argyll Arms Hotel and the Festival weekend is legendary for the brilliant music and the many great bands playing there.
From Joan Blue
With our great friends Bobby and Agnes Crowe, and sometimes our ‘plus one’, Jack Cooper, Jimmy and I could not wait for August to come round every year when we set off for yet another adventure in Bunessan with the incorrigible Anda Campbell and his wonderful wife, Helen. Anda would time the annual fishing competition to coincide with our visit and he, Jimmy and Bobby would set out in the boat to catch enough fish of every species imaginable to win the contest. The Bunessan village hall’s closure after many years also coincided with our holiday and no-one who attended that night will ever forget the farewell concert and dance with Betty singing and Jeanie sitting on the cakes! And we were delighted to be invited back for the opening of the new hall two years later.
Although quiet and unassuming, Anda had a gift for making things happen – not necessarily the way they were planned, but always memorably. The saga of the ‘Iona Coo’ would need a page to itself! Another unforgettable day was when the Britannia was sighted outside the bay. Very quickly Anda had the boat out and we bravely set sail towards the beach where the Royal family liked to picnic, a helicopter hovering overhead. We were just too late – the last group, including Princes Margaret, was on its way back to the Royal yacht – but that didn’t stop Bobby playing The Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh on his accordion which he had taken with him! So many memories!
And, of course, beside the man id Helen, a wonderful lady who can put on a meal for sixteen at short notice and still be serene and smiling. Anda and Helen are a great couple who make all welcome, and I am delighted that Anda, who put Bunessan on the Scottish music map, is being honoured by the NAAFC.
