Guests of Honour 2022
John Sinton – in Interview with Pia Walker
B&F - June 2022
Year 45 No 06
John was born in Bridge of Allan Nursing Home and lived with his mum Charlotte (Lottie), dad William (Willie) and older brother Walter in Dunblane. In his pre-teen years the family moved house and by pure coincidence moved in to Jim MacLeod’s old house. In his early twenties John married May and moved to Blackford where their daughter Amanda was born. They stayed there for seven years and then moved to Dunblane, where his son Steven was born in the house that they bought from seeing a plan at the Ideal Home Exhibition in 1978, and in which they still stay. It has a lovely sunroom at the back of the house, where numerous band practices and parties have been held, and where other Dunblane musicians such as the late Billy Thom used to come for a tune and a whisky. Billy always liked May’s generous measures!
Neither of John and May’s two children is musically inclined. Amanda is a software analyst and Steven works for the HM Revenue & Customs. However, John has three ladies in his home: May, who he says is the best support a man could have, and two double basses, both beautiful instruments, one of which was given to him by his predecessor in the Jim MacLeod Band, Robin Brock, and which has now been refurbished to playing condition.
Although his first job was as a milk delivery boy, John also delivered messages for a local grocer’s shop two nights a week. This was the original home delivery service on a grocer’s bicycle! After McLaren High School he went to the trade school in Perth, and learnt more in one year there than he did in the high school. He worked for McNaughton’s Garage in Blackford which was a good apprentice training ground for what was to come, and by his early twenties he was running the small body shop there. He then started working for Morrisons Landrover Ltd, Stirling in 1976 as a panel beater and progressed through to the manager’s job in the body and paint shop, where he worked for 20 years. This was his dream job: he loved seeing damaged vehicles brought back to pre-accident condition. The staff were excellent, and he had a company car. He was also given time off by his boss whenever he needed it to go and play music!
John took early retirement after 34 years of working for Morrisons and now he enjoys working as a decorator. This took him once to London for an Edinburgh interior designer, to decorate a new flat in Tower West Chelsea.
John’s interest in playing music started in 1963 after a Boys Brigade exchange trip to Denmark, where he met Søren Lundgreen and went to stay with the family in Copenhagen. John told me that has kept in touch with Søren throughout the years. The Lundgren family was very musical. Søren played bass guitar, and on returning home John wanted to learn to play the bass guitar too. Like his brother Walter, John was taught to play the piano but didn’t like being hit over the knuckles with a ruler! Therefore the bass guitar and then the double bass became his métier.
Walter played piano with the Hamish Menzies Band at a regular dance in the Lochearnhead Hall on a Saturday night. Still in his teens, John was invited up by Hamish to sit in with the band to ‘hae a tune.’ It was there that he met Graham Myles who was on piano that night, because Walter had a cold. After that he was asked to join the Clachan Ceilidh Group, which was a complete concert party with singers, dancers and six-piece band. It was overseen by Jack Delaney and included Graham on piano and drummer Robert Ramsey. This band was a big influence in John’s life and so began an illustrious career in Scottish dance music. John, Graham and Robert went on to form the JGR Trio, playing light jazz. One of the highlights was when they entered a talent competition at the Dunblane Hydro and came second to the folk singer Moira Kerr.
Whilst at McNaughton’s Garage John met Bill Anderson, who was a parts delivery driver from Perth and played drums. Bill suggested that John should come up to the Perth Accordion and Fiddle Club, where he was introduced to Billy Craib, who was pleased to see another bass player at the club. It was there that he also met Willie Simpson, who asked John to play on an LP he was to record, and since then he has been a frequent visitor to many a club.
In the late 60s and early 70s he joined the Caberfeidh Dance Band run by Ricky Francis. Tommy Walker played accordion in this band, which went on to become the Tommy Walker Dance Band. After an audition for the BBC the Walker band did its first broadcast in 1973, and John went on to do many more broadcasts with other Scottish dance bands in the years to follow.
One gig in Rothesay with Tommy required the two of them to cross The Narrows, but they missed the last ferry over to the gig and had to get someone from the local pub to row them across. After two unsuccessful attempts at finding a seaworthy boat, they found one that didn’t leak too badly, and started their journey with the bass sticking out the front like a figurehead and Tommy sitting on his accordion box. They had to bail with a couple of cans and found that salt water was not good for Tommy’s blue suede shoes. The journey back at 1.00 am was a little easier, he told me.
John played with quite a few bands in the early 70s. This included summer concerts with Bobby Harvey in Largs on a Wednesday and Dunoon on a Thursday. As he says, it was always an experience! A week with Jimmy Shand was to follow in the North of England, with packed dance halls showing Shand’s popularity. John was asked to do more and more gigs, probably because he sees his job as laying down the foundation for the rest of the band, as he likes playing at the lower end of the bass, and thus enabling dancers to dance to the rhythm of the band.
In 1972 he was asked to join the Jimmy Blue Band on Andy Stewart’s tour down under, which meant asking for ten weeks off work. The band played to packed houses all the way, which for a novice tourer was a fantastic experience. The applause and cheering were deafening. Furthermore, there were tour managers that took care of everything, something unheard of on the Scottish scene. John remembers fondly an Air New Zealand inaugural flight from Sydney to Auckland when they were all served free drinks. He did not elaborate!
It was during his stay in Perth, WA that Ian Powrie invited the band to stay with him and his family for the five days that they played in the City Hall. John recalls that “we had mince and tatties, and apple pie. After so many weeks away missing home, it was just like being home.” Naturally there was music although Ian never took out his fiddle.
The band continued the tour, but on the trip to Zimbabwe the bass was lost in transit, something you don’t want to happen on a tour. Luckily it was returned the following day. When the tour ended it was back home to real life.
John and May used to visit the Dunblane Hydro to dance to Jim MacLeod’s five-piece band and always hoped that Robin Brock or Stan Saunders would be playing. At the time the Hydro was owned by Reo Stakis, and it was to become a very important part in John’s musical life. In 1974 John was asked to join the Jim MacLeod Band. He remembers playing for 300 to 400 people on a Saturday night. The hotel was a huge employer of musicians with up to 13 musicians playing in various areas at any one time, as well as a DJ. Jim’s band played there five nights a week from May to October. The work with Jim was varied. It was also here that John recognised the importance of always being immaculately dressed, especially for their television, theatre and concert work. The band had a large wardrobe of tartan jackets, dinner suits, white jackets, black trousers and different coloured shirts and ties. He still has the Jim MacLeod tartan jacket in his wardrobe and considers it one of most treasured possessions.
Stakis Hotels were good to musicians and also did a lot for charity. Jim once encouraged John to do something for the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust, which he agreed to. And being John he did not take the easy challenge! First, they ran dances to raise the £3,000 for the challenge, of John’s choosing. And in January 2003 he completed the trek up Kilimanjaro and raised £5,200 in total. It was an amazing experience, and the views, sunrises and sunsets at 5,895 metres were spectacular. However, it was difficult to eat food or sleep at -15c. He came back a honed man!
A recurring gig for John was to play for the Queen at the Ghillies’ Ball at Balmoral. He has done this from 1974 with Jim MacLeod and then John Carmichael, until the COVID-19 pandemic raised its ugly head. He also played with John Carmichael on the fourteen Northern Nights shows for Grampian TV. On the last show the band needed a stand-in piano player. His brother Walter who had emigrated to Australia was arriving back on holiday that day, and he was asked to join them so John finally got to play a gig with his brother!
Through the years, John became more and more busy with the MacLeod Band and he remembers doing three gigs in one day, making it a total of thirty-three gigs in the month. He was once asked to do a broadcast with Jim Johnstone for Take the Floor, as Jim and Billy Craib got their holiday dates mixed up and Stan Saunders was unavailable. It was a dream come true, but as was the norm he had to ask Jim MacLeod if this was ok. It was, but John, who had driven from his work in Stirling to Edinburgh, arrived late. He is still mortified at this, although Jim Johnstone forgave him.
Despite being very busy John loved his life and it was a great shock when Jim MacLeod died 2004 which perhaps heralded the end of an era. The music at the Hydro however continued for a while with the Jim Cleland Band.
It is not only Scottish dance music, but also traditional jazz and big band music that takes up John’s time. On one of the Northern Nights shows Alastair McDonald came along with Clan McJazz, and John enjoyed their spot. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAMt1NNSoBM). After the recording Alastair asked for John’s phone number and said he would be in touch. This led to a gig in Eaglesham, and after that he was asked to step in for the George Penman Band, as George, the bass player, was going on holiday. After George became ill, John continued as his deputy. When George died in 2009 John got the job of the organiser, running the band which became the Penman Jazzmen, because he had an email address! The Penman band did seven and a half years in King Tuts’ Wah Wah Hut and many other places around Glasgow, including under the clock at Central Station, where they had to keep turning down the volume for train announcements. They also did jazz festivals around the country. This band was formed in 1959 and because it played music the punters liked and at a tempo they enjoyed dancing to, it continued being popular until John called time on the band in 2021, because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
John joined the rehearsal band the Sound of Seventeen for a number of years, and this took him to play at concerts for the Edinburgh Festival and at the Cork Jazz Festival. Asked to name his favourite gigs, he would reply that his best experiences had been playing at a BBC Take The Floor broadcast with Robert Black at Pacific Quay in 2014 for the Commonwealth Games, the Radio Two Ballroom series ‘Saturday Nights’ in the Strathearn Restaurant at Gleneagles with pianist Donald Christie, jazz nights on the Waverley Paddle Steamer, and finally an appearance at the Perth Festival with a very young band led by Nicky McMichan (when a comment was made by another musician who shall remain nameless, that it was like Pa and the four weans coming on stage!)
John took early retirement from Morrisons in 2010, but he is not a man to sit at home. Apart from his music there is his decorating work which keeps him well occupied (after seeing his home I just might hire him!) He wants to play for as long as he can and there are bands playing music. He has enjoyed playing with many bands and musicians throughout the years - too many to mention - and he would like to thank them all for the gigs. He is currently the bass player with the Leonard Brown All-star Band. He enjoys life, the work, the gigs and the rush of adrenaline when performing. If life gets too hectic, he goes fly-fishing for rainbow trout at Orchill Loch. He also likes to go on holiday, and his tan from a recent one to Antigua is enviable.
John is a worthy recipient of the Guest of Honour Award, and we all look forward to hearing the dulcet tones from his double bass at many a club night and broadcast for a long time to come.
From Jim Cleland
Well done, John!
This is a well-deserved award in recognition of your ability as a bass player and your commitment to the music scene.
You have covered many different styles of music as well as the Scottish scene. Best known as part of the Jim MacLeod Band for many years and now playing bass in many of the top bands today. You played with the Penman Jazz Band and also provided dinner music in the Gleneagles Hotel for many years.
All the best for the future.
Neither of John and May’s two children is musically inclined. Amanda is a software analyst and Steven works for the HM Revenue & Customs. However, John has three ladies in his home: May, who he says is the best support a man could have, and two double basses, both beautiful instruments, one of which was given to him by his predecessor in the Jim MacLeod Band, Robin Brock, and which has now been refurbished to playing condition.
Although his first job was as a milk delivery boy, John also delivered messages for a local grocer’s shop two nights a week. This was the original home delivery service on a grocer’s bicycle! After McLaren High School he went to the trade school in Perth, and learnt more in one year there than he did in the high school. He worked for McNaughton’s Garage in Blackford which was a good apprentice training ground for what was to come, and by his early twenties he was running the small body shop there. He then started working for Morrisons Landrover Ltd, Stirling in 1976 as a panel beater and progressed through to the manager’s job in the body and paint shop, where he worked for 20 years. This was his dream job: he loved seeing damaged vehicles brought back to pre-accident condition. The staff were excellent, and he had a company car. He was also given time off by his boss whenever he needed it to go and play music!
John took early retirement after 34 years of working for Morrisons and now he enjoys working as a decorator. This took him once to London for an Edinburgh interior designer, to decorate a new flat in Tower West Chelsea.
John’s interest in playing music started in 1963 after a Boys Brigade exchange trip to Denmark, where he met Søren Lundgreen and went to stay with the family in Copenhagen. John told me that has kept in touch with Søren throughout the years. The Lundgren family was very musical. Søren played bass guitar, and on returning home John wanted to learn to play the bass guitar too. Like his brother Walter, John was taught to play the piano but didn’t like being hit over the knuckles with a ruler! Therefore the bass guitar and then the double bass became his métier.
Walter played piano with the Hamish Menzies Band at a regular dance in the Lochearnhead Hall on a Saturday night. Still in his teens, John was invited up by Hamish to sit in with the band to ‘hae a tune.’ It was there that he met Graham Myles who was on piano that night, because Walter had a cold. After that he was asked to join the Clachan Ceilidh Group, which was a complete concert party with singers, dancers and six-piece band. It was overseen by Jack Delaney and included Graham on piano and drummer Robert Ramsey. This band was a big influence in John’s life and so began an illustrious career in Scottish dance music. John, Graham and Robert went on to form the JGR Trio, playing light jazz. One of the highlights was when they entered a talent competition at the Dunblane Hydro and came second to the folk singer Moira Kerr.
Whilst at McNaughton’s Garage John met Bill Anderson, who was a parts delivery driver from Perth and played drums. Bill suggested that John should come up to the Perth Accordion and Fiddle Club, where he was introduced to Billy Craib, who was pleased to see another bass player at the club. It was there that he also met Willie Simpson, who asked John to play on an LP he was to record, and since then he has been a frequent visitor to many a club.
In the late 60s and early 70s he joined the Caberfeidh Dance Band run by Ricky Francis. Tommy Walker played accordion in this band, which went on to become the Tommy Walker Dance Band. After an audition for the BBC the Walker band did its first broadcast in 1973, and John went on to do many more broadcasts with other Scottish dance bands in the years to follow.
One gig in Rothesay with Tommy required the two of them to cross The Narrows, but they missed the last ferry over to the gig and had to get someone from the local pub to row them across. After two unsuccessful attempts at finding a seaworthy boat, they found one that didn’t leak too badly, and started their journey with the bass sticking out the front like a figurehead and Tommy sitting on his accordion box. They had to bail with a couple of cans and found that salt water was not good for Tommy’s blue suede shoes. The journey back at 1.00 am was a little easier, he told me.
John played with quite a few bands in the early 70s. This included summer concerts with Bobby Harvey in Largs on a Wednesday and Dunoon on a Thursday. As he says, it was always an experience! A week with Jimmy Shand was to follow in the North of England, with packed dance halls showing Shand’s popularity. John was asked to do more and more gigs, probably because he sees his job as laying down the foundation for the rest of the band, as he likes playing at the lower end of the bass, and thus enabling dancers to dance to the rhythm of the band.
In 1972 he was asked to join the Jimmy Blue Band on Andy Stewart’s tour down under, which meant asking for ten weeks off work. The band played to packed houses all the way, which for a novice tourer was a fantastic experience. The applause and cheering were deafening. Furthermore, there were tour managers that took care of everything, something unheard of on the Scottish scene. John remembers fondly an Air New Zealand inaugural flight from Sydney to Auckland when they were all served free drinks. He did not elaborate!
It was during his stay in Perth, WA that Ian Powrie invited the band to stay with him and his family for the five days that they played in the City Hall. John recalls that “we had mince and tatties, and apple pie. After so many weeks away missing home, it was just like being home.” Naturally there was music although Ian never took out his fiddle.
The band continued the tour, but on the trip to Zimbabwe the bass was lost in transit, something you don’t want to happen on a tour. Luckily it was returned the following day. When the tour ended it was back home to real life.
John and May used to visit the Dunblane Hydro to dance to Jim MacLeod’s five-piece band and always hoped that Robin Brock or Stan Saunders would be playing. At the time the Hydro was owned by Reo Stakis, and it was to become a very important part in John’s musical life. In 1974 John was asked to join the Jim MacLeod Band. He remembers playing for 300 to 400 people on a Saturday night. The hotel was a huge employer of musicians with up to 13 musicians playing in various areas at any one time, as well as a DJ. Jim’s band played there five nights a week from May to October. The work with Jim was varied. It was also here that John recognised the importance of always being immaculately dressed, especially for their television, theatre and concert work. The band had a large wardrobe of tartan jackets, dinner suits, white jackets, black trousers and different coloured shirts and ties. He still has the Jim MacLeod tartan jacket in his wardrobe and considers it one of most treasured possessions.
Stakis Hotels were good to musicians and also did a lot for charity. Jim once encouraged John to do something for the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust, which he agreed to. And being John he did not take the easy challenge! First, they ran dances to raise the £3,000 for the challenge, of John’s choosing. And in January 2003 he completed the trek up Kilimanjaro and raised £5,200 in total. It was an amazing experience, and the views, sunrises and sunsets at 5,895 metres were spectacular. However, it was difficult to eat food or sleep at -15c. He came back a honed man!
A recurring gig for John was to play for the Queen at the Ghillies’ Ball at Balmoral. He has done this from 1974 with Jim MacLeod and then John Carmichael, until the COVID-19 pandemic raised its ugly head. He also played with John Carmichael on the fourteen Northern Nights shows for Grampian TV. On the last show the band needed a stand-in piano player. His brother Walter who had emigrated to Australia was arriving back on holiday that day, and he was asked to join them so John finally got to play a gig with his brother!
Through the years, John became more and more busy with the MacLeod Band and he remembers doing three gigs in one day, making it a total of thirty-three gigs in the month. He was once asked to do a broadcast with Jim Johnstone for Take the Floor, as Jim and Billy Craib got their holiday dates mixed up and Stan Saunders was unavailable. It was a dream come true, but as was the norm he had to ask Jim MacLeod if this was ok. It was, but John, who had driven from his work in Stirling to Edinburgh, arrived late. He is still mortified at this, although Jim Johnstone forgave him.
Despite being very busy John loved his life and it was a great shock when Jim MacLeod died 2004 which perhaps heralded the end of an era. The music at the Hydro however continued for a while with the Jim Cleland Band.
It is not only Scottish dance music, but also traditional jazz and big band music that takes up John’s time. On one of the Northern Nights shows Alastair McDonald came along with Clan McJazz, and John enjoyed their spot. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAMt1NNSoBM). After the recording Alastair asked for John’s phone number and said he would be in touch. This led to a gig in Eaglesham, and after that he was asked to step in for the George Penman Band, as George, the bass player, was going on holiday. After George became ill, John continued as his deputy. When George died in 2009 John got the job of the organiser, running the band which became the Penman Jazzmen, because he had an email address! The Penman band did seven and a half years in King Tuts’ Wah Wah Hut and many other places around Glasgow, including under the clock at Central Station, where they had to keep turning down the volume for train announcements. They also did jazz festivals around the country. This band was formed in 1959 and because it played music the punters liked and at a tempo they enjoyed dancing to, it continued being popular until John called time on the band in 2021, because of the COVID-19 restrictions.
John joined the rehearsal band the Sound of Seventeen for a number of years, and this took him to play at concerts for the Edinburgh Festival and at the Cork Jazz Festival. Asked to name his favourite gigs, he would reply that his best experiences had been playing at a BBC Take The Floor broadcast with Robert Black at Pacific Quay in 2014 for the Commonwealth Games, the Radio Two Ballroom series ‘Saturday Nights’ in the Strathearn Restaurant at Gleneagles with pianist Donald Christie, jazz nights on the Waverley Paddle Steamer, and finally an appearance at the Perth Festival with a very young band led by Nicky McMichan (when a comment was made by another musician who shall remain nameless, that it was like Pa and the four weans coming on stage!)
John took early retirement from Morrisons in 2010, but he is not a man to sit at home. Apart from his music there is his decorating work which keeps him well occupied (after seeing his home I just might hire him!) He wants to play for as long as he can and there are bands playing music. He has enjoyed playing with many bands and musicians throughout the years - too many to mention - and he would like to thank them all for the gigs. He is currently the bass player with the Leonard Brown All-star Band. He enjoys life, the work, the gigs and the rush of adrenaline when performing. If life gets too hectic, he goes fly-fishing for rainbow trout at Orchill Loch. He also likes to go on holiday, and his tan from a recent one to Antigua is enviable.
John is a worthy recipient of the Guest of Honour Award, and we all look forward to hearing the dulcet tones from his double bass at many a club night and broadcast for a long time to come.
From Jim Cleland
Well done, John!
This is a well-deserved award in recognition of your ability as a bass player and your commitment to the music scene.
You have covered many different styles of music as well as the Scottish scene. Best known as part of the Jim MacLeod Band for many years and now playing bass in many of the top bands today. You played with the Penman Jazz Band and also provided dinner music in the Gleneagles Hotel for many years.
All the best for the future.