Adam Rennie
(1897 – 1960)
A small boy watched fascinated as an old man played merrily on a fiddle at a Silver Wedding celebration in Coupar Angus. The year was 1906 and the boy was nine-year-old Adam Rennie, who, in later years, gained international fame as a violinist, composer and Scottish Country Dance Band leader.
Adam Rennie was born at Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, in 1897 and came to Coupar Angus at the age of five years. His parents worked on Coupar Grange Estate near Coupar Angus and Adam went to school at Bendochy where he got his first music lessons from his teacher, Miss Elsie Birrell. On leaving school Adam went to work on the land and he was fee’d as a halflin’ at Ryehill on Coupar Grange Estate and by the age of 14 he was in charge of a pair of horses.
Further fiddle lessons were to follow from ‘Dancie’ Reid of Newtyle who nurtured so many of the fine fiddlers in the Angus and Perthshire district. Adam delighted the older men nightly in the bothy with his music and, as his playing developed, he began to be asked to play at various local parties and functions in the district.
His first public engagement was playing for the dancing on the occasion of the Coronation of King George V at the Bendochy Coronation Sports. Adam was paid ten bob for this and he said “I thought I would never be poor again.”
In 1916 Adam joined the 5th Gordon Highlanders and did not touch a fiddle from then until he ‘won’ a fiddle from a shelled music shop in deserted Arras in the spring of 1918. The battalion had 48 hours rest in the town, where they were billeted in two cellars. When Adam arrived back with the fiddle under his greatcoat, he took it out and started to play ‘Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty’ and was an instant success. The fiddle was handed over to the padre for safe keeping every time the battalion moved into the line, and it charmed the Gordons many times.
Then came the fateful day of July 28th at Soissons where Adam suffered a severe wound in the leg. He lay for two days until he was picked up and taken prisoner by the Germans. The French Red Cross found him in 1919 and, after a series of transfers across Europe, he wrote home for cigarettes and caused a sensation in his family as he was thought to be dead. Back in London he had to have a leg amputated and altogether spent a year in various hospitals.
In 1920 Adam opened his tobacconist and newsagent business at the Cross in Coupar Angus, which he was to carry on for 38 years. Adam never saw the Arras fiddle again but twelve years after the war, memory of it was brought home to him in a strange way. He was travelling by train to Dundee from Coupar Angus and there was only one other person in the compartment with him. The man put down the newspaper he was reading and questioned Adam in a ‘transatlantic’ accent. “Excuse me, but are you Adam Rennie?” Adam said yes, and the man replied “The last time I saw you was in a cellar in Arras. You played for us on a fiddle you had just pinched!”
Adam’s crowning success came in 1932 at the Perth Musical Festival where his distinction in Scottish music was fittingly recognised by the presentation of Niel Gow’s fiddle, probably the most famous in Scotland.
Later Adam became a member of the greatly loved Angus Occasionals and made his first broadcast with them in 1943.
Adam formed his Quartet in 1949 and they made their first broadcast on 8th December, 1949, on the old Home Service. They also did broadcasts on the General Overseas Service, Country Magazine, in the Journey Through Scotland, and Adam himself broadcast in the Fiddles Six Series. The famous Quartet came about almost casually. Adam was judging an accordion competition in Blairgowrie. Like the other judges, Adam was behind screens, and he was particularly struck by the playing of one competitor and resolved to meet him at the end of the show. The musician was sixteen-year-old Bobby Brown, who won the competition, and was already a grand player. Adam asked Bobby to come down to his home in Coupar Angus for a tune. Adam had already played with pianist George Robertson, and they were joined by Jock White who played double bass. That’s how it all began. Later on George introduced Adam to Ed Robb, who took over playing the double bass for the rest of the time the Quartet played.
The Quartet, after successful radio broadcasts, attracted the attention of the recording companies and they made recordings for PYE (NIXA) and the Parlophone Company, which were all released as 78s and one small 7” EP (extended playing) disc. The band were also in great demand south of the border and they once did a one thousand mile round trip which took them to Chelmsford, Essex to play for the Chelmsford Farmers Bachelor’s Ball in January, 1952. The Quartet, dressed in their Royal Stewart tartan dinner jackets, were much admired.
On another trip to London in January of 1957 they played in the Porchester Hall on the Friday and at the Holburn Hall on the Saturday, where the dance was sponsored by the Scottish Reel Club. At the Holburn dance the band were called upon to take part in a documentary film being produced by the Pathe Company. The film was mainly to promote the tourist industry in Britain, the earlier parts of the film had been made in various parts of the country throughout the year, and the culminating scenes were to be of the Scottish Reel Clubs’ dance with the band playing ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
The Quartet provided the music at Balmoral Castle for the Gillies Dances, twice in 1953, twice in 1954, and again in 1956 when Her Majesty the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen Mother were all present.
Adam Rennie composed the following tunes :-
Jigs – Sir Torquil Munro, Bart., of Lindertis
Elizabeth Donald (his mother)
Mrs Grace Bowie (Coupar Angus)
Reels – Bill Sutherland (Blair Atholl)
Jean Kirkpatrick’s Fancy (Alyth)
Pat Donald
John Donald of Coullie
The Rev Peter Fenton (Ardler)
Kemnay House
Kinclaven Brig
The Bonnie Dancers
Mrs Monair of ‘Bruach’
Strathspey – Innes Russell (Perth)
Polkas – Janette Gibb’s Polka
Silver Wings Polka
Military Two-Step – Up With the Lark
Their final performance was at the Coupar Angus Scottish Country Dance Club in March 1958. Adam retired from business and moved to the Muirton House, Blairgowrie, and died in February, 1960.
R.S.
Box and Fiddle
January 1987
I recall the late Alex MacArthur saying the occasionally if Bobby Brown wasn’t available Adam would phone Ian Powrie to ask for a loan of Jimmy Blue, if he was available, or failing that Alex himself. Adam was a stickler for tempo, Alex said, and if he felt it needed adjustment after the opening chord he would stamp his ‘wooden leg’ on the stage until the band modified the speed to his liking.
Charlie Todd
Adam Rennie was born at Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, in 1897 and came to Coupar Angus at the age of five years. His parents worked on Coupar Grange Estate near Coupar Angus and Adam went to school at Bendochy where he got his first music lessons from his teacher, Miss Elsie Birrell. On leaving school Adam went to work on the land and he was fee’d as a halflin’ at Ryehill on Coupar Grange Estate and by the age of 14 he was in charge of a pair of horses.
Further fiddle lessons were to follow from ‘Dancie’ Reid of Newtyle who nurtured so many of the fine fiddlers in the Angus and Perthshire district. Adam delighted the older men nightly in the bothy with his music and, as his playing developed, he began to be asked to play at various local parties and functions in the district.
His first public engagement was playing for the dancing on the occasion of the Coronation of King George V at the Bendochy Coronation Sports. Adam was paid ten bob for this and he said “I thought I would never be poor again.”
In 1916 Adam joined the 5th Gordon Highlanders and did not touch a fiddle from then until he ‘won’ a fiddle from a shelled music shop in deserted Arras in the spring of 1918. The battalion had 48 hours rest in the town, where they were billeted in two cellars. When Adam arrived back with the fiddle under his greatcoat, he took it out and started to play ‘Take Me Back to Dear Old Blighty’ and was an instant success. The fiddle was handed over to the padre for safe keeping every time the battalion moved into the line, and it charmed the Gordons many times.
Then came the fateful day of July 28th at Soissons where Adam suffered a severe wound in the leg. He lay for two days until he was picked up and taken prisoner by the Germans. The French Red Cross found him in 1919 and, after a series of transfers across Europe, he wrote home for cigarettes and caused a sensation in his family as he was thought to be dead. Back in London he had to have a leg amputated and altogether spent a year in various hospitals.
In 1920 Adam opened his tobacconist and newsagent business at the Cross in Coupar Angus, which he was to carry on for 38 years. Adam never saw the Arras fiddle again but twelve years after the war, memory of it was brought home to him in a strange way. He was travelling by train to Dundee from Coupar Angus and there was only one other person in the compartment with him. The man put down the newspaper he was reading and questioned Adam in a ‘transatlantic’ accent. “Excuse me, but are you Adam Rennie?” Adam said yes, and the man replied “The last time I saw you was in a cellar in Arras. You played for us on a fiddle you had just pinched!”
Adam’s crowning success came in 1932 at the Perth Musical Festival where his distinction in Scottish music was fittingly recognised by the presentation of Niel Gow’s fiddle, probably the most famous in Scotland.
Later Adam became a member of the greatly loved Angus Occasionals and made his first broadcast with them in 1943.
Adam formed his Quartet in 1949 and they made their first broadcast on 8th December, 1949, on the old Home Service. They also did broadcasts on the General Overseas Service, Country Magazine, in the Journey Through Scotland, and Adam himself broadcast in the Fiddles Six Series. The famous Quartet came about almost casually. Adam was judging an accordion competition in Blairgowrie. Like the other judges, Adam was behind screens, and he was particularly struck by the playing of one competitor and resolved to meet him at the end of the show. The musician was sixteen-year-old Bobby Brown, who won the competition, and was already a grand player. Adam asked Bobby to come down to his home in Coupar Angus for a tune. Adam had already played with pianist George Robertson, and they were joined by Jock White who played double bass. That’s how it all began. Later on George introduced Adam to Ed Robb, who took over playing the double bass for the rest of the time the Quartet played.
The Quartet, after successful radio broadcasts, attracted the attention of the recording companies and they made recordings for PYE (NIXA) and the Parlophone Company, which were all released as 78s and one small 7” EP (extended playing) disc. The band were also in great demand south of the border and they once did a one thousand mile round trip which took them to Chelmsford, Essex to play for the Chelmsford Farmers Bachelor’s Ball in January, 1952. The Quartet, dressed in their Royal Stewart tartan dinner jackets, were much admired.
On another trip to London in January of 1957 they played in the Porchester Hall on the Friday and at the Holburn Hall on the Saturday, where the dance was sponsored by the Scottish Reel Club. At the Holburn dance the band were called upon to take part in a documentary film being produced by the Pathe Company. The film was mainly to promote the tourist industry in Britain, the earlier parts of the film had been made in various parts of the country throughout the year, and the culminating scenes were to be of the Scottish Reel Clubs’ dance with the band playing ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
The Quartet provided the music at Balmoral Castle for the Gillies Dances, twice in 1953, twice in 1954, and again in 1956 when Her Majesty the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen Mother were all present.
Adam Rennie composed the following tunes :-
Jigs – Sir Torquil Munro, Bart., of Lindertis
Elizabeth Donald (his mother)
Mrs Grace Bowie (Coupar Angus)
Reels – Bill Sutherland (Blair Atholl)
Jean Kirkpatrick’s Fancy (Alyth)
Pat Donald
John Donald of Coullie
The Rev Peter Fenton (Ardler)
Kemnay House
Kinclaven Brig
The Bonnie Dancers
Mrs Monair of ‘Bruach’
Strathspey – Innes Russell (Perth)
Polkas – Janette Gibb’s Polka
Silver Wings Polka
Military Two-Step – Up With the Lark
Their final performance was at the Coupar Angus Scottish Country Dance Club in March 1958. Adam retired from business and moved to the Muirton House, Blairgowrie, and died in February, 1960.
R.S.
Box and Fiddle
January 1987
I recall the late Alex MacArthur saying the occasionally if Bobby Brown wasn’t available Adam would phone Ian Powrie to ask for a loan of Jimmy Blue, if he was available, or failing that Alex himself. Adam was a stickler for tempo, Alex said, and if he felt it needed adjustment after the opening chord he would stamp his ‘wooden leg’ on the stage until the band modified the speed to his liking.
Charlie Todd