Andrew Knight
Andrew has been a well-known and, if I may say so, instantly recognisable figure on the Scottish Dance Music scene for a number of years now, but his roots lie in an altogether different type of music. Born in Cleghorn Street, Dundee in 1957 (a vintage year if I may say so!) on the outskirts of Lochee to George and Margaret Knight, Andrew was the eldest of four children with sisters Morag and Sheelagh and brother Sandy. Margaret was a nurse (midwife) and George a self-employed piano tuner who had almost obtained his LRAM (passing the practical but not the theory) who taught classical piano in his spare time. Dad was also a keen hill walker and “Munro Bagger” and Andrew accompanied him on those outings for many years. Mum played fiddle a bit, having attended Routledge Bell in the company of fellow pupils Ron Gonella and Jimmy Yeaman, but hadn’t aspired to their dizzy heights.
When Andrew was seven years of age the family moved to Logie Street and it was shortly after this, in Primary 3, that young Andrew started viola lessons from the school music teacher, a well-known name to us thanks to Angus Fitchet’s jig of that name, Harry C. Ogilvie. Although Harry taught strictly classical, he had in fact won the Mod fiddle competition when he was fourteen and led the resident band in The Salutation Hotel, Perth for many years, playing all types of music. Bearing in mind his home background, initially for young Andrew it had been a toss-up between the strings and the piano but such was his progress on the viola that after a year he began private lessons with Harry, which lasted right through till he was nineteen in 1976. Throughout this time the tuition was never anything but classical.
Moving on to the Harris Academy in 1969, Andrew found that it too had an excellent Music Department. So good in fact that they regularly won every section the school entered in Dundee’s annual Music Festival. His latter secondary school years and beyond were hectic as he led the School Orchestra and participated in the City of Dundee Orchestra, the Schools Symphony Orchestra, and the National Youth String Orchestra of Scotland. From 1978 to 1981 he attended an annual week-long gathering in Perth, where the best of Scotland’s classical musicians met for tuition and rounded off the week with a big concert in Perth’s City Hall.
From the age of sixteen he was periodically called upon to take part in an improvised pit orchestra in The Whitehall Theatre, Dundee. Usually this consisted of the city’s music teachers and their best pupils and it was invaluable in developing his sight-reading skills and understanding arrangements.
Harris Academy also ran a Concert Party, which entertained in the local old folks homes etc, as they do or at least did then, and it was through this that Andrew first came into contact with fellow 5th Year pupil, accordionist Sandy Nixon. Classical music wasn’t in great demand by the elderly residents, hence Andrew teamed up with Sandy who was already experienced in what was an entirely new field to him, Scottish Dance Music and, as has often been said in the past, with a proper classical training under his belt nothing Sandy put down on the music stand in from of him presented any problem. Indeed in time he was to develop what is rather an unusual combination of skills – a great sight-reader and a great “lug” player.
After leaving Harris Academy Andrew took what would now be termed a “gap” year since he had basically no idea what he wanted to do and it was only after a phone call from one of his former teachers at the Academy suggesting that he apply for a place on the piano tuning course at Stevenson Academy in Edinburgh that his future career was set. At nineteen he moved to Edinburgh to start the course and it was there in the Capital City that Sandy Nixon introduced him to Iain MacPhail and he immediately found himself deputising for Alan Johnstone at The King James for a fortnight.
At Stevenson the course suited him ideally, as his results testified. He had a good ear and, having grown up with a dad in that line of work, everything seemed to fall into place, he was a natural. As the end of the three year course approached he asked his Head of Department about the possibility of a job to which he readily agreed and Andrew transferred seamlessly from the role of student to that of Lecturer, a job that was going to last for the next twenty-two years.
Although he played for a couple of years with an amateur orchestra in Edinburgh it was Scottish Dance Music that gradually took over the lead. It was Iain MacPhail who in turn introduced Andrew to gifted accordionist and keyboard player Robert Baird, who was looking for a fiddle player for the “Border Reivers” and from 1977 till 1982 Andrew played with Robert as various other names, soon to be well-known on the Scottish Dance Music scene, served their apprenticeships in the band – e.g. Gillies Crichton, John Gibson and Gordon Smith. The Border Reivers were a purely Scottish Country Dance Band working mostly down south and playing full Country Dance programmes in strict tempo, an education in itself. It was talented pianist and Country Dancer, the late John Gibson, who first introduced Andrew to his future wife Margaret Whitaker from just north of York, a keen country dancer.
By late 1982 Andrew had formed his own band, The West Telferton Caledonian. Here again Andrew’s warped sense of humour came into play and, as he put it, “Bands are usually names after majestic and romantic things like mountains and glens but in our case it was the former railway marshalling yards behind Stevenson College in Kings Road, Portobello, which were being converted into an Industrial Estate of that name at the time.”
Anyway, their modern industrial heritage stood them in good stead since a couple of years later The West Telferton were to “sweep the boards” winning the Band Sections at Musselburgh, Oban and Perth with Andrew leading on fiddle, Alistair Edmondson on lead accordion, Dorothy Lawson on second accordion, David Hume on piano and Neil Hutton on drums.
Over the years, as is always the case, the band line-up has changed with Ian Hutson, Deborah “D.C.” Cavanagh, Suzanne Croy and various others playing in the band. The piano tuning course at Stevenson College itself proved to be a valuable recruiting ground for new band members, since many of the students often had some sort of musical background (Alistair Edmondson and Neil Hutton to name but two).
More recently Russell Hunter has taken over the piano stool, George McLeod has joined on drums, Richard Ross on lead accordion, Karen Higgins on second accordion and John Delaney on bass to give the present day line-up.
When Andrew first moved to Edinburgh in 1976 the nearest Accordion and Fiddle Club was at Livingston, meeting at the “Carron Ironworks” at that time, and it was the late Gordon Jamieson who introduced Andrew to its Chairman, Murdo McLeod. Both attended the Club regularly, later making occasional visits to Newtongrange Club after John Gibson made that introduction.
It was in 1983 that the Knight household upped and moved to their present residence in Newtongrange and it was then that Andrew’s real involvement with the Club started, firstly as regular attender, then as Committee member and now sharing the MC duties. In return, in the early days it was Margaret Smith who helped to get The West Telferton going by passing on gigs (if Jim Johnstone couldn’t do them!).
At some point in the past, lost in the mists of time, he was also co-opted (I think the term is) onto the Musselburgh Festival Sub Committee, a role he continues to enjoy today. At the time he was the first fiddler to join the Sub Committee, which helped redress what had perhaps been an accordion bias.
Elsewhere Music Festivals of the non-competitive type have been a regular venue for the band over the years. They have been frequent visitors at Newcastleton, Mull and Shetland, participating fully in the formal and informal sessions which make these events so memorable.
Away from his own band Andrew has recorded with several others on the scene over the years, namely Alastair Wood, Ian Hutson, Sandy Legget, Robert MacLeod, Tommy Edmondson, Roger Dobson and the late Bobby Cronie from Glasgow, but his biggest annual audience is in a solo spot with the Newtongrange Silver Band at the annual “Brass in the Park” Festival in Newtongrange on the first weekend in September. Armed with an electric fiddle he is able to wow an audience of hundreds in an event that helps celebrate the village’s mining heritage.
Andrew is, without doubt, one of the more colourful and eccentric characters on the Scottish Dance Music scene, with experience in various musical idioms, but with a sound track record in Take the Floor broadcasts, guesting at Accordion and Fiddle Clubs, actively supporting our own Musselburgh Festival and many others besides, as well as being the leader of a “working band” playing for both general and Scottish Country Dancing.
When Andrew was seven years of age the family moved to Logie Street and it was shortly after this, in Primary 3, that young Andrew started viola lessons from the school music teacher, a well-known name to us thanks to Angus Fitchet’s jig of that name, Harry C. Ogilvie. Although Harry taught strictly classical, he had in fact won the Mod fiddle competition when he was fourteen and led the resident band in The Salutation Hotel, Perth for many years, playing all types of music. Bearing in mind his home background, initially for young Andrew it had been a toss-up between the strings and the piano but such was his progress on the viola that after a year he began private lessons with Harry, which lasted right through till he was nineteen in 1976. Throughout this time the tuition was never anything but classical.
Moving on to the Harris Academy in 1969, Andrew found that it too had an excellent Music Department. So good in fact that they regularly won every section the school entered in Dundee’s annual Music Festival. His latter secondary school years and beyond were hectic as he led the School Orchestra and participated in the City of Dundee Orchestra, the Schools Symphony Orchestra, and the National Youth String Orchestra of Scotland. From 1978 to 1981 he attended an annual week-long gathering in Perth, where the best of Scotland’s classical musicians met for tuition and rounded off the week with a big concert in Perth’s City Hall.
From the age of sixteen he was periodically called upon to take part in an improvised pit orchestra in The Whitehall Theatre, Dundee. Usually this consisted of the city’s music teachers and their best pupils and it was invaluable in developing his sight-reading skills and understanding arrangements.
Harris Academy also ran a Concert Party, which entertained in the local old folks homes etc, as they do or at least did then, and it was through this that Andrew first came into contact with fellow 5th Year pupil, accordionist Sandy Nixon. Classical music wasn’t in great demand by the elderly residents, hence Andrew teamed up with Sandy who was already experienced in what was an entirely new field to him, Scottish Dance Music and, as has often been said in the past, with a proper classical training under his belt nothing Sandy put down on the music stand in from of him presented any problem. Indeed in time he was to develop what is rather an unusual combination of skills – a great sight-reader and a great “lug” player.
After leaving Harris Academy Andrew took what would now be termed a “gap” year since he had basically no idea what he wanted to do and it was only after a phone call from one of his former teachers at the Academy suggesting that he apply for a place on the piano tuning course at Stevenson Academy in Edinburgh that his future career was set. At nineteen he moved to Edinburgh to start the course and it was there in the Capital City that Sandy Nixon introduced him to Iain MacPhail and he immediately found himself deputising for Alan Johnstone at The King James for a fortnight.
At Stevenson the course suited him ideally, as his results testified. He had a good ear and, having grown up with a dad in that line of work, everything seemed to fall into place, he was a natural. As the end of the three year course approached he asked his Head of Department about the possibility of a job to which he readily agreed and Andrew transferred seamlessly from the role of student to that of Lecturer, a job that was going to last for the next twenty-two years.
Although he played for a couple of years with an amateur orchestra in Edinburgh it was Scottish Dance Music that gradually took over the lead. It was Iain MacPhail who in turn introduced Andrew to gifted accordionist and keyboard player Robert Baird, who was looking for a fiddle player for the “Border Reivers” and from 1977 till 1982 Andrew played with Robert as various other names, soon to be well-known on the Scottish Dance Music scene, served their apprenticeships in the band – e.g. Gillies Crichton, John Gibson and Gordon Smith. The Border Reivers were a purely Scottish Country Dance Band working mostly down south and playing full Country Dance programmes in strict tempo, an education in itself. It was talented pianist and Country Dancer, the late John Gibson, who first introduced Andrew to his future wife Margaret Whitaker from just north of York, a keen country dancer.
By late 1982 Andrew had formed his own band, The West Telferton Caledonian. Here again Andrew’s warped sense of humour came into play and, as he put it, “Bands are usually names after majestic and romantic things like mountains and glens but in our case it was the former railway marshalling yards behind Stevenson College in Kings Road, Portobello, which were being converted into an Industrial Estate of that name at the time.”
Anyway, their modern industrial heritage stood them in good stead since a couple of years later The West Telferton were to “sweep the boards” winning the Band Sections at Musselburgh, Oban and Perth with Andrew leading on fiddle, Alistair Edmondson on lead accordion, Dorothy Lawson on second accordion, David Hume on piano and Neil Hutton on drums.
Over the years, as is always the case, the band line-up has changed with Ian Hutson, Deborah “D.C.” Cavanagh, Suzanne Croy and various others playing in the band. The piano tuning course at Stevenson College itself proved to be a valuable recruiting ground for new band members, since many of the students often had some sort of musical background (Alistair Edmondson and Neil Hutton to name but two).
More recently Russell Hunter has taken over the piano stool, George McLeod has joined on drums, Richard Ross on lead accordion, Karen Higgins on second accordion and John Delaney on bass to give the present day line-up.
When Andrew first moved to Edinburgh in 1976 the nearest Accordion and Fiddle Club was at Livingston, meeting at the “Carron Ironworks” at that time, and it was the late Gordon Jamieson who introduced Andrew to its Chairman, Murdo McLeod. Both attended the Club regularly, later making occasional visits to Newtongrange Club after John Gibson made that introduction.
It was in 1983 that the Knight household upped and moved to their present residence in Newtongrange and it was then that Andrew’s real involvement with the Club started, firstly as regular attender, then as Committee member and now sharing the MC duties. In return, in the early days it was Margaret Smith who helped to get The West Telferton going by passing on gigs (if Jim Johnstone couldn’t do them!).
At some point in the past, lost in the mists of time, he was also co-opted (I think the term is) onto the Musselburgh Festival Sub Committee, a role he continues to enjoy today. At the time he was the first fiddler to join the Sub Committee, which helped redress what had perhaps been an accordion bias.
Elsewhere Music Festivals of the non-competitive type have been a regular venue for the band over the years. They have been frequent visitors at Newcastleton, Mull and Shetland, participating fully in the formal and informal sessions which make these events so memorable.
Away from his own band Andrew has recorded with several others on the scene over the years, namely Alastair Wood, Ian Hutson, Sandy Legget, Robert MacLeod, Tommy Edmondson, Roger Dobson and the late Bobby Cronie from Glasgow, but his biggest annual audience is in a solo spot with the Newtongrange Silver Band at the annual “Brass in the Park” Festival in Newtongrange on the first weekend in September. Armed with an electric fiddle he is able to wow an audience of hundreds in an event that helps celebrate the village’s mining heritage.
Andrew is, without doubt, one of the more colourful and eccentric characters on the Scottish Dance Music scene, with experience in various musical idioms, but with a sound track record in Take the Floor broadcasts, guesting at Accordion and Fiddle Clubs, actively supporting our own Musselburgh Festival and many others besides, as well as being the leader of a “working band” playing for both general and Scottish Country Dancing.