Angus Cameron
An Appreciation
by Sandy Ingram, Glamis
April of this year (1998) saw the Scottish fiddle scene bereft of one of its most talented sons on the death of Angus Cameron of Kirriemuir.
He was born and brought up in the Angus town immortalised by the late Sir James Barrie of ‘Peter Pan’ fame, and renowned for its famous Ball. Angus Cameron came from a well-known local family of musicians, his father Will Cameron being himself a noted exponent of the fiddle. From an early age angus played, and competed successfully, at various fiddle festivals throughout Scotland. He went on to perform not only regularly on radio and television, but also at the Edinburgh Festival and at a number of prestigious gigs abroad. One of the highlights of his career was winning, in the late 1970’s, the Daily Record ‘Golden Fiddle Award’.
He was also an outstanding composer in the Scottish fiddle idiom, whose works were, and are, widely played by fiddlers throughout Scotland. Angus also had the honour of presenting to the Queen Mother – and having graciously accepted by her – one of his compositions written on the occasion of her 80th birthday. That took place in a tattie shed near Glamis – suitably converted and decorated for the purpose, of course! But that’s a different story……………
It was as a Conductor of the Angus S&R Society that I knew him best. He was a dynamic and greatly gifted maestro, who drew the best out of us, and then some more, and who led us to memorable victories in the Fiddle Festival scene. Indeed my abiding memory of Angus Cameron is of him standing in front of us, at a practice evening, with his eyes, as he would say “This is the way we’ll do it lads. Wait and see, it’ll knock them oot!” And do you know, he was invariably right!
S.I. 17th July, 1998
Box and Fiddle
September 1998
Memories of Angus Cameron
by Alan Kindness (leader – Glendaruel SDB)
I first met Angus back in the summer of 1970 when I was asked to include a fiddle player in my band for the summer season of Scottish Country Dancing in Perth City Halls. Ron Kerr, who had assisted me on previous occasions at Scottish Country Dance Balls and the like was unable to undertake the full season with me and it was he who introduced me to Angus.
It is fair to say that Angus and I ‘bonded’ right away. He was not a strong, powerful fiddler – ‘couthie’ was a more apt description of his style – and this suited my particular style of playing. One record producer complained that he ‘had great difficulty in splitting the fiddle and the lead accordion for stereo’ – I took this ‘complaint’ as a ‘compliment’. Angus had the unique ability of being able to adapt his style to suit the style of the lead accordion. As said earlier, he was not a powerful fiddler – he was never willing to sacrifice sweetness of tone for power – all he ever asked was that the fiddle be shown sympathy, “no problem” as fat as I was concerned. He never tried to influence the sound of the band – he had his own ideas but these he kept for his own band. He was always willing to give advice if asked and I found his opinion well worth taking on board, never more so than when it came to playing strathspeys.
I was never, in my early days, happy with this particular tempo and in the course of conversation mentioned this to Angus. He simply said “follow the fiddle”. I did, and from then on the strathspey tempo took on a new dimension for me. Angus, of course, was famed for his strathspey technique and has been subject to analysis on many occasions. The general opinion seems to be (from those who know more about these things than me) was that it all came from his own brand of ‘bowing’.
As well as being a top class fiddler Angus was also an expert on the piano and he did enjoy himself after Mo Rutherford joined my Lima band, when the two of them would change seats – Angus on the piano and Mo on the fiddle.
He was, of course, a prolific composer of Scottish music and I am sure that for years to come we will hear the likes of ‘Taps o’ Fechle’ and ‘Harry Scott of Froickheim’ being performed at Festivals and clubs. I am equally sure that in future times he will rank along side Gow, Skinner, etc. as one of Scotland’s all time great composers. Some of his tunes were reasonably easy to play, others were ‘buggers’ but the musicality of the tunes made the hard practice well worth the effort.
I enjoyed playing alongside Angus for 17 years. We played our last ‘TTF’ in the spring of 1987 when, due to ill health, I was forced to stop playing. I did continue to enjoy his friendship right up until, his sad and premature death in March of this year. He was a tremendous musician, a great guy to be with – I’ll miss him a lot.
Box and Fiddle
October 1998
He was born and brought up in the Angus town immortalised by the late Sir James Barrie of ‘Peter Pan’ fame, and renowned for its famous Ball. Angus Cameron came from a well-known local family of musicians, his father Will Cameron being himself a noted exponent of the fiddle. From an early age angus played, and competed successfully, at various fiddle festivals throughout Scotland. He went on to perform not only regularly on radio and television, but also at the Edinburgh Festival and at a number of prestigious gigs abroad. One of the highlights of his career was winning, in the late 1970’s, the Daily Record ‘Golden Fiddle Award’.
He was also an outstanding composer in the Scottish fiddle idiom, whose works were, and are, widely played by fiddlers throughout Scotland. Angus also had the honour of presenting to the Queen Mother – and having graciously accepted by her – one of his compositions written on the occasion of her 80th birthday. That took place in a tattie shed near Glamis – suitably converted and decorated for the purpose, of course! But that’s a different story……………
It was as a Conductor of the Angus S&R Society that I knew him best. He was a dynamic and greatly gifted maestro, who drew the best out of us, and then some more, and who led us to memorable victories in the Fiddle Festival scene. Indeed my abiding memory of Angus Cameron is of him standing in front of us, at a practice evening, with his eyes, as he would say “This is the way we’ll do it lads. Wait and see, it’ll knock them oot!” And do you know, he was invariably right!
S.I. 17th July, 1998
Box and Fiddle
September 1998
Memories of Angus Cameron
by Alan Kindness (leader – Glendaruel SDB)
I first met Angus back in the summer of 1970 when I was asked to include a fiddle player in my band for the summer season of Scottish Country Dancing in Perth City Halls. Ron Kerr, who had assisted me on previous occasions at Scottish Country Dance Balls and the like was unable to undertake the full season with me and it was he who introduced me to Angus.
It is fair to say that Angus and I ‘bonded’ right away. He was not a strong, powerful fiddler – ‘couthie’ was a more apt description of his style – and this suited my particular style of playing. One record producer complained that he ‘had great difficulty in splitting the fiddle and the lead accordion for stereo’ – I took this ‘complaint’ as a ‘compliment’. Angus had the unique ability of being able to adapt his style to suit the style of the lead accordion. As said earlier, he was not a powerful fiddler – he was never willing to sacrifice sweetness of tone for power – all he ever asked was that the fiddle be shown sympathy, “no problem” as fat as I was concerned. He never tried to influence the sound of the band – he had his own ideas but these he kept for his own band. He was always willing to give advice if asked and I found his opinion well worth taking on board, never more so than when it came to playing strathspeys.
I was never, in my early days, happy with this particular tempo and in the course of conversation mentioned this to Angus. He simply said “follow the fiddle”. I did, and from then on the strathspey tempo took on a new dimension for me. Angus, of course, was famed for his strathspey technique and has been subject to analysis on many occasions. The general opinion seems to be (from those who know more about these things than me) was that it all came from his own brand of ‘bowing’.
As well as being a top class fiddler Angus was also an expert on the piano and he did enjoy himself after Mo Rutherford joined my Lima band, when the two of them would change seats – Angus on the piano and Mo on the fiddle.
He was, of course, a prolific composer of Scottish music and I am sure that for years to come we will hear the likes of ‘Taps o’ Fechle’ and ‘Harry Scott of Froickheim’ being performed at Festivals and clubs. I am equally sure that in future times he will rank along side Gow, Skinner, etc. as one of Scotland’s all time great composers. Some of his tunes were reasonably easy to play, others were ‘buggers’ but the musicality of the tunes made the hard practice well worth the effort.
I enjoyed playing alongside Angus for 17 years. We played our last ‘TTF’ in the spring of 1987 when, due to ill health, I was forced to stop playing. I did continue to enjoy his friendship right up until, his sad and premature death in March of this year. He was a tremendous musician, a great guy to be with – I’ll miss him a lot.
Box and Fiddle
October 1998