Galston A&F Club
Formed in 1970 by David Ross, Bill Rodie and Billy Stewart (Liam Stewart's Grandfather)
First meeting took place in the Black Bull Hotel Galston on 12th October 1970 when the guest artist was Bert Shorthouse. Bert charged a fee of £12!!
11 local players turned up and about 22 non players formed the rest of the audience.
to ensure the funds were there for the guest artist the committee donated £6 each which was returned after the second meeting.
On 9th November 1970 we had Tommy Ford as guest (fee £12). The audience had swelled to well over 80 with 20 local players turning up
The third meeting on 14th December 1970 saw Charlie Cowie and John Carmichael as guests (fee £15 for the two of them). Over 80 in the audience again with 17 local players.
16 local players were in the queue for entry along with a large audience for Jimmy Blue (£20) for our 4th meeting on 17th January 1971.
They were queuing from about 6 o'clock when Davy Ross arrived to open the doors at 7pm and he let 120 in to hear Jim Johnstone as guest (Fee £15) on 8th February 1971.
20 local players plus a capacity audience was how it was.
Archie Duncan (£15) and Mickie Ainsworth (£20) were the last two guest of season one.
From then on for some 5 or 6 years in the Black Bull the crowd queued to get in every night.
The bombshell was dropped that the Black Bull were being forced to put in a fire escape thus reducing the capacity of their function room to 80 people. We were already turning away folk so it was not possible to run the club successfully with the reduction in numbers.
Sadly we were forced to move and the nearest venue big enough to accommodate us was the Parakeet in Hurlford, a village about 3 miles away.
We were there for a considerable number of years. We had special nights with a crowd of about 250 turning out for the Cullivoe Dance Band from Shetland in 1978.
We also had joint nights with John Loch's Straiton Accordion Club held in the Ayr Racecourse Suite when we had the first ever Accordion Club appearance with Dermot O'Brien who brought with him Derek MacCormack and Johnny Barton (the trio) plus Finton Stanley who played piano but also gave a brilliant performance on the 5 row. We also had the full Jimmy Blue Band at Ayr and did the BBC Accordion Club series as a joint venture with Jock Loch.
We moved back into Galston when audiences started to fall off a bit and the venue was firstly Theo's Restaurant and then finally the Barr Castle Social Club.
Bill Rodie was the original backing pianist at the club but due to work commitments abroad in the late 70's and 80's he stepped down from the committee and Derek Hamilton was co-opted on in his place. That was the only committee change in the club's continuous 37 year history. Sadly Bill died in 1994.
The last club meeting was a club night with no guest on 13th March 2006. Davy Ross, Billy Stewart and Derek Hamilton had tried for that season to get someone to take it over but no one volunteered. Certainly the heady days of queuing to get in had long gone and the audience was dwindling but in the history of the club we are proud to say that some of our regular players went on to be real champions - Scott Gordon and Liam Stewart are two who immediately spring to mind.
But probably best of all was that over it's time the club provided annual sums of money to help local charities.
First meeting took place in the Black Bull Hotel Galston on 12th October 1970 when the guest artist was Bert Shorthouse. Bert charged a fee of £12!!
11 local players turned up and about 22 non players formed the rest of the audience.
to ensure the funds were there for the guest artist the committee donated £6 each which was returned after the second meeting.
On 9th November 1970 we had Tommy Ford as guest (fee £12). The audience had swelled to well over 80 with 20 local players turning up
The third meeting on 14th December 1970 saw Charlie Cowie and John Carmichael as guests (fee £15 for the two of them). Over 80 in the audience again with 17 local players.
16 local players were in the queue for entry along with a large audience for Jimmy Blue (£20) for our 4th meeting on 17th January 1971.
They were queuing from about 6 o'clock when Davy Ross arrived to open the doors at 7pm and he let 120 in to hear Jim Johnstone as guest (Fee £15) on 8th February 1971.
20 local players plus a capacity audience was how it was.
Archie Duncan (£15) and Mickie Ainsworth (£20) were the last two guest of season one.
From then on for some 5 or 6 years in the Black Bull the crowd queued to get in every night.
The bombshell was dropped that the Black Bull were being forced to put in a fire escape thus reducing the capacity of their function room to 80 people. We were already turning away folk so it was not possible to run the club successfully with the reduction in numbers.
Sadly we were forced to move and the nearest venue big enough to accommodate us was the Parakeet in Hurlford, a village about 3 miles away.
We were there for a considerable number of years. We had special nights with a crowd of about 250 turning out for the Cullivoe Dance Band from Shetland in 1978.
We also had joint nights with John Loch's Straiton Accordion Club held in the Ayr Racecourse Suite when we had the first ever Accordion Club appearance with Dermot O'Brien who brought with him Derek MacCormack and Johnny Barton (the trio) plus Finton Stanley who played piano but also gave a brilliant performance on the 5 row. We also had the full Jimmy Blue Band at Ayr and did the BBC Accordion Club series as a joint venture with Jock Loch.
We moved back into Galston when audiences started to fall off a bit and the venue was firstly Theo's Restaurant and then finally the Barr Castle Social Club.
Bill Rodie was the original backing pianist at the club but due to work commitments abroad in the late 70's and 80's he stepped down from the committee and Derek Hamilton was co-opted on in his place. That was the only committee change in the club's continuous 37 year history. Sadly Bill died in 1994.
The last club meeting was a club night with no guest on 13th March 2006. Davy Ross, Billy Stewart and Derek Hamilton had tried for that season to get someone to take it over but no one volunteered. Certainly the heady days of queuing to get in had long gone and the audience was dwindling but in the history of the club we are proud to say that some of our regular players went on to be real champions - Scott Gordon and Liam Stewart are two who immediately spring to mind.
But probably best of all was that over it's time the club provided annual sums of money to help local charities.