Sir Jimmy Shand
Ninety Years Young
by Ian Cameron
Whenever anyone reaches ninety it is a cause for celebrations but when that person is Jimmy Shand hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world feel they must add their good wishes. To so many people his name is magic and he is the magician who has transported them on musical journeys through their lives regardless of wherever they were staying. The Box and Fiddle and Scottish Country Dance communities have long recognised and appreciated his technical brilliance and innovations, while others have just ‘liked’ what they heard and requested more and more.
No-one could have foreseen when he was born on 28th January, 1908 in East Wemyss in Fife that as his life progressed he was to become the most loved and respected musician in Scotland and regarded as a musical ambassador all over the world. Music played an important part in the leisure time his family had and even as a young schoolboy Jimmy was always hoping for “a shot o’ dad’s box”. If permission was given Jimmy would spend hours practising, trying to emulate his father and his older brother Dod in the way they manipulated the keys, the spoon bass and the air-valve of the melodeon. As his skill developed he increased his repertoire by talking to and listening to the many gifted melodeon players who lived in the area. Another source of inspiration was the family phonograph with its collection of shiny black cylinders carefully kept in felt-lined boxes. This invention ensured that the family were introduced to various types of music until one day, when Jimmy and his brother Erskine were in the house themselves, the motor was over-wound and the spring snapped.
Before the Shands had their own gramophone Jimmy listened to recordings either at the school or outside a neighbour’s window and was greatly impressed by the music of Peter and Daniel Wyper, Peter Leatham, Jimmy Brown, Jack Williams and Palmy Dick. The person Jimmy admired most of all was Willie Hannah who was, as he has often said, “A master at playing waltzes, barn dances and two steps. I learned a lot o’ new tunes aff Hannah”.
By the time he was eleven he was playing at occasional dances supporting his brother Dod and in his late school days he was entering Go-As-You-Please competitions. These events were useful in getting Jimmy used to facing an audience, something he found very difficult as he was very shy and continued to be all his professional life. When he left school Jimmy worked in the mining industry for four years and although the work was hard and the hours long he did not neglect practising on his box, “After my shift doon the mine – a tune or twa every day”. Jimmy owned an International 19 Key, 4 Spoon bass and Air Valve melodeon in 1926 and he put it to good use in various competitions often coming home with first prize of ten bob. During the General Strike and Lock Out of that year Jimmy and others wandered from town to town playing for coppers to help subsidise the soup kitchens for miners families.
It was at this time that Jimmy met Johnny McDill, a skilled box player, who, apart from becoming a good friend, introduced him to the workings of the melodeon and taught him how to strip the instrument for repair and re-tuning. Jimmy was always grateful he was taught these skills and he put them into good use over the years. When the miners were finally forced back to work Jimmy decided to seek employment on the surface taking any job he could get and often having to travel many miles to get there. For seven years he was lucky if he worked two or three months each year and although he won some music competitions during this period he was often happy to play at weddings and other events knowing he would get his supper as a fee.
In 1933, while visiting friends and looking for work in Dundee, Jimmy was persuaded to enter the J.T. Forbes music shop to try some melodeons. Once inside he was introduced to Charles S. Forbes who listened to him playing and promptly offered him a job. Although he declined at the time Jimmy was working for Forbes as an accordion demonstrator before the end of the year. This contact with Charles Forbes was the start of a chain of events which have become part of the legend of Jimmy Shand and to the delight of millions of people all over the world, the legend happens to be true.
The recording sessions, the demonstration tours, the early solo broadcasts for the BBC, his first composition and the spread of his fame. The minimum of bellows movement when he played led one little girl to say to her mother, “The man just came oot, and just stood, and the music came itself!” His continuing interest in trying to improve the sound and performance of his melodeons led eventually to the Shand Morino. Despite his growing fame through the wireless and records, Jimmy felt that it was not until the early years of the Second World War that he learned to play Scottish music correctly in a disciplined form suitable for dancers and set dances. In later years the musical timing of the Shand Bands were to become their trade mark.
The almost endless band tours throughout the British Isles, Jimmy’s tours abroad, the countless broadcasts on radio and television, the famous recordings and his many awards as well as his endless charity work are all part of this remarkable man’s life. Sometimes the hectic workload has been brought to a halt by his body saying enough! And he has been seriously ill at times but he has always pulled through.
Much of what Jimmy has achieved would not have been possible if he had not been so wonderfully supported by his wife Anne and his family. Four days before his ninetieth birthday Jimmy and Anne celebrated their sixty-second wedding anniversary. Congratulations and Happy Birthday Jimmy Shand and may you have many more.
Box and Fiddle
February 1998
Ninety Years Young
by Ian Cameron
Whenever anyone reaches ninety it is a cause for celebrations but when that person is Jimmy Shand hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world feel they must add their good wishes. To so many people his name is magic and he is the magician who has transported them on musical journeys through their lives regardless of wherever they were staying. The Box and Fiddle and Scottish Country Dance communities have long recognised and appreciated his technical brilliance and innovations, while others have just ‘liked’ what they heard and requested more and more.
No-one could have foreseen when he was born on 28th January, 1908 in East Wemyss in Fife that as his life progressed he was to become the most loved and respected musician in Scotland and regarded as a musical ambassador all over the world. Music played an important part in the leisure time his family had and even as a young schoolboy Jimmy was always hoping for “a shot o’ dad’s box”. If permission was given Jimmy would spend hours practising, trying to emulate his father and his older brother Dod in the way they manipulated the keys, the spoon bass and the air-valve of the melodeon. As his skill developed he increased his repertoire by talking to and listening to the many gifted melodeon players who lived in the area. Another source of inspiration was the family phonograph with its collection of shiny black cylinders carefully kept in felt-lined boxes. This invention ensured that the family were introduced to various types of music until one day, when Jimmy and his brother Erskine were in the house themselves, the motor was over-wound and the spring snapped.
Before the Shands had their own gramophone Jimmy listened to recordings either at the school or outside a neighbour’s window and was greatly impressed by the music of Peter and Daniel Wyper, Peter Leatham, Jimmy Brown, Jack Williams and Palmy Dick. The person Jimmy admired most of all was Willie Hannah who was, as he has often said, “A master at playing waltzes, barn dances and two steps. I learned a lot o’ new tunes aff Hannah”.
By the time he was eleven he was playing at occasional dances supporting his brother Dod and in his late school days he was entering Go-As-You-Please competitions. These events were useful in getting Jimmy used to facing an audience, something he found very difficult as he was very shy and continued to be all his professional life. When he left school Jimmy worked in the mining industry for four years and although the work was hard and the hours long he did not neglect practising on his box, “After my shift doon the mine – a tune or twa every day”. Jimmy owned an International 19 Key, 4 Spoon bass and Air Valve melodeon in 1926 and he put it to good use in various competitions often coming home with first prize of ten bob. During the General Strike and Lock Out of that year Jimmy and others wandered from town to town playing for coppers to help subsidise the soup kitchens for miners families.
It was at this time that Jimmy met Johnny McDill, a skilled box player, who, apart from becoming a good friend, introduced him to the workings of the melodeon and taught him how to strip the instrument for repair and re-tuning. Jimmy was always grateful he was taught these skills and he put them into good use over the years. When the miners were finally forced back to work Jimmy decided to seek employment on the surface taking any job he could get and often having to travel many miles to get there. For seven years he was lucky if he worked two or three months each year and although he won some music competitions during this period he was often happy to play at weddings and other events knowing he would get his supper as a fee.
In 1933, while visiting friends and looking for work in Dundee, Jimmy was persuaded to enter the J.T. Forbes music shop to try some melodeons. Once inside he was introduced to Charles S. Forbes who listened to him playing and promptly offered him a job. Although he declined at the time Jimmy was working for Forbes as an accordion demonstrator before the end of the year. This contact with Charles Forbes was the start of a chain of events which have become part of the legend of Jimmy Shand and to the delight of millions of people all over the world, the legend happens to be true.
The recording sessions, the demonstration tours, the early solo broadcasts for the BBC, his first composition and the spread of his fame. The minimum of bellows movement when he played led one little girl to say to her mother, “The man just came oot, and just stood, and the music came itself!” His continuing interest in trying to improve the sound and performance of his melodeons led eventually to the Shand Morino. Despite his growing fame through the wireless and records, Jimmy felt that it was not until the early years of the Second World War that he learned to play Scottish music correctly in a disciplined form suitable for dancers and set dances. In later years the musical timing of the Shand Bands were to become their trade mark.
The almost endless band tours throughout the British Isles, Jimmy’s tours abroad, the countless broadcasts on radio and television, the famous recordings and his many awards as well as his endless charity work are all part of this remarkable man’s life. Sometimes the hectic workload has been brought to a halt by his body saying enough! And he has been seriously ill at times but he has always pulled through.
Much of what Jimmy has achieved would not have been possible if he had not been so wonderfully supported by his wife Anne and his family. Four days before his ninetieth birthday Jimmy and Anne celebrated their sixty-second wedding anniversary. Congratulations and Happy Birthday Jimmy Shand and may you have many more.
Box and Fiddle
February 1998