Scottish Country Dance Bands 4
Jim MacLeod’s Band Travels 20,000 Miles A Year
On Christmas Day Jim MacLeod and his Band will be seen on French television.
They appear in a film made about Scottish dancing made recently by Radiodiffusion Television Française in the Covenanters Inn, Aberfoyle.
This is a notable addition to their varied broadcasting on T.V. and radio, which ranges from ‘Down at the Mains’ in ‘Children’s Hour’ to ‘The Kilt is my Delight’ (BBC TV).
When Jim MacLeod was demobilised from the RAF in 1950 he formed a Trio consisting of piano, accordion and drums for a once-weekly engagement at Forest Hill hotel, Aberfoyle . A fiddle and later a bass were added, and the quintet have made over 200 TV and radio broadcasts.
Singers
Jim MacLeod (piano) also sings with the band. He lives in Dunblane with his wife Katherine and two children Fiona (6) and Colin (3). Jim represents a drawing office suppliers’ firm and covers territory from north of Glasgow to Aberdeen.
Chris Duncan (bass) sings with the band, too, and is frequently asked if Jim and he are brothers. He previously broadcast with the Alex Sutherland Trio. He is a representative for electrical supplies and lives in Denny. Chris has just introduced to the band an electric bass fiddle.
Alex McMillan (drums) had to decide had to decide whether to take up professional football or music. He was signed for Hearts. He represents a paintbrush company in Central Scotland and stays in Denny.
Tommy Ford (accordion) joined the band on release from the Army. One of his compositions ‘The Hebridean Polka’ has been recorded. He is a mechanical engineer in Stirling.
Jim MacFarlane (fiddle, clarinet, saxophone, piano and penny whistle) was a member of the 51st Highland Division’s Balmoral Concert Party during the war. He has played with bands and orchestras in the British Isles and on the Continent. Jimmy is in the building trade. He is the only bachelor in the band.
Mascot
Because Jimmy MacFarlane is a multi-instrumentalist, the band can turn from Scottish to modern dance music easily. Jimmy’s penny whistle solo was included in the recent BBC ‘Scottish Magazine’ over seas programme.
Mac, a tartan Scottie dog mascot, sits in on every session. He was missing for several when he was ‘kidnapped’ by a admirer.
In 1952 the band became resident at Dunblane Hydro hotel, playing throughout the summer to thousands of British and Continental visitors. They travel approximately 20,000 miles per year. Between his work and the band, Jim MacLeod covers 40,000 miles annually.
Stornoway, Skye, Dublin, Manchester and London are a few of the widely scattered places in which they have played.
For their journeys an Austin Omnicoach is used. Recently they motored to an engagement in Oban. Chris, Alex and Tommy travelled in the back of the bus and Jim MacFarlane and Jim MacLeod in the front. There is a dividing blind between front and back, and the usual procedure is that the three in the back fall asleep while the two in the front listen to the radio.
“I had travelled 60 miles,” said Jim MacLeod, “when I decided to remove my overcoat. I mentioned this to Jimmy above the noise of the radio, stopped the bus, got out the right-hand side, took off my coat, climbed in and drove off.”
‘A Trio’
They had gone 5 miles when Chris shouted to stop.
“When I did so, switched on the interior light and rolled up the blind I found my five-piece band was just a Trio”.
When Jim took off his coat, Alex and Tommy had slipped out the side door to stretch their legs. “I raced back five miles to find two very cold tartan-jacketed musicians hiking along a desolate part of Argyllshire”.
They kept that engagement, but it was different on December 1st, 1958 when they were scheduled to broadcast.
“After leaving Dunblane on the afternoon of a lovely crisp winter day, we ran into one of the worst fogs Glasgow had known.”
They reached within four miles of the studio and then had to telephone the BBC. “We heard on the radio that Scottish dance music should have been played by Jim MacLeod and his Band, but they were somewhere en route ‘lost in the fog’”.
(The photo accompanying this article is an early one with Tommy Ford playing an Excelsior, which he tried for a time, prior to buying his two beloved Rance 5-voice accordions).
Jim MacLeod’s Band Travels 20,000 Miles A Year
On Christmas Day Jim MacLeod and his Band will be seen on French television.
They appear in a film made about Scottish dancing made recently by Radiodiffusion Television Française in the Covenanters Inn, Aberfoyle.
This is a notable addition to their varied broadcasting on T.V. and radio, which ranges from ‘Down at the Mains’ in ‘Children’s Hour’ to ‘The Kilt is my Delight’ (BBC TV).
When Jim MacLeod was demobilised from the RAF in 1950 he formed a Trio consisting of piano, accordion and drums for a once-weekly engagement at Forest Hill hotel, Aberfoyle . A fiddle and later a bass were added, and the quintet have made over 200 TV and radio broadcasts.
Singers
Jim MacLeod (piano) also sings with the band. He lives in Dunblane with his wife Katherine and two children Fiona (6) and Colin (3). Jim represents a drawing office suppliers’ firm and covers territory from north of Glasgow to Aberdeen.
Chris Duncan (bass) sings with the band, too, and is frequently asked if Jim and he are brothers. He previously broadcast with the Alex Sutherland Trio. He is a representative for electrical supplies and lives in Denny. Chris has just introduced to the band an electric bass fiddle.
Alex McMillan (drums) had to decide had to decide whether to take up professional football or music. He was signed for Hearts. He represents a paintbrush company in Central Scotland and stays in Denny.
Tommy Ford (accordion) joined the band on release from the Army. One of his compositions ‘The Hebridean Polka’ has been recorded. He is a mechanical engineer in Stirling.
Jim MacFarlane (fiddle, clarinet, saxophone, piano and penny whistle) was a member of the 51st Highland Division’s Balmoral Concert Party during the war. He has played with bands and orchestras in the British Isles and on the Continent. Jimmy is in the building trade. He is the only bachelor in the band.
Mascot
Because Jimmy MacFarlane is a multi-instrumentalist, the band can turn from Scottish to modern dance music easily. Jimmy’s penny whistle solo was included in the recent BBC ‘Scottish Magazine’ over seas programme.
Mac, a tartan Scottie dog mascot, sits in on every session. He was missing for several when he was ‘kidnapped’ by a admirer.
In 1952 the band became resident at Dunblane Hydro hotel, playing throughout the summer to thousands of British and Continental visitors. They travel approximately 20,000 miles per year. Between his work and the band, Jim MacLeod covers 40,000 miles annually.
Stornoway, Skye, Dublin, Manchester and London are a few of the widely scattered places in which they have played.
For their journeys an Austin Omnicoach is used. Recently they motored to an engagement in Oban. Chris, Alex and Tommy travelled in the back of the bus and Jim MacFarlane and Jim MacLeod in the front. There is a dividing blind between front and back, and the usual procedure is that the three in the back fall asleep while the two in the front listen to the radio.
“I had travelled 60 miles,” said Jim MacLeod, “when I decided to remove my overcoat. I mentioned this to Jimmy above the noise of the radio, stopped the bus, got out the right-hand side, took off my coat, climbed in and drove off.”
‘A Trio’
They had gone 5 miles when Chris shouted to stop.
“When I did so, switched on the interior light and rolled up the blind I found my five-piece band was just a Trio”.
When Jim took off his coat, Alex and Tommy had slipped out the side door to stretch their legs. “I raced back five miles to find two very cold tartan-jacketed musicians hiking along a desolate part of Argyllshire”.
They kept that engagement, but it was different on December 1st, 1958 when they were scheduled to broadcast.
“After leaving Dunblane on the afternoon of a lovely crisp winter day, we ran into one of the worst fogs Glasgow had known.”
They reached within four miles of the studio and then had to telephone the BBC. “We heard on the radio that Scottish dance music should have been played by Jim MacLeod and his Band, but they were somewhere en route ‘lost in the fog’”.
(The photo accompanying this article is an early one with Tommy Ford playing an Excelsior, which he tried for a time, prior to buying his two beloved Rance 5-voice accordions).