Box and Fiddle
Year 37 No 02
October 2013
Price £2.70
44 Page Magazine
12 month subscription £29.70 + p&p £13.75 (UK)
Editor – Karin Ingram, Hawick
B&F Treasurer – Charlie Todd, Thankerton
The main features in the above issue were as follows (this is not a comprehensive detail of all it contained. The Club reports, in particular, are too time-consuming at this stage to retype).
Editorial
We’re putting out a plea this month for help with the content of YOUR magazine. Could you write an article for us? It could be about your own experiences in the Box and Fiddle World, perhaps a focus on another musician, or maybe a technical article that would be of interest to players. We also need contributions for ous ‘sheet music’ section; if you’ve written a piece of music that you think would be suitable, send it in, maybe with a photo of yourself or the subject and a story of why you wrote it.
Your continued support is very much appreciated.
Karin Ingram
From Glencraig to Martinique
by Karin Ingram
When The Glencraig Scottish Dance Band and Dancers received an invitation from Maurice Antiste, the Mayor of Ville Du Francois on the Caribbean island of Martinique, there was little hesitation in accepting. The group was invited owing to our long association and friendship with a group from Corsica who were also going to be there.
Our hosts were so welcoming, nothing was too much trouble…they fed us, transported us here and there across the beautiful island – and forced rum down our throats.
We had ample opportunity for some fabulous sightseeing – to a sugar cane plantation where they also made – you’ve guessed it …..rum! We visited idyllic beaches and deserted islands.
However, we were there to ‘work’. An ‘advance party’ arrived a day before the others, because Karin (the dance caller and teacher) was to take part in a televised conference…in French…help! She managed to muddle through that, with an interpreter on hand if needed, and the others arrived the next day, ready to take part in the 5th Festival International de Haute Taille et des Quadrilles du Monde. There were dance groups from all over Martinique as well as from Dominica, Lafayette in Louisiana and the aforementioned Corsica.
As is usual in these festivals, everyone was very friendly and keen to share dances and music. The first thing that we noticed was, although the music had a distinctly Caribbean flavour, the dances were virtually identical to our Lancers and Quadrilles. Exactly the same steps, but set to a Reggae beat!
Given that these dances came to Scotland originally from France, and Martinique is a French Colony, then maybe we should have expected it, but it seemed to be a further sign that music and dance are truly universal languages.
We would like to thank the people of Ville Du Francois, particularly Maurice the Mayor and Fred Jean Baptiste, who had the unenviable task of making sure that all the different groups were where they were supposed to be at the right time. It was lovely to meet up again with our Corsican friends, and to make new friends with the groups from Dominica, the Us and elsewhere.
The Glencraig Band and Dancers won compliments for their music, dance and, of course, the kilts! We seemed to be the only group who invited the audience to join in our dancing – and they loved it! Even Maurice gave it a go!
We left the Martiniquans a parting gift of a quaich (a friendship cup) and, when the whisky ran out, it was filled with……rum!
Skipping a Violin Size
by Rhiannon Schmitt (Internet)
………..
Rosehall Ceilidh Band
by Liz Quinn
There was …………..
Ena Wilson
The Musical Life of the talented pianist from Elvanfoot/Biggar
by Calum Wilson
Ena comes from a musical family, her father John played the fiddle (latterly with the Border Strathspey & Reel Society), her mother Jane was very musical and her brother Ian also played the fiddle, so there was always music in the family home at Elvanfoot, also at the home of her Grandparents at Crookedstane Farm and at the homes of her aunt, uncle and cousins at Abington.
At the early age of ten Ena started piano lessons with Miss Margaret Carmichael at Trigony near Closeburn, Thornhill. She was a highly respected and qualified music teacher who had a substantial waiting list of pupils. Ena continued music lessons for five years taking her up to the fifth grade with a further year which included singing lessons. The music lessons were all classical with the exception of Burns Songs and music. At that time Ena was also taking dancing lessons with the Margaret Bell School of dancing from Dumfries, the dance teacher was Miss Allan who gave weekly lessons in Crawford and then Abington village hall doing Highland, Tap and Ballet dancing. Taking part in dancing displays locally was very much part of this which Ena enjoyed very much, however, it was the music scene that eventually took over.
The Scottish music influence was firstly when Ena would accompany her father and brother’s fiddle playing. In the mid 1950’s top Scottish Dance Bands would play for dances held in the luxurious ballroom of the Crawford Arms Hotel, with their parents Ena and her brother Ian attended many of these dances, the bands included Jimmy Shand, Bobby MacLeod and Andrew Rankine among others. On the occasions when Jimmy Shand played, Ena remembers the highlight of the evening for her was when Norman Whitelaw the pianist in the band would wave to her to come to the band stand to sit in on piano with the band for a waltz, what wonderful experience and encouragement for an aspiring young pianist.
Ena’s first engagements as a musician were in her early teens playing solo piano for local functions in Elvanfoot and the surrounding district village halls. In the late 1950’s The Cross Keys Hotel in Biggar held a Saturday and Sunday evening sing song with people coming from far and near, the resident pianist/accompanist had to give up due to illness, Ena was asked to stand in and was able to do the engagement which resulted in a two year residency. Many of the singers did not have any music and as Ena had a good ear she was able to accompany them, this was all good experience. Among the regular singers at that time was none other than the Alexander Brothers before they became well known artists, even at that time they stole the show. Another highlight in the early years was a call from the John Johnstone Band to play with them at Moniaive in Dumfriesshire a great experience with a top broadcasting band of that time which Ena was to do on further occasions.
Moving on from there Ena was asked to join a new band to be known as the Carlton Quintet led by accordionists Jack Gray and Tony Woodage both from Kirkfieldbank. After two years with them playing at a wide variety of venues and gaining a lot of good experience Ena joined the Wamphray Band, this was a busy band playing at town and village hall dances throughout Dumfriesshire. At that time (1960’s) village hall dances were in full swing every Friday and Saturday night and the Wamphray Band was a popular band in great demand.
Ena recalls some of the town/village hall venues :- Moffat , Lockerbie, Lochmaben, Moffat Water, Wamphray, Boreland, Bankshill, Eskdalemuir, Beattock, Templand, Eaglesfield, Johnstonebridge and many more all packed with good dancers.
In 1965 Ena applied and was successful in gaining a place with Post Office Telecommunications for training as a telephonist, this was a period of training in London and then working in London Mayfair telephone exchange. During that year she was dedicated to the training and work, however, on her weekends home and holiday leave she was able to play with the Wamphray band when required until they were able to get a pianist full time.
After a year in London, Ena was able to apply for a transfer to Scotland and was successful in getting a job with Post Office Telecommunications in Edinburgh. This also led to various opportunities for playing and eventually joining the Peter Innes Dance Band from Tranent, East Lothian. Ena played for three years with the Peter Innes Band which was a very busy band playing throughout Scotland mainly for general dancing. During that time Ena met Arlene Shand who was the lead accordionist, Arlene a former Scottish Junior Champion was taught by the well known respected accordion teacher Chrissie Letham of Edinburgh and had at that time recorded a solo accordion track on one of the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band’s LP’s. Eventually Ena and Arlene decided to start up as a duo – accordion, piano and vocals going under the name of the Scott Sisters. They were very busy and after working together for a while they decided to enter the odd talent contest and had some success in various parts of the country. Eventually after being approached by theatrical agents they were offered a summer season with the Heather Mixture Show touring Scotland. They started working full time in the summer of 1968 and their first professional performance was at the Haddington Festival when they appeared along with Jack Milroy, Peter Malan, The Islanders and Archie Duncan and his Band. They then travelled around Scotland, performing twice nightly changing songs every week for the Heather Mixture Show which toured weekly in Aviemore, Campbeltown, Oban and Pitlochry , the other acts on the bill included The Islanders, Peter Mallan, Charlie Cowie, Ronnie Dale and Archie Duncan and his Scottish Dance Band. In addition to this they travelled over to Craignure on Mull to entertain, spent a week at Inveraray during their festival week, helping out at various events during the day and performing on stage in the evenings, on the bill on that occasion was accordionist Jack Emblow. Weekends were also busy, performing at Dunoon, Montrose, Cortachy, Dumfries, Irvine and the club circuit. Some notable engagements on their schedule were The Rangers Rally in The Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow with the Alexander Brothers and Lex McLean, The Ashfield Club Glasgow with Glen Daly, The Ibrox Club, Glasgow, City Halls, Sheffield with Jim Johnstone and his Band, Lockerbie Town Hall with Jimmy Shand and his Band , Greens Playhouse, Dundee with Donald Piers and Montrose Town Hall, on the bill on that occasion was Alistair MacDonald. In June 1971 they set off on an overseas tour initially to Germany. This was the first of a series of one month bookings on different US bases moving between Stuttgart, Wiesbaden (Germany), Vicenza (Italy) and Diyarbakir, Sinop and Adana in Turkey. On their return to the UK the girls continued to take part in various shows although their next challenge was something just a bit different to the work they had done before. They auditioned and joined the Ladies of the Court of Dalhousie Castle, near Bonnyrigg, this was choral work under the direction of James Farrer, where they performed Scots songs as part of the Jacobean Banquet evenings held there.
During the 1970’s Ena had more opportunity to do freelance playing helping out many bands also taking part in band and trio competitions and playing at fiddle and accordion clubs, she recalls the occasions when she had the honour of accompanying Ron Gonella and Angus Fitchet for guest artist spots.
In 1974 Ena was asked by fiddler Alec McPhie and accordionist George Meikle if she would join a new band called The Lothian Scottish Dance Band, this she did and was with them for thirteen years. Their engagements took them all over the UK and overseas playing mainly for Scottish Country Dancing also many guest artist spots at Accordion and Fiddle Clubs throughout Scotland and north of England. During that time the band did many BBC broadcasts after auditioning in 1977 also a number of broadcasts for Radio Forth. Their first commercial recording was in 1976 entitled “Introducing the Lothian Scottish Dance Band” this was soon followed by “Presenting the Lothian Scottish Dance Band” in 1977, “ The Lothian Scottish Dance Band In Strict Tempo” in 1981, “Something to Celebrate” in 1983 , and “ Second Celebration ” in 1986. Tracks from some of these recordings are included in Lismor Recordings compilation albums and REL compilation albums. The Lothian Scottish Dance Band continues to this day under the leadership of George Meikle.
Taking a well known pipe tune and then adding lyrics to it has been done on several occasions , however, it’s not so often that the tune and the lyrics come from within the same family. This was the case with the song “March, March, My Kiltie Lad” which Ena sang on the Lothian Scottish Dance Band’s first LP. The lyrics were by Margaret Sutherland and Betty Dingwall and the well known tune “The Piper’s Cave” was by Pipe Major J. Sutherland, Margaret Sutherland’s father. Margaret was chief supervisor when Ena worked with Post Office Telecoms in Edinburgh and gave the song to Ena at the time of her leaving to go full time as The Scott Sisters.
During Ena’s years with the Lothian Scottish Dance Band she organised many local concerts in the Elvanfoot area in aid of local good causes. These events were always very well supported and thanks go to the band members and local artistes for giving their services on these memorable occasions. Ena also enjoyed helping the local school Daer and Powtrail Primary with their entries into the music festivals at Biggar High School when she accompanied them on piano at these events. Another musical duty was as church organist at Elvanfoot Church which she shared with two other organists.
For the last twenty six years Ena has played in her husband’s band – Callum Wilson and his Scottish Dance Band. They first met in 1975 when playing with Iain MacPhail’s Band at a Scottish Country Dance Festival at Leeds University and again with the Lothian Scottish Dance Band in 1976 when Callum played second accordion on the Lothian Scottish Dance Band’s first LP. Ena and Callum married in 1982. Ena plays piano on two of the band’s recordings, “Scottish Country Dancing with Callum Wilson and his Scottish Dance Band” in 1997 and “Band Favourites” in 2007. These days there is not so much dancing going on, however, they still have sufficient engagements to “keep their hand in” mainly playing for Scottish Country Dancing. Over the last fifteen years and in addition to their band work Ena and Callum have performed at many concerts in hospitals and nursing homes through the charity “Music in Hospitals” this has taken them all over Scotland from Gretna in the south to Wick in the north and they have found it most satisfying bringing their music to people who are no longer fit or able to get out to dances and concerts.
Scots Fiddle Festival 2013
Eddie Quinn
The Button Accordion Champion of the Borders
by Mike Yates
It is said that in the 1840s, at the time of the Irish potato famine, up to 1,000 Irish people were arriving weekly in Glasgow. Many of these people were agricultural workers and by the end of the 1800s there was a high percentage of Irish born workers scattered throughout Scotland, especially in the Borders Regions to the south and south-east of Glasgow.
One such Irishman was Edward Quinn (1846-1926), the son of charles quinn, a blacksmith who died sometime prior to 1878, and Margaret Quinn, nee Boyl (sic), who was born in Tyrone in the early 1800s. On 2nd September, 1878, at Bridge End, Dunse, (now Duns), Edward married a 20-year old domestic servant called Margaret Blackie.
Margaret’s parents, William and Margaret, had also worked in domestic service, William, born in 1836, being a coachman. His wife Margaret, who was born Margaret Paterson, was also born in the same year as her husband, but had died prior to her daughter’s wedding. There is a suggestion that the couple had once worked at Marshall Meadows, just over the English border about 3 miles to the north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Twenty years after her marriage, Margaret Quinn gave birth to her eighty, and final, child at 10am on 17th December, 1898. On the birth certificate the surname Quinn is spelt with only one ‘n’. his father, who registered the birth, did not sign the certificate, but is shown as being ‘present’, and was probably illiterate, hence the difference in spelling. The child, named Edward after his father, was born at The Shiels Farm in the Berwickshire Parish of Ladykirk. Ladybank was originally known as Upsettington, but the Scottish King, James IV, is believed to have changed the name when he built a church there in gratitude to Our Lady, after he almost drowned nearly in the River Tweed in 1499. St Mary’s Church, built c1500, stands today on the raised north bank of the Tweed, overlooking the ancient Northumbrian village of Norham, and can be seen from miles around.
According to family tradition, young Eddie was to become the only musician in the family and was able to play the 2-row melodeon (or button accordion, as it is called locally) when only four or five years old. It is also said that in his youth he would play the accordion whilst lying on his back in front of the fire. We do not know if any one person taught Eddie, only that he picked it up by ear, although we do know that he was unable to sight-read music. Eddie’s early repertoire was certainly set well within the local Scottish tradition and so it seems unlikely that it was his Irish father who first taught him to play. The button accordion had become a highly popular instrument by the beginning of the 20th century. According to Stuart Eydmann in his article ‘As Common as Blackberries: the First Hundred Years of the Accordion in Scotland, 1830-1930’, “That the accordion has a special position in popular and traditional music making in Scotland is beyond question.” It may, therefore, be speculated that the young Eddie heard melodeons being played by some of the local farm workers and it was from him that he first learned to play. Today, several people in the Selkirk area recall that their grandparents and great-grandparents would meet for informal dances in quiet country lanes on a Saturday night, and that music would be provided by a fiddle or melodeon player.
Eddie followed in his father’s footsteps and became a farm worker himself, his first job being on a farm at Lumsden, near Coldingham. Eddie worked as a horse driver until the horses were replaced by tractors, which he soon learnt to handle, and, apparently, became known locally as ‘The Kelsie Plooman’. On 29th August 1925 Eddie, who was then working on a farm at Hadden, near Windywalls, married Mary Black, also from Windywalls, at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Kelso, the banns having been read at their local parish church of Sprouston. Sometime around 1934 Eddie moved to the Buccleugh Estate at Carterhaugh, between Selkirk and the Yarrow Valley. Carterhaugh is, of course, the home of the ballad hero Tam Lin.
“O I forbid you, maidens a’,
That wear gowd on your hair,
To come or gae by Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lin is there.”
Adam Boyd (b. 1918) was 15 years old when he first heard Eddie play a dance in Sprouston school hall. At that time Eddie was playing with Will Telford, a farm worker form the Kelso area who played the fiddle, and a young drummer called Bobby Tuck, who died at an early age. Adam and his brother Peter had learned to play the button accordion from their father, John Boyd – who also played the fiddle and the pipes – a farmworker from Spylaw, on the Kelso/Yetholm road. When Eddie left Hadden, Adam and Peter joined up with drummer, Tommy Brannan from Kelso, and formed a band to fill the gap left by Eddie. Peter Boyd, who was older than his brother, had previously played with another button-accordion player, Jock Liddle, a gardener from The Hirsel Estate at Coldstream, who had occasionally played with Eddie Quinn.
By the time Eddie moved to Carterhaugh he must have become well-known as a musician – having, by then, recorded two 78 gramophone records. Although some local believed that these were recorded in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Eddie’s daughter Betty, who was then aged about 5 years old, can just remember her father traveling by train to London to make the records. Eddie’s recordings are characterised by a lightness of touch, his fingering supple and delicate, and it may well be that they represent a local style of playing that was soon to disappear when 78rpm records and the wireless began to create an overall “Scottish dance band sound.” Very few, if any, other Kelso musicians were recorded in this period and Eddie’s records could well be the only ones made which preserved this style of playing. One recording, “Kelso Band Dance/ Kelso Reel”, was recorded in late December 1929, and issued on the Imperial label (Imperial S113). ‘Kelso Barn Dance’ is, in fact, the pipe tune ‘Inverness Gathering’, while ‘Kelso Reel’ is a version of the well-known ‘De’il Amang the Tailors’. The other recording ‘The Gay Gordons/ The Laird of Drumblair’, was issued on the Beka label (Beka 3005/06), although it seems that the recordings were originally made by the Parlophone company. If so, then the matrix numbers indicate that these recordings would have been made in early January 1930, and it is likely that Eddie recorded both of his records during the same visit to London. ‘The Gay Gordons’ is another pipe tune, while ‘The Laird of Drumblair’ is a composition by the well-known Scottish fiddler, James Scott Skinner. Eddie is accompanied on all four sides by an unknown piano player, as was then customary, and on each side he continues to play the named tune repeatedly from start to finish, unlike other performers who would play a selection of two or three tunes per side. Will Telford thought that the reason why Eddie only made two records was because the public preferred to hear a medley of tunes on each side of the record and this may well be why Eddie was not invited back to London. There is another possibility. Eddie was sponsored as a musician by an Algie Campbell who ran a music shop in Woodmarket in Kelso. Somewhere along the line the two fell out and if, as seems likely, Campbell secured the recording sessions for Ediie, then it may have been that the recording companies were unable to contact Eddie directly in order to arrange further sessions. There is also the possibility that the two record companies were unhappy that Eddie had recorded for a rival company. Whatever the reason, it is a great pity that Eddie made only two records, for his playing was of the highest quality and he was clearly an outstanding musician. “He was a master of timing – very constant – and that’s what made him so good for dancing,” said the pianist Billy Douglas (b. 1926).
Many of the people that I have spoken to were surprised to be told that Eddie had made two records, most believing that he had only made one, and it may be that the record produced by Beka was not issued in Britain, but was only issue abroad. It seems strange that Eddie’s family now know little about their father’s recording sessions. The only thing to be remembered was the fact that Eddie mentioned a red light in the studio and that he had to start playing when the light came on, and had to stop when the light went out. Adam Boyd believes that Eddie was accompanied to London by Algie Campbell (a fact confirmed by Eddie’s daughter, Betty) and says that when Eddie entered the studio he was somewhat flustered when the pianist asked Eddie for his sheet music!
On both records Eddie is described as playing a ‘Campbell Kelso Accordion’. This is probably a reference to Algie Campbell’s shop, Campbell having ordered a custom batch of accordions from an established manufacturer, or there is the less likely possibility that Eddie was playing an instrument manufactured by Campbell & Co of Glasgow. In the photograph taken c1947 Eddie can be seen playing a Paolo Soprani 3-row button-accordion. After he made his two records, Eddie began to play with one or two other local musicians, including Will Telford and a drummer by the name of Sandy Cairns, who lodged with Eddie and his family. “I’m awa’ tae the kirns”, is how Eddie expressed himself in those days – kirns being the local Berwickshire term for a barn dance. Elsewhere in Scotland the term is used to mean a harvest supper and dance organised, and paid for, by a farmer. By the mid ‘30s Eddie had formed a band which played together for about 15 years. The band was certainly in existence in 1936 when they played for the first ‘Kelso Laddie’s Week’. To begin with, Eddie would travel to dances on a bicycle, his accordion strapped across his back. Later, they traveled in two cars which frequently broke down. As the band’s popularity grew, many of their Selkirk supporters would follow them to dances elsewhere, and up to three 35-seat charabancs had to be hired to carry them to the dances.
During the war years Sandy Cairns, who by that time had become the band’s MC, was able to get extra petrol coupons because the band played for Army dances. Tommy Heard (b.1929), who joined the band as drummer in 1942 when he was 13 years old, remembers Eddie sitting in Sandy’s cars saying, “Cairns – keep he on the metal, Sandy!” Tommy first met Eddie when the latter would call to see his father, John Heard, who played the fiddle. The two would play together at the Heard home in Philiphaugh and the young Tommy would try to ‘accompany’ them by beating two knitting needles on their instrument cases. Eddie encouraged Tommy and, before long, he had the youngster playing in his band.
In the late 1940s ‘Quinn’s Band’, as it was then known, comprised John Elliot (piano accordion), who worked in the timber trade; Ernie Lamza (piano accordion), a Polish born mill worker; James Hardie (fiddle), a farmer from St Boswells; Billy Douglas (piano), a joiner from Selkirk; Tommy Heard (drums), a gamekeeper from Bowhill; and, of course, Eddie playing the 3-row accordion. Other occasional players would include; Tom Rutherford (second fiddle); Andrew Temple (drums), a cabinet maker from Selkirk who sat in for Tommy Heard while Tommy was away doing his National Service in the RAF as a bandsman; Walter Bateman (drums), a painter from Selkirk; and Andrew Stillie, yet another drummer from Selkirk. On average the band needed about 6 or 7 musicians. These were the days before amplification and this number of musicians was needed to make themselves heard above the sound of the dancing. One thing that distinguished the band from others was the fact that Ernie Lamza would sometimes leave the bandstand during a dance and walk between the dancers, playing to each couple in turn.
The band played for dances throughout the Borders and Eddie’s son Ronnie remembers them playing in such towns as Etterickbridge, Yarrowford, Kelso, Eccles, Hawick, Greenlaw, Duns, Coldstream, Birgham, Gordon, Selkirk, Denholm, Bonchester Bridgeand across the border in the Cheviot market town of Wooler. Tommy Heard remembers playing in most of these places, as well as Langholm, Swinton, Morebattle, Lilliesleaf, the Boston Hall near Tushielaw, Galashiels, Lindean, Cappercleugh, Peebles, Walkerburn, Clovenfords and Yetholm, although he cannot recall playing at any dances in Northumberland with Eddie’s band. According to Billy Douglas they would play ‘Saturday after Saturday’ at Lilliesleaf, at dances organised by the Selkirk Pigeon Club. On one occasion, the band traveled as far as the Isle of Skye, where they played for two or three days. Billy Douglas was aware that the dances differed – in steps and timing – in different parts of the Borders and that the band had to accommodate these differences in their playing.
Borders, in this case between Scotland and England, may be viewed as barriers which separate people and traditions. But they can also be seen as places where different cultures converge and cross. Writing in the booklet notes that accompany the Topic CD ‘Ranting and Reeling – Dance Music of the North of England’, Reg Hall has this to say about the influence of Scottish musicians on the local Northumberland repertoire; “In the early post-war years the demand for dancing was such that a man called McKinnon began to book some of the big names in Scottish music from over the Border for dance engagements. Bands like those of Bobby MacLeod, Jim Cameron, Smiling Jack Forsyth and Lindsay Ross and The Hawthorn Band played only the local repertory when they were in Northumberland – no Scottish Country dances at all. Most of them, however, had difficulty playing the right time and rhythm, and it was the job of the local MC to put them right. The only one among them who had a natural feel for local style was Jimmy Shand who, it is reputed, got it right every time. Local musicians in the Cheviot Ranters, impressed by his tunes for The Student Lancers, picked them up bit by bit over the course of three or four of his bookings. The visitors from over the border created great interest among the Northumbrian musicians, and Will Atkinson, for one, believes they did nothing but good for the music.”
The man “called McKinnon” was, in fact, Duncan McKinnon, a dance promoter from the Melrose area, who arranged a number of bookings for Eddie and the band. It is interesting to hear of Jimmy Shand playing in Northumberland. According to Ronnie, Shand met his father in 1947 when making his first visit to play in Selkirk’s Victoria Hall. Shand was clearly aware of Eddie – probably through his recordings – and on that occasion called Eddie the ‘Button Accordion champion of the Borders.’ High praise indeed, from a man who was later to be knighted for his contribution to Scottish dance music and accordion playing. Topic CD TSCD669, issued London, 1998 includes several Scottish tunes played by Northumbrian musicians, including ‘Farewell to the Creeks’, ‘The Hogmanay Jig’, ‘Elizabeth Adair’, ‘The Braemar Gathering’, John D. Burgess’, ‘Longueval’, ‘Kelso Accordion and Fiddle Club’ and ‘Highland Laddie’.
Edgar Dixon, a button accordion player who spent most of his working life on farms in the area around Lowick in north Northumberland, sees himself as “neither English, nor Scottish”, but, like many of his English neighbours, “a Borderer”. Edgar’s father, who was from the same area, played the fiddle and taught Edgar much of his early repertoire. Although Edgar was later heavily influenced by the music of Jimmy Shand, he believes that the “Border’s style” stretches from such Scottish towns as Selkirk and Kelso to as far south as Wooler, Alnwick and Rothbury. “Some places might have different steps – such as the ‘Wooler Hop’ – but the tunes were no problem, wherever you played.” Except, it seems, in one case. Edgar recalls that for the dance Drops of Brandy / Strip the Willow the Scottish musicians would play jigs, whereas musicians in Northumberland or Cumbria would play hornpipes. There was also the occasional local dance – such as The Morpeth Rant or the Cumberland Square Eight – but, generally speaking, dances were the same on both sides of the border.
About fifteen years ago Will Telford was asked what type of tunes he had played with Eddie. He replied, “Old fashioned ones…..Quadrilles, Eightsome Reels, Lancers and waltzes.” Will also described Eddie as being “a congenial man….who tolerated no nonsense.” Tommy Heard said that Eddie was “a tall man with a high pitched voice, who was very jovial anmd popular and easy to get on with”, while Billy Douglas felt that Eddie was, “more similar in temperament to Jimmy Shand”, an observation that other people have also made to me.
According to Tommy Heard, most of the band’s bookings were in village halls, where the piano would often be wildly out of tune. Occasionally, perhaps once or twice a year, the band would be booked to play on more formal occasions, such as Hunt Balls or Works Balls. Here the band would start with the dance The Grand March, followed by the Eightsome Reel and The Duke of Perth. Often on these occasions the dancers would know very few dances and the band would have to play the same dances over and over. Tommy recalls having to play The Duke of Perth at least three times at one such dance. On these occasions the players would each be paid 17/6d; although their normal wage was 15/- for playing on a Friday night in a village hall and 10/- for playing on a Saturday night.
When asked to describe a typical selection of dances that would be played in a village hall, Tommy said :
“Old Time Waltz
St Bernard’s Waltz
Old Gay Gordons
Military Two-Step
Eightsome Reel
Drops of Brandy
The Student Lancers
Jack Tar Two-Step
A Quickstep and a Foxtrot.”
Surprisingly, the band never seemed to rehearse together; although Jock Ellot and Eddie would spend a lot of time practising together in private. When a new tune was to be introduced, Billy Douglas would buy the sheet music, learn the tune, and then simply play it at a dance, the rest of the band simply following by ear until they had it memorized. Usually it took about two or three dances before all the members of the band had the tune firmly in their heads.
Billy Douglas said that the band would play three tunes for each dance. The tunes, however, were not played as a medley; rather the band would play the first tune for a few minutes and would then stop. The dancers would stay on the floor, and then begin dancing again when the band began to play the second tune. This tune would last for a few minutes until the band again stopped. Finally, the third tune would be played and, when completed, the couples would leave the dance floor. This was, of course, how Eddie recorded his four gramophone sides and may explain why he did not record a medley of tunes on each side. On the recordings Eddie was playing exactly the way that he normally played for dancers.
(This is interesting because Jimmy Shand, as well as being a first-rate musician, is credited with being the first bandleader to ask the dancers, particularly the Scottish Country Dancers, exactly what they were doing and how the music could be played to better suit the dance. Prior to that bands played for an indeterminate length of time – as long as they liked – and the dancers could be exhausted. Once Jimmy realised that the dancers preferred that each couple dance the figure twice, that there were normally four couples in a set and hence normally 8 by 32 bars was comfortable for everybody, dancers and band, with an Encore if required, then dancing took on a new dimension that suited every).
Often there would be a Waltz competition during the dances and Tommy Heard remembers that the tune ‘Rothesay Bay’ was used for this event. Billy Douglas, who continues to play the electronic keyboard today, remember many of the tunes and offered the following tune titles for dances that he could remember :
Old Time Waltz – Ho-Ro My nut Brown Maiden, The Skye Boat Song, Cruising Dopwn the River, Sunset on the St Lawrence, Coming Through the Rye
Quickstep – several Glenn Miller tunes such as In The Mood and also Whistering, Darktown Strutter’s Ball
Modern Waltz – Anniversary Waltz, Charmaine, I’ll be Your Sweetheart
Eightsome Reel – De’il Amang the Tailors, The Fairy Dance, Barren Rocks of Aden
Billy and his wife call the tune ‘Barren Rocks of Aden’, ‘We’re All Awa’ tae the Tattie Fields’ after the following verse which the band and dancers would sing during the dance:
We’re all awa’ tae the tattie fields,
Tae the tattie fields, tae the tattie fields,
We’re all awa’ tae the tattie fields,
To gaither in the tatties.
Spanish Waltz – danced by 2 couples in a square – The Mountains of Mourne
Gay Gordons – The Happy Wanderer, Scotland the Brave,
Slow Foxtrot – The White Cliffs of Dover, Silver Wings in the Moonlight, Love Letters in the Sand
Highland Schottische – The Keel Row, Oragne and Blue
Military Two-Step – Blaze Away, Washington Post
Drops o’ Brandy – Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre or any other jig
Valeta Waltz – Believe Me of al Those Endearing Young Charms
The Lancers – according to Billy, this was only occasionally played and the dance had it’s own specific set of tunes.
It will be immediately apparent that most of the tunes played in the ‘40s were modern pieces, far removed from those that Eddie recorded earlier on his 78s. Billy said that most of the dancers were younger couples who were only happy if the band played the latest ‘hits’. In a way, this reminds me of the comments made by the Norfolk singer Walter Pardon (1914 – 1996) who said that most of his generation ridiculed the singing of old songs, preferring instead, the latest songs that they heard on the wireless. Sandy Cairns also organised ‘Yarrowford Concert Party’, which would sometimes accompany the band and would perform before the dance began. The Concert Party comprised about six or seven young girls, including Eddie’s daughters Betty and Margaret, who would sing, dance and perform short comic sketches to a pianist. Occasionally, Eddie would take over from the pianist. Jimmy Blake, a farm labourer who worked with Eddie, would sometime join the Party to sing songs such as ‘Red River Valley’ or ‘Huntingtower’.
Sometime around 1948 Eddie and the band traveled to Edinburgh to audition for a spot on the BBC radio programme ‘Scottish Dance Music’, a twice-weekly showcase of all that was best in local music. Sadly, they were turned down, a fact which seems to have deeply affected Eddie and his friends, and the band broke up in 1950. Eddie was not a member of the Musicians Union, and this may be why the BBC felt unable to employ the band. Occasionally, Eddie would play for a dance with one or two other musicians, including Will Starr, another button accordion champion. But his hands were becoming stiff and arthritic , following all his years of outdoor labouring. According to Stan Aird, another accordion player from Jedburgh, Eddie was still a “marvelous player”, even in his seventies, but he was aware that his fingers were not as supple as they used to be. Eddie would sometimes travel to Galashiels to play for a wedding and he was occasionally taken to a local Accordion Club which met at The Railway Inn at Newtown St Boswells. Here he played alongside other button accordion players such as Bobby Rae, who was from Ancrum, and Sandy Ramage, who may have been from Jedburgh, but it was clear by then that Eddie’s playing days were more or less over.
When he was 65 years old Eddie retired from work and settled with his wife in a Buccleugh Estates retirement cottage in the village of Eckford, just off the A698, between Kelso and Jedburgh. According to a neighbour, Doug Gotterson, Eddie would still play the accordion at home, and could play “all night long without repeating a tune.” Gradually though, his musical days came to an end and Eddie passed away on 20th February 1982. Had he made more records he would, I am sure, have become as famous as William Hannah or even Jimmy Shand for that matter. But that was not to be. At least now there is a face and a story to go with the name and, of course, there will always be that wonderful handful of unique recordings made by Eddie Quinn, the ‘Button Accordion Champion of the Borders’.
Acknowledgements: Peter Thomas, potter of Tweedmouth, first drew my attention to Eddie Quinn’s recordings and pointed out their importance, thus setting me on a new path of discovery. Record collectors Keith Chandler and Reg Hall offered much needed advice regarding Eddie’s recordings. In Kelso, John Crombie, of the Kelso Accordion Club sent me to Eckford, where Doug Gotterson and Charlie Robertson directed me onwards to Selkirk, in search of Eddie’s son, Ronnie. Thanks to Ronnie I was able to locate Tommy Heard (sadly now no longer with us) and Billy Douglas. All of these people were of tremendous help, as were Stan Aird, Adam Boyd, Edgar Dixon and Eddie’s daughter Betty. Without their enthusiasm I would not have been able to piece together Eddie’s story.
The Box and Fiddle would like to thank Mike Yates for allowing us to publish his article, and also The Musical Tradition Website (http://www.mustrad.org.uk), which is where it appears. You can hear sound samples of the recordings if you visit the website.
Webwatch
by Bill Young
www.
Take the Floor – Saturday Evenings 19.05 – 21.00 with Robbie Shepherd (repeated on Sunday’s 13.05 – 15.00)
5th Oct 2013 – A Take the Floor Special from the newly re-opened Tivoli Theatre in Aberdeen with Iain Cathcart SDB and guests Fiona Kennedy, Paul Anderson and Darren MacLean.
12th Oct 2013 – Frank Thomson SDB (Debut)
19th Oct 2013 – Craigieford Co-operative
26th Oct 2013 – Sandy Nixon SDB
CLUB DIARY
Aberdeen (Old Machar RBL) –
Alnwick (The Farrier’s Arms – Shilbottle) 9th Oct 2013 – Neil Barron Trio
Annan (St Andrew’s Social Club) - 13th Oct 2013 – The Garioch Blend
Arbroath (Viewfield Hotel) - 6th Oct 2013 – Richard Smith Trio
Balloch (St. Kessog’s Church Hall) – 20th Oct 2013 – Da Fustra
Banchory (Burnett Arms Hotel) –
Banff & District (Banff Springs Hotel) – 23rd Oct 2013 – 40th Anniversary – Da Fustra with Iain MacPhail
Beith & District (Anderson Hotel) –
Biggar (Municipal Hall) –
Blairgowrie (Moorfield Hotel) - 8th Oct 2013 – Lynn Gould Trio
Britannia (Arden House Hotel) -
Bromley (Trinity United Reform Church) -
Button Key (Windygates Institute) – 10th Oct 2013 – Steven Carcary & Friends
Campsie (Glazert Country House Hotel) - 1st Oct 2013 – Maggie Adamson & Brian Nicholson
Carlisle (St Margaret Mary Social Club) - 3rd Oct 2013 – David Vernon
Castle Douglas (Urr Valley Country House Hotel) – 15th Oct 2013 – Nicky McMichan Trio
Coalburn (Miners’ Welfare) - 11th Oct 2013 – Dance to Willie McFarlane 17th Oct 2013 – Da Fustra
Coldingham (Crosslaw Caravan Park) - 7th Oct 2013 – Robert Whitehead SDB
Crieff & District (Crieff Hotel) 3rd Oct 2013 – Leonard Brown Duo
Cults (Culter Sports & Social Club)
Dalriada (Argyll Inn, Lochgilphead) -
Dingwall (National Hotel) – 2nd Oct 2013 – Lomond Ceilidh Band
Dunblane (Victoria Hall) – 16th Oct 2013 – Craig Paton Trio
Dunfermline (Headwell Bowling Club) – 8th Oct 2013 – Kingdom Ceilidh Band
Dunoon & Cowal (McColl’s Hotel)
Duns (Royal British Legion Club, Langtongate) 21st Oct 2013 – Liam Stewart Trio
Ellon (Station Hotel) – 22nd Oct 2013 – Adin Graham SDB
Fintry (Fintry Sports Centre) – 28th Oct 2013 – Janet Graham SDB
Forfar (Plough Inn) - 27th Oct 2013 – David Kennedy SDB
Forres (Victoria Hotel) – 9th Oct 2013 – Wayne Robertson Trio
Fort William (Railway Club, Inverlochy) -
Galashiels (Abbotsford Arms Hotel) – 3rd Oct 2013 – Alan Gardiner Trio
Glendale (The Glendale Hall) -
Glenfarg (Lomond Hotel) - 2nd Oct 2013 – Lindsay Weir Trio
Glenrothes (Victoria Hall, Coaltown of Balgownie) -
Gretna (Athlitic & Social Club) -
Haddington (Railway Inn) - 20th Oct 2013 – Brandon McPhee Trio
Highland (Waterside Hotel) – 21st Oct 2013 – Pentlands Ceilidh Band
Inveraray (Argyll Hotel) -
Isle of Skye – (The Royal Hotel, Portree) - 3rd Oct 2013 – The Armour Brothers
Islesteps (The Embassy Hotel) – 1st Oct 2013 – Neil Barron SDB
Kelso (Cross Keys Hotel) – 30th Oct 2013 – Gordon Brown SDB
Kintore (Torryburn Arms Hotel) –
Ladybank (Ladybank Tavern) -
Lanark (Ravenstruther Hall) - 28th Oct 2013 – Maggie Adamson Duo
Langholm (Eskdale Hotel) – 9th Oct 2013 – Gary Blair
Lauder (Black Bull Hotel) -
Lewis & Harris (Stornoway Legion) - 3rd Oct 2013 – Sandy Ross Duo
Livingston (Hilcroft Hotel, Whitburn) 15th Oct 2013 – Lindsay Weir SDB
Lockerbie (Queen’s Hotel) - 29th Oct 2013 – Robert Whitehead Trio
Maine Valley (Ballymena) -
Mauchline (Harry Lyle Suite) - 15th Oct 2013 – Charlie Kirkpatrick Trio
Montrose (Park Hotel) –
Newburgh (Adbie Hall) -
Newmill-on-Teviot / Teviotdale (Buccleugh Bowling Club)
Newtongrange (Dean Tavern) –
North East (Royal British Legion, Keith) – 1st Oct 2013 – Brandon McPhee Trio
Northern (Lylehill Suite, Templepatrick, N.I.) - 2nd Oct 2013 – Francis Faulkner
Oban (The Argyllshire Gathering) – 3rd Oct 2013 – Dochie McCallum & Friends
Orkney (Ayre Hotel, Kirkwall) –
Peebles (Rugby Social Club) – 31st Oct 2013 – Dochie McCallum & Friends
Perth (Salutation Hotel) – 15th Oct 2013 – Brandon McPhee Trio
Premier NI (Chimney Corner Hotel) -
Reading Scottish Fiddlers (Willowbank Infant School, Woodley) -
Renfrew (Masonic Hall, Broadloan) – 8th Oct 2013 – Jim Gold Trio
Rothbury (Queen’s Head Hotel) - 3rd Oct 2013 – Gary Forrest C.B.
Scottish Accordion Music (Banchory) -
Seghill (Old Comrades Club) - 22nd Oct 2013 – Ray Carse
Selkirk (Angus O’Malley’s) -
Shetland (Shetland Hotel, Lerwick) -
Stonehouse (Stonehouse Violet Football Social Club) - 2nd Oct 2013 – West Telferton C.B.
Sutherland (Rogart Hall) -
Thornhill (Bowling Club Hall) - 8th Oct 2013 – Stuart McKeown Trio
Thurso (Pentland Hotel) – 7th Oct 2013 – Cast Ewe Ceilidh Band
Turriff (Commercial Hotel, Cuminestown) – 3rd Oct 2013 – Burns Brothers
Tynedale (Hexham Ex Service Club) – 17th Oct 2013 – Jim Gold Trio
Uist & Benbecula (C of S Hall, Griminish) -
West Barnes (West Barnes Inn) 10th Oct 2013 – James Coutts Trio
Wick (MacKay’s Hotel) – 15th Oct 2013 – Ewan Galloway Duo
THERE WERE CLUB REPORTS FROM :-
1. Annan
2. Arbroath
3. Blairgowrie
4. Button-Key
5. Campsie
6. Coldingham
7. Dingwall
8. Forfar
9. Gretna
10. Islesteps
11. Lewis & Harris
12. Northern
13. Orkney
14. Renfrew
15. Seghill
16. Turriff
17. Tynedale
CLUB DIRECTORY AS AT OCT 2013
(Clubs didn’t necessarily notify the Assoc when they closed so the following may not be entirely correct. Only the clubs submitting the reports or in the Club Diary above were definitely open.)
1. Aberdeen A&F Club (1975 – present)
2. Alnwick A&F Club (Aug 1975 – present)
3. Annan A&F Club (joined Assoc in 1996 but started 1985 – present)
4. Arbroath A&F Club (1991? – present)
5. Balloch A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per January 1978 issue – present)
6. Banchory A&F Club (1978 – present)
7. Banff & District A&F Club (Oct 1973 – present)
8. Beith & District A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per first edition – present)
9. Belford A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
10. Biggar A&F Club (Oct 1974 – present)
11. Blairgowrie A&F Club (
12. Britannia B&F Club ( joined 07-08 but much older
13. Bromley A&F Club (joined 95-96 – closed early 08-09)
14. Button Key A&F Club (
15. Campsie A&F Club (Nov 95 – present)
16. Carlisle A&F Club (joined Sept 1993 -
17. Castle Douglas A&F Club (c Sept 1980 – present)
18. Coalburn A&F Club (
19. Coldingham A&F Club (Nov 2008 -
20. Crathes (aka Scottish Accordion Music – Crathes) (Nov 1997 -
21. Crieff A&F Club (cSept 1981)
22. Cults A & F Club (
23. Dalriada A&F Club (Feb 1981)
24. Dingwall & District A&F Club (May 1979 – per first report)
25. Dunblane & District A&F Club (1971 – present)
26. Dunfermline & District A&F Club (1974 – per first edition)
27. Dunoon & Cowal A&F Club (
28. Duns A&F Club (formed 20th Sept 04 – present)
29. East Kilbride A&F Club (Sept 1980 – Closed 04/05)
30. Ellon A&F Club (
31. Fintry A&F Club (Dec 1972 – reformed Jan 1980 – present)
32. Forfar A&F Club (
33. Forres A&F Club (Jan 1978)
34. Fort William A&F Club (2009 -
35. Galashiels A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
36. Galston A&F Club (Oct 1969 – per first edition – closed March 2006)
37. Glendale Accordion Club (Jan 1973)
38. Glenfarg A&F Club (formed 1988 joined Assoc Mar 95 -
39. Glenrothes A&F Club (Mar 93?
40. Gretna A&F Club (1991) Known as North Cumbria A&F Club previously (originally called Gretna when started in June 1966 but later had to move to venues in the North of England and changed name. No breaks in the continuity of the Club)
41. Haddington A&F Club (formed Feb 2005 - )
42. Highland A&F Club (Inverness) (Nov 1973 – present)
43. Inveraray A&F Club (Feb 1991 - present)
44. Islesteps A&F Club (Jan 1981 – present – n.b. evolved from the original Dumfries Club)
45. Isle of Skye A&F Club (June 1983 – present)
46. Kelso A&F Club (May 1976 – present)
47. Ladybank A&F Club (joined Apr 98 but formed earlier
48. Lanark A&F Club (joined Sept 96 – closed March 2015)
49. Langholm A&F Club (Oct 1967 - present)
50. Lauder A&F Club (May 2010 -
51. Lewis & Harris A&F Club (Aug 1994 -
52. Livingston A&F Club (Sept 1973 – present)
53 Lockerbie A&F Club (Nov 1973 - present)
54 Maine Valley A&F Club (
55 Mauchline A&F Club (Sept 1983 - present)
56 Montrose A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
57 Newmill-on-Teviot (Hawick) (Formed late 1988 joined Assoc 1999 - closed March 2016)
58 Newtongrange A&F Club (joined Sept 1977 - present)
59. North East A&F Club aka Keith A&FC (Sept 1971 - present)
60. Northern A&F Club (Sept 2011 -
61. Oban A&F Club (Nov 1975 - present)
62. Orkney A&F Club (Mar 1978 - present)
63. Peebles A&F Club (26 Nov 1981 - present)
64. Perth & District A&F Club (Aug 1970 - present)
65. Premier A&F Club NI (April 1980)
66. Phoenix A&F Club, Ardrishaig (Dec 2004 -
67. Renfrew A&F Club (1984 -
68. Rothbury Accordion Club (7th Feb 1974) orig called Coquetdale
69. Selkirk A&F Club (
70. Shetland A&F Club (Sept 1978 - present)
71 Stonehouse A&F Club (first report June 05 -
72 Sutherland A&F Club (Nov 1982 -
73 Thornhill A&F Club (joined Oct 1983 – see Nov 83 edition – closed April 2014)
74 Thurso A&F Club (Oct 1981 - present)
75 Turriff A&F Club (1st April 1982 - present)
76 Tynedale A&F Club (Nov 1980 - present)
77 Uist & Benbecula A&F Club (Dec 2007 but formed 1994 -
78 West Barnes ( - present)
79 Wick A&F Club (Oct 1975 - present)
Not on official list at the start of the season (closed, did not renew membership or omitted in error?)
80. Araharacle & District A&F Club (cMay 1988)
81. Armadale A&F Club (Oct 1978? or 80) originally called Bathgate Club (for 2 months) Last meeting May 2010
82. Ayr A&F Club (Nov 1983 – per Nov 83 edition) Closed
83. Bonchester Accordion Club (Closed?)
84. Bridge of Allan (Walmer) A&F Club (Walmer Hotel, Bridge of Allan) (c March 1982)
85. Brigmill A&F Club (Oct 1990) Closed
86. Buchan A&F Club
87 Callander A&F Club (
88 Campbeltown & District A&F Club (c Dec 1980)
89 Cleland (cNov 1981 – March 1985) originally called Drumpellier A&F Club (for 2 months)
90 Club Accord
91 Coquetdale A&F Club (Feb 1974 or c1976/77 – 1981/2? – became Rothbury?)
92. Coupar Angus A&F Club (cSept 1978 - ?)
93. Cumnock A&F Club (October 1976 - forced to close cDec 1982 - see Jan 83 Editorial)
94. Denny & Dunipace A&F Club (Feb 1981)
95. Derwentside A&F Club
96. Dornoch A&F Club (first mention in directory 1986)
97. Dumfries Accordion Club (Oughtons) (April 1965 at the Hole in the Wa’)
98. Dunbar Cement Works A&F Club (Closed?)
99. Dundee & District A&F Club (January 1971 – 1995?)
100. Edinburgh A&F Club (Apr 1981) prev called Chrissie Leatham A&F Club (Oct 1980)
101. Falkirk A&F Club (Sept 1978 - )
102. Fort William A&F Club (21st Oct 1980 – per Dec 1980 B&F)
103. Gorebridge (cNov 1981) originally called Arniston A&F Club (for 2 months)
104. Greenhead Accordion Club (on the A69 between Brampton and Haltwistle)
105. Islay A&F Club (23 Apr 93 -
106. Kintore A&F Club (
107. Kirriemuir A&F Club (cSept 1981)
108. Lesmahagow A&F Club (Nov 1979 – closed May 2005)
109. M.A.F.I.A. (1966 – 1993?)
110. Monklands A&F Club (Nov 1978 – closed cApril 1983)
111. Morecambe A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
112. Muirhead A&F Club (Dec 1994 -
113. Mull A&F Club
114. Newcastleton Accordion Club
115. Newburgh A&F Club (joined 2002 but founded much earlier – closed April 2011 when venue closed)
116. New Cumnock A&F Club (cMarch 1979)
117. Newton St Boswells Accordion Club (17th Oct 1972 see Apr 1984 obituary for Angus Park)
118. Ormiston Miners’ Welfare Society A&F Club (closed April 1992 – per Sept Editorial)
119. Reading Scottish Fiddlers (cMarch 1997
120. Renfrew A&F Club (original club 1974/5 lapsed after a few years then again in 1984)
121. Stirling A&F Club (Oct 1991 – closed 20000/01?)
122. Straiton Accordion Club (c1968 – closed March 1979)
123. Stranraer & District Accordion Club (1974 – per first edition)
124. Torthorwald A&F Club (near Dumfries)
125. Tranent A&F Club
126. Vancouver
127. Walmer (Bridge of Allan) A&F Club
128. Wellbank A&F Club
129. Yarrow (prev known as Etterick & Yarrow) (Jan 1989 – closed 2001/02)
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B&F Treasurer – Charlie Todd, Thankerton
The main features in the above issue were as follows (this is not a comprehensive detail of all it contained. The Club reports, in particular, are too time-consuming at this stage to retype).
Editorial
We’re putting out a plea this month for help with the content of YOUR magazine. Could you write an article for us? It could be about your own experiences in the Box and Fiddle World, perhaps a focus on another musician, or maybe a technical article that would be of interest to players. We also need contributions for ous ‘sheet music’ section; if you’ve written a piece of music that you think would be suitable, send it in, maybe with a photo of yourself or the subject and a story of why you wrote it.
Your continued support is very much appreciated.
Karin Ingram
From Glencraig to Martinique
by Karin Ingram
When The Glencraig Scottish Dance Band and Dancers received an invitation from Maurice Antiste, the Mayor of Ville Du Francois on the Caribbean island of Martinique, there was little hesitation in accepting. The group was invited owing to our long association and friendship with a group from Corsica who were also going to be there.
Our hosts were so welcoming, nothing was too much trouble…they fed us, transported us here and there across the beautiful island – and forced rum down our throats.
We had ample opportunity for some fabulous sightseeing – to a sugar cane plantation where they also made – you’ve guessed it …..rum! We visited idyllic beaches and deserted islands.
However, we were there to ‘work’. An ‘advance party’ arrived a day before the others, because Karin (the dance caller and teacher) was to take part in a televised conference…in French…help! She managed to muddle through that, with an interpreter on hand if needed, and the others arrived the next day, ready to take part in the 5th Festival International de Haute Taille et des Quadrilles du Monde. There were dance groups from all over Martinique as well as from Dominica, Lafayette in Louisiana and the aforementioned Corsica.
As is usual in these festivals, everyone was very friendly and keen to share dances and music. The first thing that we noticed was, although the music had a distinctly Caribbean flavour, the dances were virtually identical to our Lancers and Quadrilles. Exactly the same steps, but set to a Reggae beat!
Given that these dances came to Scotland originally from France, and Martinique is a French Colony, then maybe we should have expected it, but it seemed to be a further sign that music and dance are truly universal languages.
We would like to thank the people of Ville Du Francois, particularly Maurice the Mayor and Fred Jean Baptiste, who had the unenviable task of making sure that all the different groups were where they were supposed to be at the right time. It was lovely to meet up again with our Corsican friends, and to make new friends with the groups from Dominica, the Us and elsewhere.
The Glencraig Band and Dancers won compliments for their music, dance and, of course, the kilts! We seemed to be the only group who invited the audience to join in our dancing – and they loved it! Even Maurice gave it a go!
We left the Martiniquans a parting gift of a quaich (a friendship cup) and, when the whisky ran out, it was filled with……rum!
Skipping a Violin Size
by Rhiannon Schmitt (Internet)
………..
Rosehall Ceilidh Band
by Liz Quinn
There was …………..
Ena Wilson
The Musical Life of the talented pianist from Elvanfoot/Biggar
by Calum Wilson
Ena comes from a musical family, her father John played the fiddle (latterly with the Border Strathspey & Reel Society), her mother Jane was very musical and her brother Ian also played the fiddle, so there was always music in the family home at Elvanfoot, also at the home of her Grandparents at Crookedstane Farm and at the homes of her aunt, uncle and cousins at Abington.
At the early age of ten Ena started piano lessons with Miss Margaret Carmichael at Trigony near Closeburn, Thornhill. She was a highly respected and qualified music teacher who had a substantial waiting list of pupils. Ena continued music lessons for five years taking her up to the fifth grade with a further year which included singing lessons. The music lessons were all classical with the exception of Burns Songs and music. At that time Ena was also taking dancing lessons with the Margaret Bell School of dancing from Dumfries, the dance teacher was Miss Allan who gave weekly lessons in Crawford and then Abington village hall doing Highland, Tap and Ballet dancing. Taking part in dancing displays locally was very much part of this which Ena enjoyed very much, however, it was the music scene that eventually took over.
The Scottish music influence was firstly when Ena would accompany her father and brother’s fiddle playing. In the mid 1950’s top Scottish Dance Bands would play for dances held in the luxurious ballroom of the Crawford Arms Hotel, with their parents Ena and her brother Ian attended many of these dances, the bands included Jimmy Shand, Bobby MacLeod and Andrew Rankine among others. On the occasions when Jimmy Shand played, Ena remembers the highlight of the evening for her was when Norman Whitelaw the pianist in the band would wave to her to come to the band stand to sit in on piano with the band for a waltz, what wonderful experience and encouragement for an aspiring young pianist.
Ena’s first engagements as a musician were in her early teens playing solo piano for local functions in Elvanfoot and the surrounding district village halls. In the late 1950’s The Cross Keys Hotel in Biggar held a Saturday and Sunday evening sing song with people coming from far and near, the resident pianist/accompanist had to give up due to illness, Ena was asked to stand in and was able to do the engagement which resulted in a two year residency. Many of the singers did not have any music and as Ena had a good ear she was able to accompany them, this was all good experience. Among the regular singers at that time was none other than the Alexander Brothers before they became well known artists, even at that time they stole the show. Another highlight in the early years was a call from the John Johnstone Band to play with them at Moniaive in Dumfriesshire a great experience with a top broadcasting band of that time which Ena was to do on further occasions.
Moving on from there Ena was asked to join a new band to be known as the Carlton Quintet led by accordionists Jack Gray and Tony Woodage both from Kirkfieldbank. After two years with them playing at a wide variety of venues and gaining a lot of good experience Ena joined the Wamphray Band, this was a busy band playing at town and village hall dances throughout Dumfriesshire. At that time (1960’s) village hall dances were in full swing every Friday and Saturday night and the Wamphray Band was a popular band in great demand.
Ena recalls some of the town/village hall venues :- Moffat , Lockerbie, Lochmaben, Moffat Water, Wamphray, Boreland, Bankshill, Eskdalemuir, Beattock, Templand, Eaglesfield, Johnstonebridge and many more all packed with good dancers.
In 1965 Ena applied and was successful in gaining a place with Post Office Telecommunications for training as a telephonist, this was a period of training in London and then working in London Mayfair telephone exchange. During that year she was dedicated to the training and work, however, on her weekends home and holiday leave she was able to play with the Wamphray band when required until they were able to get a pianist full time.
After a year in London, Ena was able to apply for a transfer to Scotland and was successful in getting a job with Post Office Telecommunications in Edinburgh. This also led to various opportunities for playing and eventually joining the Peter Innes Dance Band from Tranent, East Lothian. Ena played for three years with the Peter Innes Band which was a very busy band playing throughout Scotland mainly for general dancing. During that time Ena met Arlene Shand who was the lead accordionist, Arlene a former Scottish Junior Champion was taught by the well known respected accordion teacher Chrissie Letham of Edinburgh and had at that time recorded a solo accordion track on one of the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band’s LP’s. Eventually Ena and Arlene decided to start up as a duo – accordion, piano and vocals going under the name of the Scott Sisters. They were very busy and after working together for a while they decided to enter the odd talent contest and had some success in various parts of the country. Eventually after being approached by theatrical agents they were offered a summer season with the Heather Mixture Show touring Scotland. They started working full time in the summer of 1968 and their first professional performance was at the Haddington Festival when they appeared along with Jack Milroy, Peter Malan, The Islanders and Archie Duncan and his Band. They then travelled around Scotland, performing twice nightly changing songs every week for the Heather Mixture Show which toured weekly in Aviemore, Campbeltown, Oban and Pitlochry , the other acts on the bill included The Islanders, Peter Mallan, Charlie Cowie, Ronnie Dale and Archie Duncan and his Scottish Dance Band. In addition to this they travelled over to Craignure on Mull to entertain, spent a week at Inveraray during their festival week, helping out at various events during the day and performing on stage in the evenings, on the bill on that occasion was accordionist Jack Emblow. Weekends were also busy, performing at Dunoon, Montrose, Cortachy, Dumfries, Irvine and the club circuit. Some notable engagements on their schedule were The Rangers Rally in The Pavilion Theatre, Glasgow with the Alexander Brothers and Lex McLean, The Ashfield Club Glasgow with Glen Daly, The Ibrox Club, Glasgow, City Halls, Sheffield with Jim Johnstone and his Band, Lockerbie Town Hall with Jimmy Shand and his Band , Greens Playhouse, Dundee with Donald Piers and Montrose Town Hall, on the bill on that occasion was Alistair MacDonald. In June 1971 they set off on an overseas tour initially to Germany. This was the first of a series of one month bookings on different US bases moving between Stuttgart, Wiesbaden (Germany), Vicenza (Italy) and Diyarbakir, Sinop and Adana in Turkey. On their return to the UK the girls continued to take part in various shows although their next challenge was something just a bit different to the work they had done before. They auditioned and joined the Ladies of the Court of Dalhousie Castle, near Bonnyrigg, this was choral work under the direction of James Farrer, where they performed Scots songs as part of the Jacobean Banquet evenings held there.
During the 1970’s Ena had more opportunity to do freelance playing helping out many bands also taking part in band and trio competitions and playing at fiddle and accordion clubs, she recalls the occasions when she had the honour of accompanying Ron Gonella and Angus Fitchet for guest artist spots.
In 1974 Ena was asked by fiddler Alec McPhie and accordionist George Meikle if she would join a new band called The Lothian Scottish Dance Band, this she did and was with them for thirteen years. Their engagements took them all over the UK and overseas playing mainly for Scottish Country Dancing also many guest artist spots at Accordion and Fiddle Clubs throughout Scotland and north of England. During that time the band did many BBC broadcasts after auditioning in 1977 also a number of broadcasts for Radio Forth. Their first commercial recording was in 1976 entitled “Introducing the Lothian Scottish Dance Band” this was soon followed by “Presenting the Lothian Scottish Dance Band” in 1977, “ The Lothian Scottish Dance Band In Strict Tempo” in 1981, “Something to Celebrate” in 1983 , and “ Second Celebration ” in 1986. Tracks from some of these recordings are included in Lismor Recordings compilation albums and REL compilation albums. The Lothian Scottish Dance Band continues to this day under the leadership of George Meikle.
Taking a well known pipe tune and then adding lyrics to it has been done on several occasions , however, it’s not so often that the tune and the lyrics come from within the same family. This was the case with the song “March, March, My Kiltie Lad” which Ena sang on the Lothian Scottish Dance Band’s first LP. The lyrics were by Margaret Sutherland and Betty Dingwall and the well known tune “The Piper’s Cave” was by Pipe Major J. Sutherland, Margaret Sutherland’s father. Margaret was chief supervisor when Ena worked with Post Office Telecoms in Edinburgh and gave the song to Ena at the time of her leaving to go full time as The Scott Sisters.
During Ena’s years with the Lothian Scottish Dance Band she organised many local concerts in the Elvanfoot area in aid of local good causes. These events were always very well supported and thanks go to the band members and local artistes for giving their services on these memorable occasions. Ena also enjoyed helping the local school Daer and Powtrail Primary with their entries into the music festivals at Biggar High School when she accompanied them on piano at these events. Another musical duty was as church organist at Elvanfoot Church which she shared with two other organists.
For the last twenty six years Ena has played in her husband’s band – Callum Wilson and his Scottish Dance Band. They first met in 1975 when playing with Iain MacPhail’s Band at a Scottish Country Dance Festival at Leeds University and again with the Lothian Scottish Dance Band in 1976 when Callum played second accordion on the Lothian Scottish Dance Band’s first LP. Ena and Callum married in 1982. Ena plays piano on two of the band’s recordings, “Scottish Country Dancing with Callum Wilson and his Scottish Dance Band” in 1997 and “Band Favourites” in 2007. These days there is not so much dancing going on, however, they still have sufficient engagements to “keep their hand in” mainly playing for Scottish Country Dancing. Over the last fifteen years and in addition to their band work Ena and Callum have performed at many concerts in hospitals and nursing homes through the charity “Music in Hospitals” this has taken them all over Scotland from Gretna in the south to Wick in the north and they have found it most satisfying bringing their music to people who are no longer fit or able to get out to dances and concerts.
Scots Fiddle Festival 2013
Eddie Quinn
The Button Accordion Champion of the Borders
by Mike Yates
It is said that in the 1840s, at the time of the Irish potato famine, up to 1,000 Irish people were arriving weekly in Glasgow. Many of these people were agricultural workers and by the end of the 1800s there was a high percentage of Irish born workers scattered throughout Scotland, especially in the Borders Regions to the south and south-east of Glasgow.
One such Irishman was Edward Quinn (1846-1926), the son of charles quinn, a blacksmith who died sometime prior to 1878, and Margaret Quinn, nee Boyl (sic), who was born in Tyrone in the early 1800s. On 2nd September, 1878, at Bridge End, Dunse, (now Duns), Edward married a 20-year old domestic servant called Margaret Blackie.
Margaret’s parents, William and Margaret, had also worked in domestic service, William, born in 1836, being a coachman. His wife Margaret, who was born Margaret Paterson, was also born in the same year as her husband, but had died prior to her daughter’s wedding. There is a suggestion that the couple had once worked at Marshall Meadows, just over the English border about 3 miles to the north of Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Twenty years after her marriage, Margaret Quinn gave birth to her eighty, and final, child at 10am on 17th December, 1898. On the birth certificate the surname Quinn is spelt with only one ‘n’. his father, who registered the birth, did not sign the certificate, but is shown as being ‘present’, and was probably illiterate, hence the difference in spelling. The child, named Edward after his father, was born at The Shiels Farm in the Berwickshire Parish of Ladykirk. Ladybank was originally known as Upsettington, but the Scottish King, James IV, is believed to have changed the name when he built a church there in gratitude to Our Lady, after he almost drowned nearly in the River Tweed in 1499. St Mary’s Church, built c1500, stands today on the raised north bank of the Tweed, overlooking the ancient Northumbrian village of Norham, and can be seen from miles around.
According to family tradition, young Eddie was to become the only musician in the family and was able to play the 2-row melodeon (or button accordion, as it is called locally) when only four or five years old. It is also said that in his youth he would play the accordion whilst lying on his back in front of the fire. We do not know if any one person taught Eddie, only that he picked it up by ear, although we do know that he was unable to sight-read music. Eddie’s early repertoire was certainly set well within the local Scottish tradition and so it seems unlikely that it was his Irish father who first taught him to play. The button accordion had become a highly popular instrument by the beginning of the 20th century. According to Stuart Eydmann in his article ‘As Common as Blackberries: the First Hundred Years of the Accordion in Scotland, 1830-1930’, “That the accordion has a special position in popular and traditional music making in Scotland is beyond question.” It may, therefore, be speculated that the young Eddie heard melodeons being played by some of the local farm workers and it was from him that he first learned to play. Today, several people in the Selkirk area recall that their grandparents and great-grandparents would meet for informal dances in quiet country lanes on a Saturday night, and that music would be provided by a fiddle or melodeon player.
Eddie followed in his father’s footsteps and became a farm worker himself, his first job being on a farm at Lumsden, near Coldingham. Eddie worked as a horse driver until the horses were replaced by tractors, which he soon learnt to handle, and, apparently, became known locally as ‘The Kelsie Plooman’. On 29th August 1925 Eddie, who was then working on a farm at Hadden, near Windywalls, married Mary Black, also from Windywalls, at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Kelso, the banns having been read at their local parish church of Sprouston. Sometime around 1934 Eddie moved to the Buccleugh Estate at Carterhaugh, between Selkirk and the Yarrow Valley. Carterhaugh is, of course, the home of the ballad hero Tam Lin.
“O I forbid you, maidens a’,
That wear gowd on your hair,
To come or gae by Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lin is there.”
Adam Boyd (b. 1918) was 15 years old when he first heard Eddie play a dance in Sprouston school hall. At that time Eddie was playing with Will Telford, a farm worker form the Kelso area who played the fiddle, and a young drummer called Bobby Tuck, who died at an early age. Adam and his brother Peter had learned to play the button accordion from their father, John Boyd – who also played the fiddle and the pipes – a farmworker from Spylaw, on the Kelso/Yetholm road. When Eddie left Hadden, Adam and Peter joined up with drummer, Tommy Brannan from Kelso, and formed a band to fill the gap left by Eddie. Peter Boyd, who was older than his brother, had previously played with another button-accordion player, Jock Liddle, a gardener from The Hirsel Estate at Coldstream, who had occasionally played with Eddie Quinn.
By the time Eddie moved to Carterhaugh he must have become well-known as a musician – having, by then, recorded two 78 gramophone records. Although some local believed that these were recorded in Kirkcaldy, Fife, Eddie’s daughter Betty, who was then aged about 5 years old, can just remember her father traveling by train to London to make the records. Eddie’s recordings are characterised by a lightness of touch, his fingering supple and delicate, and it may well be that they represent a local style of playing that was soon to disappear when 78rpm records and the wireless began to create an overall “Scottish dance band sound.” Very few, if any, other Kelso musicians were recorded in this period and Eddie’s records could well be the only ones made which preserved this style of playing. One recording, “Kelso Band Dance/ Kelso Reel”, was recorded in late December 1929, and issued on the Imperial label (Imperial S113). ‘Kelso Barn Dance’ is, in fact, the pipe tune ‘Inverness Gathering’, while ‘Kelso Reel’ is a version of the well-known ‘De’il Amang the Tailors’. The other recording ‘The Gay Gordons/ The Laird of Drumblair’, was issued on the Beka label (Beka 3005/06), although it seems that the recordings were originally made by the Parlophone company. If so, then the matrix numbers indicate that these recordings would have been made in early January 1930, and it is likely that Eddie recorded both of his records during the same visit to London. ‘The Gay Gordons’ is another pipe tune, while ‘The Laird of Drumblair’ is a composition by the well-known Scottish fiddler, James Scott Skinner. Eddie is accompanied on all four sides by an unknown piano player, as was then customary, and on each side he continues to play the named tune repeatedly from start to finish, unlike other performers who would play a selection of two or three tunes per side. Will Telford thought that the reason why Eddie only made two records was because the public preferred to hear a medley of tunes on each side of the record and this may well be why Eddie was not invited back to London. There is another possibility. Eddie was sponsored as a musician by an Algie Campbell who ran a music shop in Woodmarket in Kelso. Somewhere along the line the two fell out and if, as seems likely, Campbell secured the recording sessions for Ediie, then it may have been that the recording companies were unable to contact Eddie directly in order to arrange further sessions. There is also the possibility that the two record companies were unhappy that Eddie had recorded for a rival company. Whatever the reason, it is a great pity that Eddie made only two records, for his playing was of the highest quality and he was clearly an outstanding musician. “He was a master of timing – very constant – and that’s what made him so good for dancing,” said the pianist Billy Douglas (b. 1926).
Many of the people that I have spoken to were surprised to be told that Eddie had made two records, most believing that he had only made one, and it may be that the record produced by Beka was not issued in Britain, but was only issue abroad. It seems strange that Eddie’s family now know little about their father’s recording sessions. The only thing to be remembered was the fact that Eddie mentioned a red light in the studio and that he had to start playing when the light came on, and had to stop when the light went out. Adam Boyd believes that Eddie was accompanied to London by Algie Campbell (a fact confirmed by Eddie’s daughter, Betty) and says that when Eddie entered the studio he was somewhat flustered when the pianist asked Eddie for his sheet music!
On both records Eddie is described as playing a ‘Campbell Kelso Accordion’. This is probably a reference to Algie Campbell’s shop, Campbell having ordered a custom batch of accordions from an established manufacturer, or there is the less likely possibility that Eddie was playing an instrument manufactured by Campbell & Co of Glasgow. In the photograph taken c1947 Eddie can be seen playing a Paolo Soprani 3-row button-accordion. After he made his two records, Eddie began to play with one or two other local musicians, including Will Telford and a drummer by the name of Sandy Cairns, who lodged with Eddie and his family. “I’m awa’ tae the kirns”, is how Eddie expressed himself in those days – kirns being the local Berwickshire term for a barn dance. Elsewhere in Scotland the term is used to mean a harvest supper and dance organised, and paid for, by a farmer. By the mid ‘30s Eddie had formed a band which played together for about 15 years. The band was certainly in existence in 1936 when they played for the first ‘Kelso Laddie’s Week’. To begin with, Eddie would travel to dances on a bicycle, his accordion strapped across his back. Later, they traveled in two cars which frequently broke down. As the band’s popularity grew, many of their Selkirk supporters would follow them to dances elsewhere, and up to three 35-seat charabancs had to be hired to carry them to the dances.
During the war years Sandy Cairns, who by that time had become the band’s MC, was able to get extra petrol coupons because the band played for Army dances. Tommy Heard (b.1929), who joined the band as drummer in 1942 when he was 13 years old, remembers Eddie sitting in Sandy’s cars saying, “Cairns – keep he on the metal, Sandy!” Tommy first met Eddie when the latter would call to see his father, John Heard, who played the fiddle. The two would play together at the Heard home in Philiphaugh and the young Tommy would try to ‘accompany’ them by beating two knitting needles on their instrument cases. Eddie encouraged Tommy and, before long, he had the youngster playing in his band.
In the late 1940s ‘Quinn’s Band’, as it was then known, comprised John Elliot (piano accordion), who worked in the timber trade; Ernie Lamza (piano accordion), a Polish born mill worker; James Hardie (fiddle), a farmer from St Boswells; Billy Douglas (piano), a joiner from Selkirk; Tommy Heard (drums), a gamekeeper from Bowhill; and, of course, Eddie playing the 3-row accordion. Other occasional players would include; Tom Rutherford (second fiddle); Andrew Temple (drums), a cabinet maker from Selkirk who sat in for Tommy Heard while Tommy was away doing his National Service in the RAF as a bandsman; Walter Bateman (drums), a painter from Selkirk; and Andrew Stillie, yet another drummer from Selkirk. On average the band needed about 6 or 7 musicians. These were the days before amplification and this number of musicians was needed to make themselves heard above the sound of the dancing. One thing that distinguished the band from others was the fact that Ernie Lamza would sometimes leave the bandstand during a dance and walk between the dancers, playing to each couple in turn.
The band played for dances throughout the Borders and Eddie’s son Ronnie remembers them playing in such towns as Etterickbridge, Yarrowford, Kelso, Eccles, Hawick, Greenlaw, Duns, Coldstream, Birgham, Gordon, Selkirk, Denholm, Bonchester Bridgeand across the border in the Cheviot market town of Wooler. Tommy Heard remembers playing in most of these places, as well as Langholm, Swinton, Morebattle, Lilliesleaf, the Boston Hall near Tushielaw, Galashiels, Lindean, Cappercleugh, Peebles, Walkerburn, Clovenfords and Yetholm, although he cannot recall playing at any dances in Northumberland with Eddie’s band. According to Billy Douglas they would play ‘Saturday after Saturday’ at Lilliesleaf, at dances organised by the Selkirk Pigeon Club. On one occasion, the band traveled as far as the Isle of Skye, where they played for two or three days. Billy Douglas was aware that the dances differed – in steps and timing – in different parts of the Borders and that the band had to accommodate these differences in their playing.
Borders, in this case between Scotland and England, may be viewed as barriers which separate people and traditions. But they can also be seen as places where different cultures converge and cross. Writing in the booklet notes that accompany the Topic CD ‘Ranting and Reeling – Dance Music of the North of England’, Reg Hall has this to say about the influence of Scottish musicians on the local Northumberland repertoire; “In the early post-war years the demand for dancing was such that a man called McKinnon began to book some of the big names in Scottish music from over the Border for dance engagements. Bands like those of Bobby MacLeod, Jim Cameron, Smiling Jack Forsyth and Lindsay Ross and The Hawthorn Band played only the local repertory when they were in Northumberland – no Scottish Country dances at all. Most of them, however, had difficulty playing the right time and rhythm, and it was the job of the local MC to put them right. The only one among them who had a natural feel for local style was Jimmy Shand who, it is reputed, got it right every time. Local musicians in the Cheviot Ranters, impressed by his tunes for The Student Lancers, picked them up bit by bit over the course of three or four of his bookings. The visitors from over the border created great interest among the Northumbrian musicians, and Will Atkinson, for one, believes they did nothing but good for the music.”
The man “called McKinnon” was, in fact, Duncan McKinnon, a dance promoter from the Melrose area, who arranged a number of bookings for Eddie and the band. It is interesting to hear of Jimmy Shand playing in Northumberland. According to Ronnie, Shand met his father in 1947 when making his first visit to play in Selkirk’s Victoria Hall. Shand was clearly aware of Eddie – probably through his recordings – and on that occasion called Eddie the ‘Button Accordion champion of the Borders.’ High praise indeed, from a man who was later to be knighted for his contribution to Scottish dance music and accordion playing. Topic CD TSCD669, issued London, 1998 includes several Scottish tunes played by Northumbrian musicians, including ‘Farewell to the Creeks’, ‘The Hogmanay Jig’, ‘Elizabeth Adair’, ‘The Braemar Gathering’, John D. Burgess’, ‘Longueval’, ‘Kelso Accordion and Fiddle Club’ and ‘Highland Laddie’.
Edgar Dixon, a button accordion player who spent most of his working life on farms in the area around Lowick in north Northumberland, sees himself as “neither English, nor Scottish”, but, like many of his English neighbours, “a Borderer”. Edgar’s father, who was from the same area, played the fiddle and taught Edgar much of his early repertoire. Although Edgar was later heavily influenced by the music of Jimmy Shand, he believes that the “Border’s style” stretches from such Scottish towns as Selkirk and Kelso to as far south as Wooler, Alnwick and Rothbury. “Some places might have different steps – such as the ‘Wooler Hop’ – but the tunes were no problem, wherever you played.” Except, it seems, in one case. Edgar recalls that for the dance Drops of Brandy / Strip the Willow the Scottish musicians would play jigs, whereas musicians in Northumberland or Cumbria would play hornpipes. There was also the occasional local dance – such as The Morpeth Rant or the Cumberland Square Eight – but, generally speaking, dances were the same on both sides of the border.
About fifteen years ago Will Telford was asked what type of tunes he had played with Eddie. He replied, “Old fashioned ones…..Quadrilles, Eightsome Reels, Lancers and waltzes.” Will also described Eddie as being “a congenial man….who tolerated no nonsense.” Tommy Heard said that Eddie was “a tall man with a high pitched voice, who was very jovial anmd popular and easy to get on with”, while Billy Douglas felt that Eddie was, “more similar in temperament to Jimmy Shand”, an observation that other people have also made to me.
According to Tommy Heard, most of the band’s bookings were in village halls, where the piano would often be wildly out of tune. Occasionally, perhaps once or twice a year, the band would be booked to play on more formal occasions, such as Hunt Balls or Works Balls. Here the band would start with the dance The Grand March, followed by the Eightsome Reel and The Duke of Perth. Often on these occasions the dancers would know very few dances and the band would have to play the same dances over and over. Tommy recalls having to play The Duke of Perth at least three times at one such dance. On these occasions the players would each be paid 17/6d; although their normal wage was 15/- for playing on a Friday night in a village hall and 10/- for playing on a Saturday night.
When asked to describe a typical selection of dances that would be played in a village hall, Tommy said :
“Old Time Waltz
St Bernard’s Waltz
Old Gay Gordons
Military Two-Step
Eightsome Reel
Drops of Brandy
The Student Lancers
Jack Tar Two-Step
A Quickstep and a Foxtrot.”
Surprisingly, the band never seemed to rehearse together; although Jock Ellot and Eddie would spend a lot of time practising together in private. When a new tune was to be introduced, Billy Douglas would buy the sheet music, learn the tune, and then simply play it at a dance, the rest of the band simply following by ear until they had it memorized. Usually it took about two or three dances before all the members of the band had the tune firmly in their heads.
Billy Douglas said that the band would play three tunes for each dance. The tunes, however, were not played as a medley; rather the band would play the first tune for a few minutes and would then stop. The dancers would stay on the floor, and then begin dancing again when the band began to play the second tune. This tune would last for a few minutes until the band again stopped. Finally, the third tune would be played and, when completed, the couples would leave the dance floor. This was, of course, how Eddie recorded his four gramophone sides and may explain why he did not record a medley of tunes on each side. On the recordings Eddie was playing exactly the way that he normally played for dancers.
(This is interesting because Jimmy Shand, as well as being a first-rate musician, is credited with being the first bandleader to ask the dancers, particularly the Scottish Country Dancers, exactly what they were doing and how the music could be played to better suit the dance. Prior to that bands played for an indeterminate length of time – as long as they liked – and the dancers could be exhausted. Once Jimmy realised that the dancers preferred that each couple dance the figure twice, that there were normally four couples in a set and hence normally 8 by 32 bars was comfortable for everybody, dancers and band, with an Encore if required, then dancing took on a new dimension that suited every).
Often there would be a Waltz competition during the dances and Tommy Heard remembers that the tune ‘Rothesay Bay’ was used for this event. Billy Douglas, who continues to play the electronic keyboard today, remember many of the tunes and offered the following tune titles for dances that he could remember :
Old Time Waltz – Ho-Ro My nut Brown Maiden, The Skye Boat Song, Cruising Dopwn the River, Sunset on the St Lawrence, Coming Through the Rye
Quickstep – several Glenn Miller tunes such as In The Mood and also Whistering, Darktown Strutter’s Ball
Modern Waltz – Anniversary Waltz, Charmaine, I’ll be Your Sweetheart
Eightsome Reel – De’il Amang the Tailors, The Fairy Dance, Barren Rocks of Aden
Billy and his wife call the tune ‘Barren Rocks of Aden’, ‘We’re All Awa’ tae the Tattie Fields’ after the following verse which the band and dancers would sing during the dance:
We’re all awa’ tae the tattie fields,
Tae the tattie fields, tae the tattie fields,
We’re all awa’ tae the tattie fields,
To gaither in the tatties.
Spanish Waltz – danced by 2 couples in a square – The Mountains of Mourne
Gay Gordons – The Happy Wanderer, Scotland the Brave,
Slow Foxtrot – The White Cliffs of Dover, Silver Wings in the Moonlight, Love Letters in the Sand
Highland Schottische – The Keel Row, Oragne and Blue
Military Two-Step – Blaze Away, Washington Post
Drops o’ Brandy – Muckin’ o’ Geordie’s Byre or any other jig
Valeta Waltz – Believe Me of al Those Endearing Young Charms
The Lancers – according to Billy, this was only occasionally played and the dance had it’s own specific set of tunes.
It will be immediately apparent that most of the tunes played in the ‘40s were modern pieces, far removed from those that Eddie recorded earlier on his 78s. Billy said that most of the dancers were younger couples who were only happy if the band played the latest ‘hits’. In a way, this reminds me of the comments made by the Norfolk singer Walter Pardon (1914 – 1996) who said that most of his generation ridiculed the singing of old songs, preferring instead, the latest songs that they heard on the wireless. Sandy Cairns also organised ‘Yarrowford Concert Party’, which would sometimes accompany the band and would perform before the dance began. The Concert Party comprised about six or seven young girls, including Eddie’s daughters Betty and Margaret, who would sing, dance and perform short comic sketches to a pianist. Occasionally, Eddie would take over from the pianist. Jimmy Blake, a farm labourer who worked with Eddie, would sometime join the Party to sing songs such as ‘Red River Valley’ or ‘Huntingtower’.
Sometime around 1948 Eddie and the band traveled to Edinburgh to audition for a spot on the BBC radio programme ‘Scottish Dance Music’, a twice-weekly showcase of all that was best in local music. Sadly, they were turned down, a fact which seems to have deeply affected Eddie and his friends, and the band broke up in 1950. Eddie was not a member of the Musicians Union, and this may be why the BBC felt unable to employ the band. Occasionally, Eddie would play for a dance with one or two other musicians, including Will Starr, another button accordion champion. But his hands were becoming stiff and arthritic , following all his years of outdoor labouring. According to Stan Aird, another accordion player from Jedburgh, Eddie was still a “marvelous player”, even in his seventies, but he was aware that his fingers were not as supple as they used to be. Eddie would sometimes travel to Galashiels to play for a wedding and he was occasionally taken to a local Accordion Club which met at The Railway Inn at Newtown St Boswells. Here he played alongside other button accordion players such as Bobby Rae, who was from Ancrum, and Sandy Ramage, who may have been from Jedburgh, but it was clear by then that Eddie’s playing days were more or less over.
When he was 65 years old Eddie retired from work and settled with his wife in a Buccleugh Estates retirement cottage in the village of Eckford, just off the A698, between Kelso and Jedburgh. According to a neighbour, Doug Gotterson, Eddie would still play the accordion at home, and could play “all night long without repeating a tune.” Gradually though, his musical days came to an end and Eddie passed away on 20th February 1982. Had he made more records he would, I am sure, have become as famous as William Hannah or even Jimmy Shand for that matter. But that was not to be. At least now there is a face and a story to go with the name and, of course, there will always be that wonderful handful of unique recordings made by Eddie Quinn, the ‘Button Accordion Champion of the Borders’.
Acknowledgements: Peter Thomas, potter of Tweedmouth, first drew my attention to Eddie Quinn’s recordings and pointed out their importance, thus setting me on a new path of discovery. Record collectors Keith Chandler and Reg Hall offered much needed advice regarding Eddie’s recordings. In Kelso, John Crombie, of the Kelso Accordion Club sent me to Eckford, where Doug Gotterson and Charlie Robertson directed me onwards to Selkirk, in search of Eddie’s son, Ronnie. Thanks to Ronnie I was able to locate Tommy Heard (sadly now no longer with us) and Billy Douglas. All of these people were of tremendous help, as were Stan Aird, Adam Boyd, Edgar Dixon and Eddie’s daughter Betty. Without their enthusiasm I would not have been able to piece together Eddie’s story.
The Box and Fiddle would like to thank Mike Yates for allowing us to publish his article, and also The Musical Tradition Website (http://www.mustrad.org.uk), which is where it appears. You can hear sound samples of the recordings if you visit the website.
Webwatch
by Bill Young
www.
Take the Floor – Saturday Evenings 19.05 – 21.00 with Robbie Shepherd (repeated on Sunday’s 13.05 – 15.00)
5th Oct 2013 – A Take the Floor Special from the newly re-opened Tivoli Theatre in Aberdeen with Iain Cathcart SDB and guests Fiona Kennedy, Paul Anderson and Darren MacLean.
12th Oct 2013 – Frank Thomson SDB (Debut)
19th Oct 2013 – Craigieford Co-operative
26th Oct 2013 – Sandy Nixon SDB
CLUB DIARY
Aberdeen (Old Machar RBL) –
Alnwick (The Farrier’s Arms – Shilbottle) 9th Oct 2013 – Neil Barron Trio
Annan (St Andrew’s Social Club) - 13th Oct 2013 – The Garioch Blend
Arbroath (Viewfield Hotel) - 6th Oct 2013 – Richard Smith Trio
Balloch (St. Kessog’s Church Hall) – 20th Oct 2013 – Da Fustra
Banchory (Burnett Arms Hotel) –
Banff & District (Banff Springs Hotel) – 23rd Oct 2013 – 40th Anniversary – Da Fustra with Iain MacPhail
Beith & District (Anderson Hotel) –
Biggar (Municipal Hall) –
Blairgowrie (Moorfield Hotel) - 8th Oct 2013 – Lynn Gould Trio
Britannia (Arden House Hotel) -
Bromley (Trinity United Reform Church) -
Button Key (Windygates Institute) – 10th Oct 2013 – Steven Carcary & Friends
Campsie (Glazert Country House Hotel) - 1st Oct 2013 – Maggie Adamson & Brian Nicholson
Carlisle (St Margaret Mary Social Club) - 3rd Oct 2013 – David Vernon
Castle Douglas (Urr Valley Country House Hotel) – 15th Oct 2013 – Nicky McMichan Trio
Coalburn (Miners’ Welfare) - 11th Oct 2013 – Dance to Willie McFarlane 17th Oct 2013 – Da Fustra
Coldingham (Crosslaw Caravan Park) - 7th Oct 2013 – Robert Whitehead SDB
Crieff & District (Crieff Hotel) 3rd Oct 2013 – Leonard Brown Duo
Cults (Culter Sports & Social Club)
Dalriada (Argyll Inn, Lochgilphead) -
Dingwall (National Hotel) – 2nd Oct 2013 – Lomond Ceilidh Band
Dunblane (Victoria Hall) – 16th Oct 2013 – Craig Paton Trio
Dunfermline (Headwell Bowling Club) – 8th Oct 2013 – Kingdom Ceilidh Band
Dunoon & Cowal (McColl’s Hotel)
Duns (Royal British Legion Club, Langtongate) 21st Oct 2013 – Liam Stewart Trio
Ellon (Station Hotel) – 22nd Oct 2013 – Adin Graham SDB
Fintry (Fintry Sports Centre) – 28th Oct 2013 – Janet Graham SDB
Forfar (Plough Inn) - 27th Oct 2013 – David Kennedy SDB
Forres (Victoria Hotel) – 9th Oct 2013 – Wayne Robertson Trio
Fort William (Railway Club, Inverlochy) -
Galashiels (Abbotsford Arms Hotel) – 3rd Oct 2013 – Alan Gardiner Trio
Glendale (The Glendale Hall) -
Glenfarg (Lomond Hotel) - 2nd Oct 2013 – Lindsay Weir Trio
Glenrothes (Victoria Hall, Coaltown of Balgownie) -
Gretna (Athlitic & Social Club) -
Haddington (Railway Inn) - 20th Oct 2013 – Brandon McPhee Trio
Highland (Waterside Hotel) – 21st Oct 2013 – Pentlands Ceilidh Band
Inveraray (Argyll Hotel) -
Isle of Skye – (The Royal Hotel, Portree) - 3rd Oct 2013 – The Armour Brothers
Islesteps (The Embassy Hotel) – 1st Oct 2013 – Neil Barron SDB
Kelso (Cross Keys Hotel) – 30th Oct 2013 – Gordon Brown SDB
Kintore (Torryburn Arms Hotel) –
Ladybank (Ladybank Tavern) -
Lanark (Ravenstruther Hall) - 28th Oct 2013 – Maggie Adamson Duo
Langholm (Eskdale Hotel) – 9th Oct 2013 – Gary Blair
Lauder (Black Bull Hotel) -
Lewis & Harris (Stornoway Legion) - 3rd Oct 2013 – Sandy Ross Duo
Livingston (Hilcroft Hotel, Whitburn) 15th Oct 2013 – Lindsay Weir SDB
Lockerbie (Queen’s Hotel) - 29th Oct 2013 – Robert Whitehead Trio
Maine Valley (Ballymena) -
Mauchline (Harry Lyle Suite) - 15th Oct 2013 – Charlie Kirkpatrick Trio
Montrose (Park Hotel) –
Newburgh (Adbie Hall) -
Newmill-on-Teviot / Teviotdale (Buccleugh Bowling Club)
Newtongrange (Dean Tavern) –
North East (Royal British Legion, Keith) – 1st Oct 2013 – Brandon McPhee Trio
Northern (Lylehill Suite, Templepatrick, N.I.) - 2nd Oct 2013 – Francis Faulkner
Oban (The Argyllshire Gathering) – 3rd Oct 2013 – Dochie McCallum & Friends
Orkney (Ayre Hotel, Kirkwall) –
Peebles (Rugby Social Club) – 31st Oct 2013 – Dochie McCallum & Friends
Perth (Salutation Hotel) – 15th Oct 2013 – Brandon McPhee Trio
Premier NI (Chimney Corner Hotel) -
Reading Scottish Fiddlers (Willowbank Infant School, Woodley) -
Renfrew (Masonic Hall, Broadloan) – 8th Oct 2013 – Jim Gold Trio
Rothbury (Queen’s Head Hotel) - 3rd Oct 2013 – Gary Forrest C.B.
Scottish Accordion Music (Banchory) -
Seghill (Old Comrades Club) - 22nd Oct 2013 – Ray Carse
Selkirk (Angus O’Malley’s) -
Shetland (Shetland Hotel, Lerwick) -
Stonehouse (Stonehouse Violet Football Social Club) - 2nd Oct 2013 – West Telferton C.B.
Sutherland (Rogart Hall) -
Thornhill (Bowling Club Hall) - 8th Oct 2013 – Stuart McKeown Trio
Thurso (Pentland Hotel) – 7th Oct 2013 – Cast Ewe Ceilidh Band
Turriff (Commercial Hotel, Cuminestown) – 3rd Oct 2013 – Burns Brothers
Tynedale (Hexham Ex Service Club) – 17th Oct 2013 – Jim Gold Trio
Uist & Benbecula (C of S Hall, Griminish) -
West Barnes (West Barnes Inn) 10th Oct 2013 – James Coutts Trio
Wick (MacKay’s Hotel) – 15th Oct 2013 – Ewan Galloway Duo
THERE WERE CLUB REPORTS FROM :-
1. Annan
2. Arbroath
3. Blairgowrie
4. Button-Key
5. Campsie
6. Coldingham
7. Dingwall
8. Forfar
9. Gretna
10. Islesteps
11. Lewis & Harris
12. Northern
13. Orkney
14. Renfrew
15. Seghill
16. Turriff
17. Tynedale
CLUB DIRECTORY AS AT OCT 2013
(Clubs didn’t necessarily notify the Assoc when they closed so the following may not be entirely correct. Only the clubs submitting the reports or in the Club Diary above were definitely open.)
1. Aberdeen A&F Club (1975 – present)
2. Alnwick A&F Club (Aug 1975 – present)
3. Annan A&F Club (joined Assoc in 1996 but started 1985 – present)
4. Arbroath A&F Club (1991? – present)
5. Balloch A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per January 1978 issue – present)
6. Banchory A&F Club (1978 – present)
7. Banff & District A&F Club (Oct 1973 – present)
8. Beith & District A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per first edition – present)
9. Belford A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
10. Biggar A&F Club (Oct 1974 – present)
11. Blairgowrie A&F Club (
12. Britannia B&F Club ( joined 07-08 but much older
13. Bromley A&F Club (joined 95-96 – closed early 08-09)
14. Button Key A&F Club (
15. Campsie A&F Club (Nov 95 – present)
16. Carlisle A&F Club (joined Sept 1993 -
17. Castle Douglas A&F Club (c Sept 1980 – present)
18. Coalburn A&F Club (
19. Coldingham A&F Club (Nov 2008 -
20. Crathes (aka Scottish Accordion Music – Crathes) (Nov 1997 -
21. Crieff A&F Club (cSept 1981)
22. Cults A & F Club (
23. Dalriada A&F Club (Feb 1981)
24. Dingwall & District A&F Club (May 1979 – per first report)
25. Dunblane & District A&F Club (1971 – present)
26. Dunfermline & District A&F Club (1974 – per first edition)
27. Dunoon & Cowal A&F Club (
28. Duns A&F Club (formed 20th Sept 04 – present)
29. East Kilbride A&F Club (Sept 1980 – Closed 04/05)
30. Ellon A&F Club (
31. Fintry A&F Club (Dec 1972 – reformed Jan 1980 – present)
32. Forfar A&F Club (
33. Forres A&F Club (Jan 1978)
34. Fort William A&F Club (2009 -
35. Galashiels A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
36. Galston A&F Club (Oct 1969 – per first edition – closed March 2006)
37. Glendale Accordion Club (Jan 1973)
38. Glenfarg A&F Club (formed 1988 joined Assoc Mar 95 -
39. Glenrothes A&F Club (Mar 93?
40. Gretna A&F Club (1991) Known as North Cumbria A&F Club previously (originally called Gretna when started in June 1966 but later had to move to venues in the North of England and changed name. No breaks in the continuity of the Club)
41. Haddington A&F Club (formed Feb 2005 - )
42. Highland A&F Club (Inverness) (Nov 1973 – present)
43. Inveraray A&F Club (Feb 1991 - present)
44. Islesteps A&F Club (Jan 1981 – present – n.b. evolved from the original Dumfries Club)
45. Isle of Skye A&F Club (June 1983 – present)
46. Kelso A&F Club (May 1976 – present)
47. Ladybank A&F Club (joined Apr 98 but formed earlier
48. Lanark A&F Club (joined Sept 96 – closed March 2015)
49. Langholm A&F Club (Oct 1967 - present)
50. Lauder A&F Club (May 2010 -
51. Lewis & Harris A&F Club (Aug 1994 -
52. Livingston A&F Club (Sept 1973 – present)
53 Lockerbie A&F Club (Nov 1973 - present)
54 Maine Valley A&F Club (
55 Mauchline A&F Club (Sept 1983 - present)
56 Montrose A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
57 Newmill-on-Teviot (Hawick) (Formed late 1988 joined Assoc 1999 - closed March 2016)
58 Newtongrange A&F Club (joined Sept 1977 - present)
59. North East A&F Club aka Keith A&FC (Sept 1971 - present)
60. Northern A&F Club (Sept 2011 -
61. Oban A&F Club (Nov 1975 - present)
62. Orkney A&F Club (Mar 1978 - present)
63. Peebles A&F Club (26 Nov 1981 - present)
64. Perth & District A&F Club (Aug 1970 - present)
65. Premier A&F Club NI (April 1980)
66. Phoenix A&F Club, Ardrishaig (Dec 2004 -
67. Renfrew A&F Club (1984 -
68. Rothbury Accordion Club (7th Feb 1974) orig called Coquetdale
69. Selkirk A&F Club (
70. Shetland A&F Club (Sept 1978 - present)
71 Stonehouse A&F Club (first report June 05 -
72 Sutherland A&F Club (Nov 1982 -
73 Thornhill A&F Club (joined Oct 1983 – see Nov 83 edition – closed April 2014)
74 Thurso A&F Club (Oct 1981 - present)
75 Turriff A&F Club (1st April 1982 - present)
76 Tynedale A&F Club (Nov 1980 - present)
77 Uist & Benbecula A&F Club (Dec 2007 but formed 1994 -
78 West Barnes ( - present)
79 Wick A&F Club (Oct 1975 - present)
Not on official list at the start of the season (closed, did not renew membership or omitted in error?)
80. Araharacle & District A&F Club (cMay 1988)
81. Armadale A&F Club (Oct 1978? or 80) originally called Bathgate Club (for 2 months) Last meeting May 2010
82. Ayr A&F Club (Nov 1983 – per Nov 83 edition) Closed
83. Bonchester Accordion Club (Closed?)
84. Bridge of Allan (Walmer) A&F Club (Walmer Hotel, Bridge of Allan) (c March 1982)
85. Brigmill A&F Club (Oct 1990) Closed
86. Buchan A&F Club
87 Callander A&F Club (
88 Campbeltown & District A&F Club (c Dec 1980)
89 Cleland (cNov 1981 – March 1985) originally called Drumpellier A&F Club (for 2 months)
90 Club Accord
91 Coquetdale A&F Club (Feb 1974 or c1976/77 – 1981/2? – became Rothbury?)
92. Coupar Angus A&F Club (cSept 1978 - ?)
93. Cumnock A&F Club (October 1976 - forced to close cDec 1982 - see Jan 83 Editorial)
94. Denny & Dunipace A&F Club (Feb 1981)
95. Derwentside A&F Club
96. Dornoch A&F Club (first mention in directory 1986)
97. Dumfries Accordion Club (Oughtons) (April 1965 at the Hole in the Wa’)
98. Dunbar Cement Works A&F Club (Closed?)
99. Dundee & District A&F Club (January 1971 – 1995?)
100. Edinburgh A&F Club (Apr 1981) prev called Chrissie Leatham A&F Club (Oct 1980)
101. Falkirk A&F Club (Sept 1978 - )
102. Fort William A&F Club (21st Oct 1980 – per Dec 1980 B&F)
103. Gorebridge (cNov 1981) originally called Arniston A&F Club (for 2 months)
104. Greenhead Accordion Club (on the A69 between Brampton and Haltwistle)
105. Islay A&F Club (23 Apr 93 -
106. Kintore A&F Club (
107. Kirriemuir A&F Club (cSept 1981)
108. Lesmahagow A&F Club (Nov 1979 – closed May 2005)
109. M.A.F.I.A. (1966 – 1993?)
110. Monklands A&F Club (Nov 1978 – closed cApril 1983)
111. Morecambe A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
112. Muirhead A&F Club (Dec 1994 -
113. Mull A&F Club
114. Newcastleton Accordion Club
115. Newburgh A&F Club (joined 2002 but founded much earlier – closed April 2011 when venue closed)
116. New Cumnock A&F Club (cMarch 1979)
117. Newton St Boswells Accordion Club (17th Oct 1972 see Apr 1984 obituary for Angus Park)
118. Ormiston Miners’ Welfare Society A&F Club (closed April 1992 – per Sept Editorial)
119. Reading Scottish Fiddlers (cMarch 1997
120. Renfrew A&F Club (original club 1974/5 lapsed after a few years then again in 1984)
121. Stirling A&F Club (Oct 1991 – closed 20000/01?)
122. Straiton Accordion Club (c1968 – closed March 1979)
123. Stranraer & District Accordion Club (1974 – per first edition)
124. Torthorwald A&F Club (near Dumfries)
125. Tranent A&F Club
126. Vancouver
127. Walmer (Bridge of Allan) A&F Club
128. Wellbank A&F Club
129. Yarrow (prev known as Etterick & Yarrow) (Jan 1989 – closed 2001/02)
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