Box and Fiddle
Year 19 No 01
September 1995
Robin Ellis and his Scottish Dance Band
30 Years of Music
by Robin Ellis
Some 40 years ago, whilst still at school, I was introduced to Scottish Country Dancing and soon became an enthusiast of both the music and dance. Two years later the local Scottish Association decided to form a dancing class, they needed a pianist. I volunteered, and that was the start of my playing career.
In 1959 whilst at a Ball in London, I was introduced to Jimmy Shand and after a brief conversation I found myself being allowed to ‘sit in’ as pianist for a number of dances. This was a wonderful experience and then and there I decided that my ambition was to play this kind of music. In those days there were hardly any Scottish dance musicians in the South East of England so it seemed that the only solution was to somehow form my own band and to do that I had to teach myself to play the accordion. So this I did.
After some five years of playing solo I wondered just how to form a band. I met Philip bowman, an accordionist from Dundee, who had just moved into the area. This seemed to be the opportunity that I had been waiting for, so having persuaded two other friends of mine, Margaret Wall and Tom Furlong, to play piano and drums, the band was born. By then I had collected a modest repertoire of suitable music and so we were all set. Due to the almost complete absence of other bands the engagements came very quickly. However, after a couple of years both Margaret and Philip left the area and the band seemed doomed. But all was not lost, replacements were found and we were soon re-launched with Eric Eunson, an old school friend of mine, on piano and a young Frank Reid on second box. This continued for about 5 years, after which Frank left to form his own band but Eric remains as pianist to this day.
Despite the apparent lack of players, being so far from Scotland, fate seems to take a hand and we have always found musicians, when necessary, and have managed to keep the band going without a break.
Today, the band usually consists of myself, Catherine Lowe and John Stevens on accordions, Eric Eunson on piano and Tom Furlong on drums. Catherine had just learned to play the accordion when we met and was looking to put it to some use, so I introduced her to Scottish dance music. She has now become a great enthusiast, is an expert on second box playing and devises some excellent harmonies. Fortunately she can also play lead accordion and piano if needs be and so has become a great asset to the band. John Stevens hails from Australia where he played in Melbourne for some time. He has been with us now for some 13 years and is our authority on pipe marches. Tom and Eric have been with the band for 30 and 27 years respectively. As you can see things don’t change very much – than goodness!!
Most of our playing is for Scottish Country Dancing and it is indeed this style which is the most popular, there being hardly any ceilidh or old time dancing in the South East. There are numerous groups and societies so we seldom have to travel more than 25 miles to a function. Over the years we have also played in cities such as Paris, Brussels, Delft, Berlin and also in Spain, Belgium, Malta, Tunisia, Austria, Crete and Cyprus as well as the USA. These foreign trips are often quite hard work but do add a certain amount of excitement to the list of bookings.
This year the band celebrated its 30th Anniversary and so to mark the occasion a dance was held to which we invited some 150 guests representing the societies and groups for whom we regularly provide the music, together with many of the musicians who have played in the band over the years. This resulted in an 11 piece band, with 6 accordions, 2 fiddlers, piano, bass and drums – quite a handful!!
During those 30 years we have made two L.P.s and a cassette and hope to record some more one day soon but when I do not know. Like most bands the problem is finding the time to actually get down and do it. From the very early days I started composing, as is often the case simply to complete a set of tunes for a given dance, and to date have some 90 pieces of music almost all unpublished. Ah well, something else to do ‘one day’.
Scottish country Dancing seems to be as popular as ever and now that we have sufficient musicians in our area the future seems secure, so on to the 40th. Maybe I should start an Accordion & fiddle Club – now there’s a thought!!
30 Years of Music
by Robin Ellis
Some 40 years ago, whilst still at school, I was introduced to Scottish Country Dancing and soon became an enthusiast of both the music and dance. Two years later the local Scottish Association decided to form a dancing class, they needed a pianist. I volunteered, and that was the start of my playing career.
In 1959 whilst at a Ball in London, I was introduced to Jimmy Shand and after a brief conversation I found myself being allowed to ‘sit in’ as pianist for a number of dances. This was a wonderful experience and then and there I decided that my ambition was to play this kind of music. In those days there were hardly any Scottish dance musicians in the South East of England so it seemed that the only solution was to somehow form my own band and to do that I had to teach myself to play the accordion. So this I did.
After some five years of playing solo I wondered just how to form a band. I met Philip bowman, an accordionist from Dundee, who had just moved into the area. This seemed to be the opportunity that I had been waiting for, so having persuaded two other friends of mine, Margaret Wall and Tom Furlong, to play piano and drums, the band was born. By then I had collected a modest repertoire of suitable music and so we were all set. Due to the almost complete absence of other bands the engagements came very quickly. However, after a couple of years both Margaret and Philip left the area and the band seemed doomed. But all was not lost, replacements were found and we were soon re-launched with Eric Eunson, an old school friend of mine, on piano and a young Frank Reid on second box. This continued for about 5 years, after which Frank left to form his own band but Eric remains as pianist to this day.
Despite the apparent lack of players, being so far from Scotland, fate seems to take a hand and we have always found musicians, when necessary, and have managed to keep the band going without a break.
Today, the band usually consists of myself, Catherine Lowe and John Stevens on accordions, Eric Eunson on piano and Tom Furlong on drums. Catherine had just learned to play the accordion when we met and was looking to put it to some use, so I introduced her to Scottish dance music. She has now become a great enthusiast, is an expert on second box playing and devises some excellent harmonies. Fortunately she can also play lead accordion and piano if needs be and so has become a great asset to the band. John Stevens hails from Australia where he played in Melbourne for some time. He has been with us now for some 13 years and is our authority on pipe marches. Tom and Eric have been with the band for 30 and 27 years respectively. As you can see things don’t change very much – than goodness!!
Most of our playing is for Scottish Country Dancing and it is indeed this style which is the most popular, there being hardly any ceilidh or old time dancing in the South East. There are numerous groups and societies so we seldom have to travel more than 25 miles to a function. Over the years we have also played in cities such as Paris, Brussels, Delft, Berlin and also in Spain, Belgium, Malta, Tunisia, Austria, Crete and Cyprus as well as the USA. These foreign trips are often quite hard work but do add a certain amount of excitement to the list of bookings.
This year the band celebrated its 30th Anniversary and so to mark the occasion a dance was held to which we invited some 150 guests representing the societies and groups for whom we regularly provide the music, together with many of the musicians who have played in the band over the years. This resulted in an 11 piece band, with 6 accordions, 2 fiddlers, piano, bass and drums – quite a handful!!
During those 30 years we have made two L.P.s and a cassette and hope to record some more one day soon but when I do not know. Like most bands the problem is finding the time to actually get down and do it. From the very early days I started composing, as is often the case simply to complete a set of tunes for a given dance, and to date have some 90 pieces of music almost all unpublished. Ah well, something else to do ‘one day’.
Scottish country Dancing seems to be as popular as ever and now that we have sufficient musicians in our area the future seems secure, so on to the 40th. Maybe I should start an Accordion & fiddle Club – now there’s a thought!!