A Tribute to Iain McLachlan - Obituary
by Peter Shepheard
With the death of Iain McLachlan, at the age of 67, at his home in Creagorry, Benbecula, Scottish traditional music has lost one of its finest exponents. Known particularly for his masterly touch on the three-row Shand Morino button accordion, Iain also played pipes, fiddles and melodeon and had an extensive knowledge of traditional music. For over 40 years he had travelled by car, road and ferry, to play the accordion at ceilidhs and dances throughout the Highlands and Islands.
In the words of his great friend, fellow button box player and ceilidh band leader, Fergie MacDonald of Acharacle, “I’ve lost a truly great friend but Iain was also the greatest three-row button box player in the Highlands and Islands and I doubt if we will ever see his likes again”.
Iain never traveled much outside the Highlands but he achieved worldwide fame as composer of the beautiful melody ‘The Dark Island’. Originally written in 1958 as a pipe lament for a local doctor under the title “Dr Mackay’s Farewell to Creagorry’, the tune achieved widespread popularity after it was used three years later by the BBC as the theme music for the TV series, ‘The Dark Island’, filmed on Uist in 1963. Words were added by writer and producer, David Silver, and since then the tune has been recorded by more than a hundred different artistes and bands worldwide. No-one played the tune better than Iain himself, first as a pipe lament and then in waltz time.
Iain was brought up with the Gaelic language, song and Highland music and started playing fiddle and melodeon at the age of six. He picked up all his music by ear and like many of the older generation of traditional musicians he never learned to read or write music. There lay his strength, for Iain’s music was always ‘from the heart’ and in his memory he had an enormous wealth of tradition. He had several different versions of many of the old tunes and, when introducing a tune, he would often introduce the music as ‘an old melodeon reel’ or ‘a pipe setting’ or ‘a Skye setting’ of such and such a reel. His father played melodeon for local dances and Iain learned melodeon from him and, while still a boy, Iain used to sit at the knee of local retired fiddle teacher and dancing master, Donald MacPhee (on Nunton, Benbecula). One of the few Hebridean fiddlers of that era, and from him he learned many old fiddle tunes and the old style of playing them.
I first remember hearing Iain in a broadcast recording made by Fred Macaulay for the Gaelic Department of the BBC. This was of the great pipe tune ‘The Marchioness of Tullibardine’ played by Iain on accordion in duet with piper Roddie Macaulay of the Creagorry Hotel, playing chanter. It was such a remarkable sound I resolved there and then to try to bring Iain McLachlan to the Kinross Festival at which at that time I was involved in organizing. Highland fiddler, Aonghas Grant, remembers Iain at Kinross, “I recall a wonderful music session with Iain at one of the famous Kinross Festivals (in 1976) where he played about a dozen pipe marches off the cuff with the unbroken link-up that comes from playing at a thousand dances”.
Iain’s death is a sad loss to his family and friends, his wife, Mary Anne, four sons and two daughters and a great loss to the world of traditional music. All who have met and heard Iain over the years will have their own memories to cherish of a wonderful musician, a friend and a gentleman. My most recent memories are of some marvelous music sessions when he was a guest last year at the Auchtermuchty Festival – playing most of the day in a small bar in the Forrest Hills Hotel and later at a glorious session through the night into the small hours when he was knocking out some great reels and pipe tunes on the single row melodeon. His great music will live on through his recordings and in the repertoire of the many younger musicians influenced by him.
Box and Fiddle
April 1995
In the words of his great friend, fellow button box player and ceilidh band leader, Fergie MacDonald of Acharacle, “I’ve lost a truly great friend but Iain was also the greatest three-row button box player in the Highlands and Islands and I doubt if we will ever see his likes again”.
Iain never traveled much outside the Highlands but he achieved worldwide fame as composer of the beautiful melody ‘The Dark Island’. Originally written in 1958 as a pipe lament for a local doctor under the title “Dr Mackay’s Farewell to Creagorry’, the tune achieved widespread popularity after it was used three years later by the BBC as the theme music for the TV series, ‘The Dark Island’, filmed on Uist in 1963. Words were added by writer and producer, David Silver, and since then the tune has been recorded by more than a hundred different artistes and bands worldwide. No-one played the tune better than Iain himself, first as a pipe lament and then in waltz time.
Iain was brought up with the Gaelic language, song and Highland music and started playing fiddle and melodeon at the age of six. He picked up all his music by ear and like many of the older generation of traditional musicians he never learned to read or write music. There lay his strength, for Iain’s music was always ‘from the heart’ and in his memory he had an enormous wealth of tradition. He had several different versions of many of the old tunes and, when introducing a tune, he would often introduce the music as ‘an old melodeon reel’ or ‘a pipe setting’ or ‘a Skye setting’ of such and such a reel. His father played melodeon for local dances and Iain learned melodeon from him and, while still a boy, Iain used to sit at the knee of local retired fiddle teacher and dancing master, Donald MacPhee (on Nunton, Benbecula). One of the few Hebridean fiddlers of that era, and from him he learned many old fiddle tunes and the old style of playing them.
I first remember hearing Iain in a broadcast recording made by Fred Macaulay for the Gaelic Department of the BBC. This was of the great pipe tune ‘The Marchioness of Tullibardine’ played by Iain on accordion in duet with piper Roddie Macaulay of the Creagorry Hotel, playing chanter. It was such a remarkable sound I resolved there and then to try to bring Iain McLachlan to the Kinross Festival at which at that time I was involved in organizing. Highland fiddler, Aonghas Grant, remembers Iain at Kinross, “I recall a wonderful music session with Iain at one of the famous Kinross Festivals (in 1976) where he played about a dozen pipe marches off the cuff with the unbroken link-up that comes from playing at a thousand dances”.
Iain’s death is a sad loss to his family and friends, his wife, Mary Anne, four sons and two daughters and a great loss to the world of traditional music. All who have met and heard Iain over the years will have their own memories to cherish of a wonderful musician, a friend and a gentleman. My most recent memories are of some marvelous music sessions when he was a guest last year at the Auchtermuchty Festival – playing most of the day in a small bar in the Forrest Hills Hotel and later at a glorious session through the night into the small hours when he was knocking out some great reels and pipe tunes on the single row melodeon. His great music will live on through his recordings and in the repertoire of the many younger musicians influenced by him.
Box and Fiddle
April 1995