Box and Fiddle
Year 23 No 05
February 2000
Price £1
32 Page Magazine
7 month subscription £10.00
Editor – Charlie Todd, 63 Station Road, Thankerton, Biggar, ML12 6NZ
B&F Treasurer – Alan Gardiner, Cocklaw Farm, Elsrickle, Biggar.
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
Having missed the Editorial for a couple of months can I firstly backtrack to thank Freeland Barbour and Nicol McLaren for their co-operation and assistance with the lead articles for the previous couple of issues.
Like everyone else I was stunned by the sudden and unexpected death, on Tuesday, 7th December, of our past Chairman of the Association, Jimmy Blue. In the Box and Fiddle we sometimes refer to the period from the late forties into the seventies as the heyday of Scottish dance music and without a doubt Jimmy, as one of the finest exponents of the 3-row British chromatic and a member of Ian Powrie’s Band as well as a bandleader in his own right, was one of that elite group who actually brought about the situation. He will be sadly missed by all but his music will live on in his many recordings and his compositions as an example for future generations. We extend our deepest sympathy to Joan and the family.
The Millennium has come and gone in a blaze of what is nowadays termed ‘hype’ or in this case more accurately ‘over-hype’. December will be remembered by a great many bands as the month of cancellations as it finally dawned on hotel managers all over the country that the general public weren’t going to pay out a small fortune for the pleasure of celebrating Hogmanay, albeit a rather unique one. Never mind, it should be back to business as usual next time.
On a more domestic matter, while the circulation of the B&F creeps ever upwards we are, as ever, in need of interesting articles. Adverts this month have taken a bit of a downturn so if you know of anyone who would benefit from our services please let them (and me) know.
Charlie Todd
Jimmy Blue – Scottish Accordionist & Bandleader
(3rd September, 1929 – 7th December, 1999
by Jack Cooper
Forgandenny Village Church in Perthshire was packed for the funeral service of Jimmy Blue which was relayed to the further 200 standing outside in the pouring rain. Robbie Shepherd of BBC Scotland read a poem written by Andy Stewart for Jimmy some years ago, a most appropriate tribute, and Jimmy’s wife, Joan, played the organ for the ceremony, concluding with ‘The Dark Island’, the haunting melody which he made known all over the world.
Born in Newton Mearns, Jimmy was 6 months old when his family moved to Rosneath Castle where his father was a gardener for Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.
Jimmy was 14 when he bought his first accordion for £6, a Madella piano accordion. He had no formal tuition but having bought instruction booklets ‘The Mathis Method’ he labouriously worked at learning to play the box, even learning how to read and write music. He was enthralled by the playing of Will Starr and Jimmy Shand on the ‘wireless’ and discovered from neighbours, the Dalrymple family, that the magic sound was produced from a British Chromatic. The piano accordion was quickly traded in. Incidentally, one of the neighbouring family of box players was Bob Dalrymple, 5-row player, who performed many times at Fintry Accordion Club and others in that area and one of whose pupils was Gordon Shand.
In 1946 Jimmy acquired a 2-row 36 bass L’Organola and went back to the drawing board, this time with a ‘Willie Hannah’ tutor, finally graduating to a 3-row. He joined the Dalrymple family band and had his first experiences of playing at ‘gigs’. Jimmy had left school at 13 and, while helping his father who was now running his own market garden, he also worked at Rahane, a hill farm looking down on the Gareloch. He had many stories of the war years when the Americans were based close by. The U.S. boys were generous to the locals and Jimmy’s mother, embarrassed by a surfeit of butter when other families were rationed to 2 ounces per week, buried pounds of it in their garden! He remembered clearly standing outside their home looking with terror towards Greenock and Gourock, watching the planes and glow in the sky and hearing the terrible noise as Clydebank was bombed. Many of the stories he related were about his father’s Home Guard experiences – or L.D.V. as they were known in the early days. This stood for Local Defence Volunteers but was popularly known as ‘Look, Dook and Vanish’!
Meanwhile, Jimmy was working with horses for the Macintyre family. He loved his horses but was desperate to get into tractors and in the late forties the family decided on a move. Jimmy pressed very hard for Perthshire as this was where the music was – the Powrie Band, the Hawthorne, Adam Rennie, and Shand was in Fife, the next County! So in 1949 the family moved to a farm in Dunning and very soon Jimmy was playing with Hamish McLaren’s Band, from Auchterarder. It was through a two-band dance there that Jimmy met piano-accordionist, Mickie Ainsworth, and remarkably soon, as accordion duettists, they were broadcasting and making records. Their ‘The High Level’ still stands as one of the best recordings of this popular tune. Broadcasts with the BBC included spots in ‘Children’s Hour’, ‘Midday Music Hall’ and even ‘Starlight Serenade’ as well as many regular slots in ‘Scottish Magazine’, an overseas programme for exiled Scots.
Jimmy was the first All Scotland Champion in Bill Wilkie’s Accordion Festival in 1950, playing ‘Cameron Highlanders’, ’Fiddler’s Joy’ and ‘The Mason’s Apron’ – how often he compared his winning set with the finger numbing-technology and difficulty of the sets played by competitors at the Festivals he was to adjudicate many years later. Jimmy regained the cupin 1952, the year he became engaged to the pianist in Bill Wilkie’s Accordion Orchestra, Joan McNeill, whom he had met when accompanying Mickie to band practices. In September of that year Jimmy and Joan were asked to play at Ian Powrie’s wedding – playing at a Powrie wedding !!! Rehearsals and nerves went hand in hand but the performance, which must have been an informal audition, must have pleased because when Bill Powrie went to do his National Service in December of that year, Jimmy was invited to join Ian’s well known band. Ian and Jimmy were both working on farms, one on each side of the Earn Valley, while travelling to play at dances all over the country and broadcasting as often as once a month.
Then came television when ‘The Kilt is My Delight’ was enjoyed by all who had television sets. Having married Joan in 1955, Jimmy was now working at Netherholm Farm as a tractor driver, his father looking after the dairy. Many a morning he got home from a dance in time, to quote Norrie Williams in a previous issue, “to ca’in the neep chopper wi’ dinner suit and bow tie”.
In 1961 Andy Stewart, whose ‘Scottish soldier’ had topped the ‘Hit Parade’, was offered a summer-season of 19 weeks at Glasgow Empire and asked Ian Powrie’s Band to take part in the show. After much heart-searching – and a lot of encouragement from Joan – the decision was taken to turn professional, a risky business as there were now two young daughters to provide for. However, with dances and stage shows during the winter and an equally successful Empire season in 1962, the wolf was kept from the door. In 1963 the Andy Stewart Show with the Ian Powrie Band took off for Australia and New Zealand for thirteen weeks. The former tractorman was now becoming a world traveller and life had changed considerably. No more getting up on a frosty morning to shaw neeps or gather stones. The ‘year of the typhoid’, 1964, saw the company in H.M. Theatre, Aberdeen, packing in the crowds despite the fear of an epidemic. Andy’s story at that time was that “….only in Aberdeen could you have 264 cases of typhoid out of a tin of corned beef – because only Aberdonians could get 264 slices out of one tin!” The audiences loved it. In 1966 another tour took the company back to New Zealand and Australia and, on their return, towards the end of another successful Aberdeen season, Ian Powrie broke the news that he was emigrating to set up a business with Andy’s manager, Max Kay, in Australia. Jimmy came home from Aberdeen that night in a state of shock – but, after a completely sleepless night, by morning Joan had convinced him that he should take over the band and try to make it under his own name. This he did and very successfully too, continuing to broadcast and making several LPs.
As Andy Stewart’s backing band, he toured Ireland, Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia, playing solo in the Carnagie Hall and in the Sydney Stadium and Opera House. The Band took part in many television programmes, a Grampian series and, even more successfully, ‘Scotch Corner’ produced by S.T.V. which went out on nationwide television with the band accompanying guest artistes such as Dana, Rolf Harris, Lulu, George Hamilton IV, Julie Felix and many others. Rolf Harris, who played piano accordion himself, was fascinated by the button-box and Jimmy became the proud possessor of a personal caricature of himself signed by the Australian entertainer.
Just before a long summer season in Blackpool, the Jimmy Blue Band had a wonderful experience when they took part in the film ‘Country Dance’ starring Peter O’Toole, Susannah Your and Brian Blessed. The music was recorded at Shepperton Studios in London and filming was done in Co. Wicklow. The film is shown often on Sky Television under the name ‘Brotherly Love’. During the dance in the film, the band played Jimmy’s tune ‘Bonnie Lass of Scotland’ (for which Andy had written words) and, when attending the premiere of the film at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Joan and Jimmy got a great thrill when they heard an orchestral arrangement of his tune being played the morning after ‘the dance’. Jimmy and Andy co-operated on many songs, Andy giving him the words and Jimmy sitting at the piano (yes, the piano) working out tunes to suit the words. Among his favourites were ‘The Glens of Angus’ and ‘Little Girl’.
In 1977, with both daughters now married, he decided he had had enough of hotel rooms throughout the world and took on a season playing solo at ‘Pipers’, a tourist spot in Lothian Road, Edinburgh. In November of that year he became head gardener / groundsman at Kilgraston, an independent girls’ boarding school in Bridge of Earn where Joan had been Secretary since 1970. When he took over, the walled garden grew nothing but turnips, rhubarb and weeds and the grounds were sadly overgrown. Jimmy set to and not only made the lawns and parklands beautiful, but made the walled garden so productive of flowers, fruit and vegetables that, as well as supplying the school, he held a shop every week to which the villagers came to buy their produce. Jimmy got the greatest satidfaction out of making Kilgraston beautiful and did this for 15 years. However, having taken on this job, he was re-engaged at ‘Pipers’ for the 1978 season. He worked at Kilgraston during the day, came home, had dinner, slept, bathed and set off for Edinburgh SEVEN NIGHTS PER WEEK for thirty weeks! No wonder he eventually had hard surgery! Jimmy had always pushed himself to the limits. One year, he and the band, with Andy, did two shows at Dundee Palace, then piled into the Band bus – yes, Andy as well – and Jimmy drove to London where they rehearsed at the Albert Hall and performed in the ‘The Duncan Macrae Memorial Show’. Right after the show Jimmy was behind the wheel again and drove straight back to Dundee where they did another two shows before Jimmy got home to bed!
After another short season in ‘Pipers’ in 1979, Jimmy was ‘back on the road’ playing at dances with Joan on piano, Angus Fitchet on fiddle and Jackie Cooper on drums. What great nights they were, meeting so many enthusiastic and lovely people. In 1970 having ‘guested’ at Gretna Accordion Club, he suggested starting one in Perth which was duly done with great success. Other Clubs started up and, having had a chat with Bobby Harvie who suggested Clubs should ‘pool’ guest artistes, Jimmy came up with the idea of forming an Association of Accordion and Fiddle Clubs. This Association went from strength to strength as did the N.A.A.F.C. Festival, now based at Musselburgh. Jimmy was, for twenty years, Chairman of the N.A.A.F.C., a movement which honoured him in 1990, presenting him with a portrait of himself and his wife, who, he claimed, had been the biggest asset in his career.
Jimmy thoroughly enjoyed adjudicating at Festivals and competitions and was almost most encouraging towards young players. He especially enjoyed the Perth Festival in October this year when he and John Carmichael had a great day’s adjudicating together – and a great day of exchanging stories as well. Jimmy was a great observer of character and his friends and family loved to listen to his impressions and humourous anecdotes about the people he had worked with or met in his travels. In spite of travelling so much and meeting so many people, Jimmy never really got over his shyness and always found it an ordeal meeting strangers, his rather abrupt manner covering his reserve. He was at his happiest with long-standing bosom friends, and holidays in Mull with Joan, Bobby and Agnes Crowe and, sometimes, Jackie Cooper, were his idea of bliss – no sun-kissed beaches for him!
Since a heart by-pass operation in 1994, although still playing occasionally, he was never happier than in his large garden which, in the summer, was transformed into a 9-hole putting green on a lawn which Gleneagles would have envied!
On his 70th birthday in September, a beautiful sunny day, accordionists, drummers, pipers and other assorted musician friends joined in a wonderful ‘hooley’ which went on until after dark – one of many memorable musical barbecues and parties held at Forgandenny. Jimmy was proud of his two daughters, Virginia and Sandra, and his sons-in-law and, of course, his four grandchildren, Katy, Rhoda, Murray and Polly, now 19, 18, 16 and 15. He would have been amazed – and embarrassed had he known of the tributes and hundreds of cards and letters sent on his passing.
One appropriate message to Joan read – “The song has ended but the melody lingers on”.
A Tribute to Jimmy Blue
by Alan Kindness, Leader of the Glendaruel SDB
I first met Jimmy in 1949 when he came with his family to work on Rossie Farm, Dunning, which marched with Broadleys Farm where I stayed. I was totally captivated by Jimmy’s playing of this strange accordion with buttons at both ends as up to that time I had only ever seen a piano key type.
From an early age I had always been keen on the accordion and hearing Jimmy play only served to increase my enthusiasm. After a spell at the ‘tattie lifting’ I purchased my first box – a 2 row, 8 bass Cassalli – shoulder straps, no thumb strap. Taking it along to Jimmy for his ‘seal of approval’ I was amazed to find that he had some difficulty with it.
Most button box players of the era started on the 2 row B/C model i.e. the outer and middle rows of the standard 3-row. This contraption I had bought was a C / C# model i.e. the middle and inside rows of the standard 3-row.
Jimmy’s sentiments were to ‘get rid of it’ but simple economics decreed that I stick with it and learn a ‘backside foremost’ style of fingering. Jimmy had a more colourful expression which included the word ‘elbow’. At Accordion Clubs and the like he frequently teased me about my style of fingering adding that he ‘had never quite fathomed out how it worked’.
One of my earliest memories of Jimmy is seeing him dancing round the living room in their house at Rossie while at the same time playing the concertina (I wonder how many folk knew that Jimmy could play this instrument) along with a band playing Scottish dance music ob the wireless (it wasn’t a radio in 1949/50).
I have fond memories too of sitting on the mudguard of his tractor (I would be 13/14 years of age at the time) and him telling me about the workings of the button box. On leaving school at age 15 years I went off to sea with the Merchant Navy but when home on leave I always made a point of visiting Jimmy and I remember the occasion when he opened the case to show me this wonderful new accordion he had just purchased – it was, of course, one of the original batch of Shand Morino’s which had come into the country. It was a beauty and it immediately became my ambition to own such a box. It took several more years for that ambition to be realised. By this time, of course, Jimmy was courting Joan McNeil and I well remember receiving a letter in Port Said from my mother enclosing a newspaper cutting with the photo of their wedding – I still have that photograph 44 years on.
At that time I was serving on a passenger ship and I was told by the ship’s Captain that I would be expected to play for an eightsome reel at the ‘Captain’s Party’ – I hadn’t a clue! In panic I phoned Jimmy from Liverpool Docks to ask ‘how many bars in an eightsome reel?’ Jimmy’s response was ‘Christ I’ve nae idea – phone me back in 10 minutes and I’ll have worked it out’. I did and he gave me the answer adding ‘if they’ve not finished, keep playing until they start birling’ – sound advice indeed which was to come in useful on many future occasions.
In 1956 I suffered a broken leg and while rehabilitating at Bridge of Earn Hospital I was invited to Forgandenny by Jimmy and Joan for ‘tea and a tune’. I had never played alongside a pianist before and to have a tune with Joan was pure magic and made me even more determined to play in a band.
A particular memory of that night was Jimmy, running down the Kinnaird Road carrying my box ands shouting to the bus driver to ‘wait, there’s a lame bugger coming’ and here I was hirpling along with 2 sticks trying vainly to keep up!! More recently my wife, Gladys, made a home movie of ‘This Is Your Life’ for my 60th birthday and I was gobsmacked when Jimmy appeared on this playing specially for me. I am sure that there cannot be many such recordings of Jimmy doing the honours in this way.
For 50 years Jimmy has been my inspiration, idol if you like. He played tunes I could only dream of playing. I know that there are many fine, talented button box players but for me Jimmy was the undisputed ‘King of the Button Box’. Saturday, 11th December 1999 in Forgandenny Churchyard has to be one of my saddest days.
Fyvie Castle
by Leila Powrie
The classic black writing on the card, showing a muted picture of Fyvie Castle, read, in part, Robert Lovie, requests the company of Mr and Mrs Ian Powrie to his 30th birthday party at Fyvie Castle 6 p.m. – Carriages 12.30 p.m. Fyvie Castle, over 900 years old, is kept in great order by the National Trust for Scotland. A visit to this prestigious building has long been in my mind, so I was doubly excited at the invitation. Our arrival at Fyvie was heralded by the bagpipes playing ‘The Bonnie Lass o’ Fyvie’. Into the entrance hall we were greeted by Robert and although I would have liked to have lingered to admire the carving above the fireplace, we were ushered, by a lovely young lady, up the Great Stone Wheel Staircase, 10 ft wide, where pictures of Mary Queen of Scots and James Stuart, the Old Pretender, were hanging, also enough shining suits of armour dating back to the 16th Century to clad the whole party.
In the drawing room we were given a choice of malt or champagne. Holding my champagne I was not aware of the illustrious guests filling the room. I was too busy looking at dozens of portraits by famous names such as Lawrence, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney, Raeburn and Hohner. Through to the music room where French Tapestries almost covered the walls. Methinks, acoustics in here will be dreadful. Not so. The sound was just wonderful. Rows of blue velvet and gilt chairs faced the ‘stage’ end of the floor. Above, the organ pipes were arranged and encased in a frame of beautifully carved wood. I’m left wondering where the organ is situated. There was a heavily carved wooden balustrade hiding a stair leading down to what I thought would be the artists room. Maybe the organ is downstairs. Right on time the concert began. Robert’s former Domini, McIan Rankin, opened the proceedings, and introduced our first ensemble. The musicians were Paul Anderson, John Bone, Alex Green, Esma Shepherd, and Ian Powrie. We sat in our reserved seats with a feeling of grandeur when the breathless anticipatory silence was broken by Ian Powrie saying ‘Jist talk amongst yersels, ‘til I get ready’. Everyone laughed and relaxed, so setting the seal for the evenings enjoyment. MC Domini had obviously done his homework when he expertly but couthily introduced each item. Robbie Shepherd started off fine then the fire alarm sounded, everyone laughed but sat still. Why is it that we never react with conviction to a fire alarm? After a minute it stopped.
I found it incredible that Robbie started exactly from where he had been interrupted. Esma would have him go back to the beginning, just in case we had missed the gist of the song. I think a duet from Robbie and Esma is long overdue. I always enjoy Robbie’s spot ; so infectious.
Alex Green was next on the programme. I think he has a wee electric motor inside that penny whistle. His playing of ‘The Music of Spey’ was quite spellbinding considering it was written for the fiddle, he played it with complete sensory knowledge of the music. He was accompanied by Esma who does it with such empathy.
Jock Duncan sang his bothy ballads in the real traditional style making his own melodic accompaniment through nasal control. My favourite ‘The Buchan Bobby’ was included in his trilogy.
I am a devotee of Paul Anderson’s playing and was delighted that he was able to be on the programme. Paul played as his first tune ‘Fyvie Castle’. In the second bar, Margaret Smith who accompanied him, played a single A flat with such ghostly feeling that I felt a real mixture of emotions. Scott Skinner must surely have felt the presence of Fyvie ghost ‘The Green Lady’ especially at the beginning of the second measure. Right next to me the great stone fireplace gave a sudden roar. I burst into tears. I composed myself when Paul finished with some catchy reels. It is great to know that our traditional music is in such safe young hands.
Debbie Stuart, the lovely opera singer from Dundee, sang songs from Carmen, Cole Porter and Shand. I now imagined various singers of the same calibre being brought to Fyvie to entertain Royalty. My doubts about the acoustics were completely dispelled with Debbie’s beautiful, melodious voice ringing round the room. She surprised Robert by asking him to join her in a duet. Simply beautiful.
Robert’s nephew, 7 year old Kyle, looking very smart in kilt outfit, sat on the edge of the stage his feet barely touching the floor. His Hohner 48 bass piano accordion strapped on, head down he played ‘The Dark Island’ with an amazing amount of feeling for one so young. Then he played a set of marches. We’ll hear more of Kyle in 10 years time. John Bone, his tutor, accompanied him on the piano in such a sensitive and pleasant manner detracting nothing from the little boy’s star turn.
MC Domini kept the flow going and when he spoke glowingly about Kyle asking for another ovation the applause nearly raised the roof of the castle.
All this time Robert sat surrounded by his charmingly couthy mum Alison, dad Bob, sister Avril and extended family, all bonnie and friendly as the North Easterners are wont to be.
Robert is a real ‘tour de force’ at managing a team of entertainers and usually has everything planned to the minute. Not this night. The entertainers were enjoying themselves and I hope that Robert was enjoying the performances and not being too worried about being over the time planned.
There was even time to have a look at the spectacular ceiling with its heraldic coats-of-arms and so much more to it than is written down. In days of yore all the rich embellishments in the plasterwork had a reason behind them. Such as Granny on her last legs wanting a flow of scrolls resembling her hair : the swag of a diaper from the newest arrival in the family. It was all there and I reveled in it, wishing I had more time.
At one point, as I sat admiring the surroundings I could hear the chatter from the guests. My goodness, I thought I understood a bit of the Doric but this must surely be another language. It sounded completely foreign I had a wee laugh. They are lovely folk.
Local lad John Bone was next on the programme, he is a family friend of the Lovie’s and tutor to a goodly number of pupils in Aberdeenshire. He too had a Hohner, of course a great deal bigger than Kyle’s was. I think John’s was a Morino IV. Resplendent in a kilt and plaid he fairly looked the part in this magnificent room. He played the set of tunes which was his entry for the Perth Festival and it was very evident why he took home the Championship. He finished with ‘The Carnival of Venice’, just great.
Frank Armstrong had written a great poem for Robert, giving us all an insight to his character, although, I do think his bit about meanness was just poetic licence. It was definitely not true, obvious from the fact that there we were sitting in this splendid hall lapping up his hospitality.
Ian Powrie, master of ad lib, asked the audience to wait until he got his horse and cairt yokit. He obviously felt the atmosphere of the castle when he played Bovaglies Plaid and other J. Scott Skinner tunes. The cairt in Ian’s ad lib was George Donald whose fondness for Ian shows through in true kindred spirit. John bone joined them to play Ian’s new composition ‘Robert Lovie’s 30th Birthday’. A fine tune for a fine man.
Last on the programme was George Donald. What a master of timing. He played and sang his own pawky songs with such fun. A very fitting end to a wonderful concert.
However, it was not really the end as the meenister who had been asked to thank the artistes, was an act in himself. He was straight from one of Alister Sim’s black and white movies. A real character our Re. Charles Birnie.
Time for food. Halfway down the Great Staircase we were into the Dining Room for our meal. Harry, the chef did not show any annoyance in the fact that we were 1½ hours late. The meal was SUPERB, served in most unusual shell-shaped pedestal dishes. 10 choices of main dish and the most delicious lemon meringue pie I have ever tasted, profiteroles, fruit salad, etc, etc.
M-mmmm
Then following the sound of the bagpipes, played by David Low, we were once again outside going towards the Racquet Court. Looking back at the floodlit Fyvie Castle, I again felt the emotions surfacing. What on all the Earth was wrong with me? The nearer we got to the Racquet Court the pipes sounds faded into the sound of Hebbie Gray and his Band. The court was beautifully decorated. Tables around the room were covered with white linen tablecloths each one supporting a three candled silver candelabra on which an arrangement of greenery and daffodils was entwined. All done by the Lovie family friend, Kitty Reid. The bar was at the door. So amid more champagne and malts we danced our way down the court to the table. I was particularly pleased with Hebbie on sax for the modern dancing. Ian Cruickshanks was on accordion.
I know now why Robert did not wear the kilt. At the end of the night’s jollification Robert was thrown in the air quite a few times by some of the lads. After happy goodnights to friends and a special thank you and goodnight to Robert, we went back through the castle to our carriages at the front. We piled into our Machine without a Horse – Kitty’s Toyota.
Next day I was still confused about my emotions the night before but dismissed it as part of the party mood. However, later in the day Kitty gave me a Fyvie Castle brochure and I was completely dumbfounded when I read that the famous Fyvie ghost’s name was Lilias Drummond. My family name is Drummond and my inherited name is Lilias. No wonder I felt her presence. She can be assured that a great night was had by all at Robert Lovie’s 30th Birthday Party.
The Stanley Ceilidh – November 1999
by Bill Black
Here we are once again reflecting on the annual ‘Stanley Ceilidh’, the last one of this century and what a way to end the 20th century. This, of course, was the 21st year of the event and what a year to remember, the general consensus seemed to be that this year was the best one ever. As the years go by we always seem to remark that we will never improve on the ceilidh just past but we are normally always proved wrong and I must agree with the majority who have already made it known that the 1999 ceilidh most definitely surpassed all previous events.
As with every function held there are always slight hiccups, but where there is a will these are soon brushed aside and the main purpose of the event takes centre stage. The main purpose of our ‘Stanley Ceilidh’, of course, is for all our supporters to have a really brilliant weekend and at the same time some young people, who are much less fortunate than we are, can benefit to some extent. This year the money raised went to the New School Butterstone which caters for children with severe learning difficulties and after Anne and I visited the School to present the money we realised how much hard work and dedication goes into catering for these children and also the vast amount of money required to purchase all the specialist equipment required to satisfy their needs, and in that respect we must sincerely thank you, the supporters of the ‘Stanley Ceilidh’ for your outstanding generosity which enabled us to hand over a cheque for the marvelous sum of £2,500 to the school.
A special mention must be made of certain individuals whose efforts and generosity really helped to enhance the amount of money collected. First of all a very sincere thank you must go to Dave Millward from Kilmelford in Argyllshire who has been a very staunch supporter of the ceilidh for a long time. Dave did a sponsored walk over the Alps and raised the fantastic sum of £526. A tremendous effort and certainly one which should not go unnoticed. Secondly a very big thank you must go to Mabel Gray who once again presented us with a fantastic Christmas Hamper which was the sole prize put up for raffle on the Friday night and it raised the amazing sum of £370. Thank you Mabel, most sincerely. Thirdly I must give my sincere thanks to all those who gave so generously to the raffle for the Saturday night. They are too numerous to mention but we ended up with a total of 54 prizes which created a really superb display.
Next I must mention all the very willing helpers who ‘buckler to’ over the weekend and took a great load off my shoulders. Suzanne Croy, Shirlry Campbell and Dave Millward who took control of selling raffle tickets and making the half time collection and did an excellent job. Also Ian Gray and his wife from Dumfries for all the help at home over the weekend with preparing of food and washing up and for taking charge of admissions at the door on Saturday night which was a real mammoth task.
Next I would like to express a big thank you to all the supporters of the ‘Stanley Ceilidh’ who came from all over Scotland, parts of England and Northern Ireland just to be part of this unbelievable weekend of fantastic Scottish music.
Last but not least, no words would be adequate to express my gratitude to all the musicians who came from all corners of the country to be part of this carnival of music and to give so much pleasure to so many people. A special thanks to all the backing musicians who gave of their talents so willingly to support all the front line players.
Thanks also to the management and staff of the Tayside Hotel for their ready co-operation over the weekend.
What can be said about this band from the Shetland Isles who played at the Saturday night dance. Alan Nicolson and his band were absolutely superb. I’ve had it said to me on a number of occasions since the ceilidh that this surely must be the greatest Scottsh band sound to come out of the Shetland Isles. The band consisted of Alan Nicolson on accordion, Margaret Scollay on keyboard, Allan Scollay on bass guitar and Ian Tulloch on drums. Guesting with the band for the weekend were Jim Halcrow on accordion and Brian Gear on fiddle. What a line-up and what a sound, and it was nice to see all the band members
So willing to sit in with all the other musicians and just have a good tune. Thanks very much lads and lass, it was a really great pleasure to have you and haste ye back.
A list of the musicians who appeared over the weekend is as follows :-
On accordion – Chris Oxtoby from Aylesbury, Donnie Smith, Dianne Mearns, Colin Johnston, Alex Morrison, James Corbett, Dave Millward, Lindsay Weir, Colin Garvin, Jim Halcrow, Alan Nicolson, Iain Cathcart, Shirley Campbell, James Coutts, Mhairi Coutts, Marian Anderson, Walter Beattie, Iain Anderson, Sandy Legget, Lynne Christie, Archie MacKillop, Graham Bell, Hamish MacDougall, Lynne Gould, Scott Gordon, Scott Leslie, Gordon Shand, Ian Cameron and Jim Hardie, and I even managed to get a wee tune myself.
On fiddler we had Ian Anderson, Brian Gear, Mark MacDougall, Carol Dobson and Susan MacIntosh.
On piano we had Anne Black, Mabel Gray, Judith Robertson, Violet Morrison, Owen Fielding, Margaret Scollay, Shauna Flockhart, Isobel Hodgson, Dianne Campbell and Graham Berry.
On drums were Robert MacFadyen, George Gray, George Darling, Ian Tulloch, Ian Adamson, Duncan Christie and George Bremner.
On bass guitar were Suzanne Croy, Alan Scollay and Mark MacDougall.
Giving us a wee rendering on the Jews Harp was one of our most loyal supporters, all the way from Dallas in Morayshire, Angus McKinnon at 91 years young, and it was nice to get a tune on the pipes from another loyal supporter, Dave Ketchin. Also what a lovely surprise it was to see and hear that master of song from Dumfries, John Caskie.
I sincerely hope I have remembered to give everyone a mention, but if by chance someone has been missed out, please accept my apologies.
Arrangements for the first ‘Stanley Ceilidh’ of the new millennium are already well under way, the dates being the 3rd, 4th and 5th November, and the band for the Saturday night dance will be that of the one and only Graham Mitchell from Huntly, and I hope once again we can depend on your fantastic support which we have become so used to and for which we must thank you one and all, from the bottom of our hearts.
On behalf of Anne and myself may we wish you all the very best of health and happiness in the coming year with lots of good Scottish music on your menu.
Until we meet again, all the very best.
Oban Accordion & Fiddle Club – 25th Anniversary
by A. McFadyen
Thursday, 5th November, was a very special evening for our Club – it was our 25th Anniversary.
Our Club Chairperson, Hector McFadyen, welcomed everyone and especially those who travelled from afar to be with us. Our guests for the evening were Alistair Hunter and his son Russell on fiddle and daughter Eileen on piano. Eileen also sand the famous ‘Hills of Lorne’ written by her grandfather Charlie – what a talented family. Alistair opened the very first Club night and it was lovely to have him return for our special night.
Players for the evening (too many to mention individually) came from as far as Inverness, Dunoon, Lochgilphead, Inveraray, Balloch and even Colonsay.
At the break the cake was piped in by Benderloch’s Angus McColl and cut by one of our most loyal members, Mary Reid. Everyone was then treated to a piece of cake and a glass of wine. A big thank you must go to Ewen Cameron from Combie St. Catering who kindly donated the cake.
Everyone took to the stage at the end for a stramash to round off a tremendous night enjoyed by all.
The Jimmy Blue Gallery
Photographs
CD Reviews
John Ellis and his Highland Country Band – Thistle and the Shamrock – LCOM5282
George Meikle and the Lothian SDB – Scottish Dances Volume 10 – Highlander Music HRMCD510
Book Review
Bert Murray’s Bon Accord Collection – Traditional and Contemporary Scottish Fiddle Music from North East Scotland
Letters to the Editor
It would seem to me that the large majority of the nonperforming enthusiasts of our Scottish music are of the opinion that if you are a performer then you are making a tidy sum of money from the use of your talent. That may be the case if you go out with a duo, or even a trio, (and even then you won’t make a fortune) but a number of us, including myself, use a five piece band all the time. You might say, why not go out with a trio or duo? My own thoughts on that are that if you depend on four musicians for most of your work, then it is unfair to drop any one of them just when you feel like it.
Scottish musicians are not a money grabbing bunch, but if you have traveled a round trip of perhaps a couple of hundred miles, and sometimes more, and very often have to deal with snow, ice or fog en route, and are left with sixty to eighty pounds in your hand, and still have your traveling costs to take care of, then it doesn’t take a mathematician to work out the economics of your hobby. As far as an hourly rate goes, a band will often leave home between five and six at night and get back around three in the morning, not a huge hourly rate for professional people working very unsocial hours.
As far as Accordion and Fiddle clubs go, I feel that the admission charges are far too low. Some Committees are of the opinion that if they put up their admission charge, the general public simply would not turn out. This I feel is nonsense. Where else could one go and get four hours of top class entertainment for the princely sum of £2.50 or very often just £2 and occasionally a cup of tea and a biscuit thrown in.
Go and see a film at any cinema and you’ll have at least a fiver admission, or hire a video for a night and it will cost you £3. Accordion Clubs don’t just happen, Committees put in a lot of hard work and sacrifice a lot of their own time and on almost all occasions do it completely free of charge, a fact which I am sure the general public appreciate and would support their efforts by gladly accepting a slightly higher admission charge which in turn would allow Committees to put a lot more five, or even six piece bands on their annual Syllabus.
I, like many others, have been going round the Clubs for a very long time and I continually hear the remark ‘Oh what a grand night’s entertainment, where else would you get a night like that for just a couple of pounds’. In the light of that I feel that Accordion Club supporters would have no qualms about paying a little extra at the door. The majority of Clubs hold about 9 meetings in any one season. I can’t see anyone objecting to an extra £9 spread over nine months. Even at £4 admission, that only amounts to £36 spread over 9 months for 36 hours of top class entertainment – quite a bargain I would have thought.
Another point I would like to make is the fact that the Gaelic Societies and Folk Societies throughout the country are handed large sums of money, I’m led to believe, mainly from the Arts Councils, to promote their culture. Why not our own traditional Scottish Dance music, surely something has to be done about that. Our SDM is surely just as important as any other part of our culture. I feel it is time we, the performers public, spoke up and made ourselves heard where it really matters because I’ll defy anyone to give me a watertight reason why our traditional SDM should not be supported alongside any of our other important traditional cultures.
As far as air time goes, one can turn on the radio and you can pick up folk music or Gaelic music at just about any time of the day or night (especially the former) and that applies to television as well to a certain extent. But, where oh where, is our traditional SDM, the music that thousands upon thousands of enthusiasts dance to all over Scotland, England, Ireland and in many other parts of the world. The boffins in charge of the airwaves seem to think the 45 minutes a week is enough to satisfy our needs. How wrong they are!
Come on lads and lasses, let’s hear from you. I know through conversations over the years that quite a substantial number of you feel the same way as I do. Meantime, keep the flag flying as long as you can afford to.
Bill Black, Leaside, Stanley
I am writing to express my gratitude to so many of the love and support given to me and my family during Jimmy’s sudden illness and death.
How proud (and amazed) he would have been had he known how many people traveled – some great distances – to pay their respects to him in Forgandenny Church. The many musicians present made the hymn-singing truly memorable and we were so pleased that many of you came to the hotel afterwards, giving us an opportunity of meeting and thanking you.
Robbie Shepherd’s contribution, also, helped to make the occasion a celebration of Jimmy’s life and music, which is what we had hoped for. The beautiful floral tributes from the Association and various clubs and the wonderful letters and messages, which gave us an insight into how others regarded Jimmy, have helped to make it easier for me and the family to cope with this huge change in our lives.
Our sincere thanks to all
Joan Blue
Take the Floor – Saturdays at 6.30pm with Robbie Shepherd
5th Feb 2000 – West Telferton Cale CB
12th Feb 2000 – Hector McFadyen SDB
19th Feb 2000 – Wayne Robertson SDB
26th Feb 2000 – OB – Elgin Town Hall – John Ellis & the Highland Country Band
4th Mar 2000 – Sandy Legget & the Carseloch CB
11th Mar 2000 – Allan MacIntosh & the Heather SDB
18th Mar 2000 – John Renton SDB
25th Mar 2000 – OB – Paisley Town Hall – Alasdair MacCuish & the Black Rose CB
CLUB DIARY
Aberdeen (Dee Motel) – 29th Feb 2000 – Jim Lindsay Trio
Alnwick (White Swan Hotel) – members only 9th Feb 2000 – Walter Perrie
Annan (St Andrew’s Social Club) - 20th Feb 2000 – Lyne Valley Band
Arbroath (Viewfield Hotel) - 6th Feb 2000 – Deirdre Adamson
Armadale (Masonic Hall) – 3rd Feb 2000 – Alan Crookston SDB
Balloch (St. Kessog’s Hall) – 20th Feb 2000 – Alan Gardiner SDB
Banchory (Burnett Arms Hotel) – 28th Feb 2000 - tbc
Banff & District (Banff Springs Hotel) – 23rd Feb 2000 – Ian Johnston SDB
Beith & District (Hotel de Croft, Dalry) – 21st Feb 2000 – Charlie Kirkpatrick Trio
Belford (Community Club) – 24th Feb 2000 – Robert Whitehead
Biggar (Municipal Hall) – 13th Feb 2000 – Club Night
Blairgowrie (Moorfield Hotel) - 8th Feb 2000 – Paul Anderson
Bromley (Trinity United Reform Church) - 8th Feb 2000 – John Stevens
Button Key (Windygates Institute) – 10th Feb 2000 – Gary Blair SDB
Campsie (Glazert House Hotel) - 1st Feb 2000 – Charlie Kirkpatrick Trio
Carlisle (Border Regiment Club, Carlisle Castle) - 10th Feb 2000 – Julie Best & Ron Hodgson
Castle Douglas (Ernespie House Hotel) – 15th Feb 2000 – George Meikle & the Lothian
Coalburn (Miners’ Welfare) - 17th Feb 2000 - George Meikle & the Lothian
Crathes (Crathes Hall, Banchory) - 13th Feb 2000 – All musicians welcome
Crieff & District (Arduthie Hotel) 3rd Feb 2000 – Jim Johnstone SDB
Cults (Cults Sports & Social Club) 9th Feb 2000 – Gordon Pattullo
Dalriada (Argyll Arms Hotel, Lochgilphead) 15th Feb 2000 – Tom Alexander
Dingwall (National Hotel) – 2nd Feb 2000 – Mark MacDougall & Friends
Dunblane (Westlands Hotel) – 15th Feb 2000 – John Morgan
Dunfermline (Headwell Bowling Club) – 8th Feb 2000 – George Meikle & the Lothian
Dunoon & Cowal (McColl’s Hotel) 4th Feb 2000 – Jim McGuire
East Kilbride (Sweepers, Cambuslang) – 24th Feb 2000 – Donald McLeod Trio
Ellon (Station Hotel) – 22nd Feb 2000 – Alistair Hunter Trio
Fintry (Fintry Sports Centre) – 28th Feb 2000 – Gordon Pattullo
Forfar (Plough Inn) - 27th Feb 2000 – Dick Black Band
Forres (Brig Motel) – 9th Feb 2000 – Jim Lindsay Duo
Galashiels (Abbotsford Arms Hotel) – 3rd Feb 2000 – George Meikle & the Lothian
Galston (Barr Castle Social Club) – 14th Feb 2000 – Seamus O’Sullivan
Glendale (Black Bull Hotel – Wooler) – 17th Feb 2000 – Andrew Knight Band
Glenfarg (Lomond Hotel) - 2nd Feb 2000 – John Morgan
Glenrothes (Victoria Hall, Coaltown of Balgownie) - 29th Feb 2000 – Clun Night with the Isles Family
Gretna (Halcrow Stadium) - 6th Feb 2000 – Gordon Pattullo
Highland (Drumossie Hotel) – 21st Feb 2000 – Thurso A&F Club
Inveraray (Loch Fyne Hotel) - 9th Feb 2000 – Archie John McVicar Trio
Isle of Skye – (The Royal Hotel, Portree) - 3rd Feb 2000 – The Black Rose CB
Islesteps (The Embassy Hotel) – 1st Feb 2000 – Bruce Lindsay Trio
Kelso (Ednam House Hotel) – 23rd Feb 2000 – Jim Lindsay (3-row)
Kintore (Torryburn Hotel) – 2nd Feb 2000 – Graeme Mitchell SDB
Lanark (Masonic Hall) - 28th Feb 2000 – Allan Smith SDB
Langholm (Crown Hotel) – 9th Feb 2000 – Scott Gordon
Lesmahagow (Masonic Hall) – 10th Feb 2000 – Jock Fraser Duo
Lewis & Harris (Stornoway Legion) - 3rd Feb 2000 - tbc
Livingston (Cairn Hotel) - 14th Feb 2000 – Burn Brothers (nb Monday)
Lockerbie (Queen’s Hotel) - 29th Feb 2000 – Ian Holmes Trio
Mauchline (Sorn Village Hall) 15th Feb 2000 – James Paterson (Peebles)
Montrose (Park Hotel) – 2nd Feb 2000 - AGM
Muirhead (Belmont Arms, Meigle) - 20th Feb 2000 – All players welcome
Newmill-on-Teviot (Newmill Country Inn) - 2nd Feb 2000 – Wattie Beattie & Friends
Newtongrange (Dean Tavern) – 28th Feb 2000 – Michael Philip & Paul Clancy
North East (Royal British Legion, Keith) – 1st Feb 2000 – Neil Dawson SDB
Oban (McTavish’s Kitchen) – 3rd Feb 2000 – Nicol McLaren SDB
Orkney (Ayre Hotel, Kirkwall) –
Peebles (Green Tree Hotel) – 24th Feb 2000 – Black Rose CB
Perth (Salutation Hotel) – 15th Feb 2000 – Sandy Legget Trio
Premier NI (Camlin Function Rooms) - 1st Feb 2000 – Paddy Neary
Renfrew (Masonic Hall, Broadloan) – 8th Feb 2000 – Angie MacEachern Band
Rothbury (Queen’s Head) - 3rd Feb 2000 – Marian Anderson SDB
Selkirk (Cricket Club) - 10th Feb 2000 – The Big Squeeze
Shetland (Shetland Hotel, Lerwick) -
Stirling (Terraces Hotel) - 13th Feb 2000 – Michael Philip SDB
Sutherland (Rogart Hall) - 26th Feb 2000 – Iain MacPhail SDB
Thornhill (Masonic Hall) - 9th Feb 2000 – Alistair McCulloch Duo
Thurso (Pentland Hotel) – 7th Feb 2000 – Local Night
Turriff (Royal Oak Hotel) – 3rd Feb 2000 – The Redcoats
Tynedale (Hexham Ex Service Club) – 17th Feb 2000 - tbc
Wick (McKay’s Hotel) – 15th Feb 2000 – MacKa’s SDB
Yarrow (Gordon Arms) - 16th Feb 2000 – Scott Leslie SDB
THERE WERE CLUB REPORTS FROM :-
1. Aberdeen
2. Alnwick
3. Annan
4. Arbroath
5. Banchory
6. Banff & District
7. Beith
8. Biggar
9. Blairgowrie
10. Button Key
11. Campsie
12. Carlisle
13. Coalburn
14. Crieff
15. Cults
16. Dingwall & District
17. Dunblane
18. Dunfermline
19. Dunoon & Cowal
20. East Kilbride
21. Fintry
22. Forres
23. Galston
24. Glendale
25. Glenrothes
26. Gretna
27. Highland
28. Inveraray
29. Isle of Skye
30. Islesteps
31. Kelso
32. Kintore
33. Lanark
34. Lesmahagow
35. Livingston
36. Montrose
37. Newmill-on-Teviot
38. Newtongrange
39. North East
40. Oban
41. Peebles
42. Perth
43. Premier
44. Renfrew
45. Rothbury
46. Stirling
47. Sutherland
48. Thornhill
49. Turriff
50. Tynedale
51. Wick
52. Yarrow
CLUB DIRECTORY AS AT OCT 1998
(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. Armadale A&F Club (Oct 1978? or 80) originally called Bathgate Club (for 2 months) Closed
6. Balloch A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per January 1978 issue – present)
7. Banchory A&F Club (1978 – present)
8. Banff & District A&F Club (Oct 1973 – present)
9. Beith & District A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per first edition – present)
10. Belford A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
11. Biggar A&F Club (Oct 1974 – present)
12. Blairgowrie A&F Club (
13. Bromley A&F Club
14. Button Key A&F Club (
15. Campbeltown A&F Club (
16. Campsie A&F Club (Nov 95 – present)
17. Carlisle A&F Club (joined Sept 1993 -
18. Castle Douglas A&F Club (c Sept 1980 – present)
19. Coalburn A&F Club (
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. East Kilbride A&F Club (Sept 1980)
29. Ellon A&F Club (
30. Fintry A&F Club (Dec 1972 – reformed Jan 1980 – present)
31. Forfar A&F Club (
32. Forres A&F Club (Jan 1978)
33. Galashiels A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
34. Galston A&F Club (Oct 1969 – per first edition – closed March 2006)
35. Glendale Accordion Club (Jan 1973)
36. Glenfarg A&F Club (formed 1988 joined Assoc Mar 95 -
37. Glenrothes A&F Club (Mar 93?
38. 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)
39. Highland A&F Club (Inverness) (Nov 1973 – present)
40. Inveraray A&F Club (Feb 1991 - present)
41. Islay A&F Club (23 Apr 93 -
42. Islesteps A&F Club (Jan 1981 – present – n.b. evolved from the original Dumfries Club)
43. Isle of Skye A&F Club (June 1983 – present)
44. Kelso A&F Club (May 1976 – present)
45. Kintore A&F Club (
46. Ladybank A&F Club (joined Apr 98 but formed
47. Lanark A&F Club (joined Sept 96 – present)
48. Langholm A&F Club (Oct 1967 - present)
49. Lesmahagow A&F Club (Nov 1979 – closed May 2005)
50. Lewis & Harris A&F Club (Aug 1994 -
51. Livingston A&F Club (Sept 1973 – present)
52. Lockerbie A&F Club (Nov 1973 - present)
53. Mauchline A&F Club (Sept 1983 - present)
54. Montrose A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
55. Muirhead A&F Club (Dec 1994 -
56. Newmill-on-Teviot (Hawick) (Formed late 1988 joined Assoc 1999
57. Newtongrange A&F Club (joined Sept 1977 - present)
58. North East A&F Club aka Keith A&FC (Sept 1971 - present)
59. Oban A&F Club (Nov 1975 - present)
60. Orkney A&F Club (Mar 1978 - present)
61. Peebles A&F Club (26 Nov 1981 - present)
62. Perth & District A&F Club (Aug 1970 - present)
63. Premier A&F Club NI (April 1980)
64. Renfrew A&F Club (1984 -
65. Rothbury Accordion Club (7th Feb 1974) orig called Coquetdale
66. Selkirk A&F Club (
67. Shetland A&F Club (Sept 1978 - present)
68. Stirling A&F Club (Oct 1991 - )
69. Sutherland A&F Club (
70. Thornhill A&F Club (joined Oct 1983 – see Nov 83 edition – closed April 2014)
71. Thurso A&F Club (Oct 1981 - present)
72. Turriff A&F Club (March 1982 - present)
73. Tynedale A&F Club (Nov 1980 - present)
74. Vancouver
75. Wick A&F Club (Oct 1975 - present)
76. Yarrow (prev known as Etterick & Yarrow) (Jan 1989 -
Not on official list at the start of the season (closed, did not renew membership or omitted in error?)
77. Acharacle & District A&F Club (cMay 1988)
78. Ayr A&F Club (Nov 1983 – per Nov 83 edition) Closed
79. Bonchester Accordion Club (Closed?)
80. Bridge of Allan (Walmer) A&F Club (Walmer Hotel, Bridge of Allan) (c March 1982)
81. Brigmill A&F Club (Oct 1990) Closed
82. Buchan A&F Club
83. Callander A&F Club (
84. Campbeltown & District A&F Club (c Dec 1980)
85. Cleland (cNov 1981 – March 1985) originally called Drumpellier A&F Club (for 2 months)
86. Club Accord
87. Coquetdale A&F Club (Feb 1974 or c1976/77 – 1981/2? – became Rothbury?)
88. Coupar Angus A&F Club (cSept 1978 - ?)
89. Cumnock A&F Club (October 1976 - forced to close cDec 1982 - see Jan 83 Editorial)
90. Denny & Dunipace A&F Club (Feb 1981)
91. Derwentside A&F Club
92. Dornoch A&F Club (first mention in directory 1986)
93. Dumfries Accordion Club (Oughtons) (April 1965 at the Hole in the Wa’)
94. Dunbar Cement Works A&F Club (Closed?)
95. Dundee & District A&F Club (1970? – 1995?)
96. Edinburgh A&F Club (Apr 1981) prev called Chrissie Leatham A&F Club (Oct 1980)
97. Falkirk A&F Club (Sept 1978 - )
98. Fort William A&F Club (21st Oct 1980 – per Dec 1980 B&F)
99. Gorebridge (cNov 1981) originally called Arniston A&F Club (for 2 months)
100. Greenhead Accordion Club (on the A69 between Brampton and Haltwistle)
101. Kirriemuir A&F Club (cSept 1981)
102. M.A.F.I.A. (1966 – 1993?)
103. Monklands A&F Club (Nov 1978 – closed cApril 1983)
104. Morecambe A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
105. Mull A&F Club
106. Newcastleton Accordion Club
107. New Cumnock A&F Club (cMarch 1979)
108. Newton St Boswells Accordion Club (17th Oct 1972 see Apr 1984 obituary for Angus Park)
109. Ormiston Miners’ Welfare Society A&F Club (closed April 1992 – per Sept Editorial)
110. Reading Scottish Fiddlers (cMarch 1997
111. Renfrew A&F Club (original club 1974/5 lapsed after a few years then again in 1984)
112. Straiton Accordion Club (c1968 – closed March 1979)
113. Stranraer & District Accordion Club (1974 – per first edition)
114. Torthorwald A&F Club (near Dumfries)
115. Tranent A&F Club
116. Walmer (Bridge of Allan) A&F Club
117. Wellbank A&F Club
Advertising rates
Full Page - £120
Half Page - £60
Quarter Page - £30
B&F Treasurer – Alan Gardiner, Cocklaw Farm, Elsrickle, Biggar.
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
Having missed the Editorial for a couple of months can I firstly backtrack to thank Freeland Barbour and Nicol McLaren for their co-operation and assistance with the lead articles for the previous couple of issues.
Like everyone else I was stunned by the sudden and unexpected death, on Tuesday, 7th December, of our past Chairman of the Association, Jimmy Blue. In the Box and Fiddle we sometimes refer to the period from the late forties into the seventies as the heyday of Scottish dance music and without a doubt Jimmy, as one of the finest exponents of the 3-row British chromatic and a member of Ian Powrie’s Band as well as a bandleader in his own right, was one of that elite group who actually brought about the situation. He will be sadly missed by all but his music will live on in his many recordings and his compositions as an example for future generations. We extend our deepest sympathy to Joan and the family.
The Millennium has come and gone in a blaze of what is nowadays termed ‘hype’ or in this case more accurately ‘over-hype’. December will be remembered by a great many bands as the month of cancellations as it finally dawned on hotel managers all over the country that the general public weren’t going to pay out a small fortune for the pleasure of celebrating Hogmanay, albeit a rather unique one. Never mind, it should be back to business as usual next time.
On a more domestic matter, while the circulation of the B&F creeps ever upwards we are, as ever, in need of interesting articles. Adverts this month have taken a bit of a downturn so if you know of anyone who would benefit from our services please let them (and me) know.
Charlie Todd
Jimmy Blue – Scottish Accordionist & Bandleader
(3rd September, 1929 – 7th December, 1999
by Jack Cooper
Forgandenny Village Church in Perthshire was packed for the funeral service of Jimmy Blue which was relayed to the further 200 standing outside in the pouring rain. Robbie Shepherd of BBC Scotland read a poem written by Andy Stewart for Jimmy some years ago, a most appropriate tribute, and Jimmy’s wife, Joan, played the organ for the ceremony, concluding with ‘The Dark Island’, the haunting melody which he made known all over the world.
Born in Newton Mearns, Jimmy was 6 months old when his family moved to Rosneath Castle where his father was a gardener for Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll.
Jimmy was 14 when he bought his first accordion for £6, a Madella piano accordion. He had no formal tuition but having bought instruction booklets ‘The Mathis Method’ he labouriously worked at learning to play the box, even learning how to read and write music. He was enthralled by the playing of Will Starr and Jimmy Shand on the ‘wireless’ and discovered from neighbours, the Dalrymple family, that the magic sound was produced from a British Chromatic. The piano accordion was quickly traded in. Incidentally, one of the neighbouring family of box players was Bob Dalrymple, 5-row player, who performed many times at Fintry Accordion Club and others in that area and one of whose pupils was Gordon Shand.
In 1946 Jimmy acquired a 2-row 36 bass L’Organola and went back to the drawing board, this time with a ‘Willie Hannah’ tutor, finally graduating to a 3-row. He joined the Dalrymple family band and had his first experiences of playing at ‘gigs’. Jimmy had left school at 13 and, while helping his father who was now running his own market garden, he also worked at Rahane, a hill farm looking down on the Gareloch. He had many stories of the war years when the Americans were based close by. The U.S. boys were generous to the locals and Jimmy’s mother, embarrassed by a surfeit of butter when other families were rationed to 2 ounces per week, buried pounds of it in their garden! He remembered clearly standing outside their home looking with terror towards Greenock and Gourock, watching the planes and glow in the sky and hearing the terrible noise as Clydebank was bombed. Many of the stories he related were about his father’s Home Guard experiences – or L.D.V. as they were known in the early days. This stood for Local Defence Volunteers but was popularly known as ‘Look, Dook and Vanish’!
Meanwhile, Jimmy was working with horses for the Macintyre family. He loved his horses but was desperate to get into tractors and in the late forties the family decided on a move. Jimmy pressed very hard for Perthshire as this was where the music was – the Powrie Band, the Hawthorne, Adam Rennie, and Shand was in Fife, the next County! So in 1949 the family moved to a farm in Dunning and very soon Jimmy was playing with Hamish McLaren’s Band, from Auchterarder. It was through a two-band dance there that Jimmy met piano-accordionist, Mickie Ainsworth, and remarkably soon, as accordion duettists, they were broadcasting and making records. Their ‘The High Level’ still stands as one of the best recordings of this popular tune. Broadcasts with the BBC included spots in ‘Children’s Hour’, ‘Midday Music Hall’ and even ‘Starlight Serenade’ as well as many regular slots in ‘Scottish Magazine’, an overseas programme for exiled Scots.
Jimmy was the first All Scotland Champion in Bill Wilkie’s Accordion Festival in 1950, playing ‘Cameron Highlanders’, ’Fiddler’s Joy’ and ‘The Mason’s Apron’ – how often he compared his winning set with the finger numbing-technology and difficulty of the sets played by competitors at the Festivals he was to adjudicate many years later. Jimmy regained the cupin 1952, the year he became engaged to the pianist in Bill Wilkie’s Accordion Orchestra, Joan McNeill, whom he had met when accompanying Mickie to band practices. In September of that year Jimmy and Joan were asked to play at Ian Powrie’s wedding – playing at a Powrie wedding !!! Rehearsals and nerves went hand in hand but the performance, which must have been an informal audition, must have pleased because when Bill Powrie went to do his National Service in December of that year, Jimmy was invited to join Ian’s well known band. Ian and Jimmy were both working on farms, one on each side of the Earn Valley, while travelling to play at dances all over the country and broadcasting as often as once a month.
Then came television when ‘The Kilt is My Delight’ was enjoyed by all who had television sets. Having married Joan in 1955, Jimmy was now working at Netherholm Farm as a tractor driver, his father looking after the dairy. Many a morning he got home from a dance in time, to quote Norrie Williams in a previous issue, “to ca’in the neep chopper wi’ dinner suit and bow tie”.
In 1961 Andy Stewart, whose ‘Scottish soldier’ had topped the ‘Hit Parade’, was offered a summer-season of 19 weeks at Glasgow Empire and asked Ian Powrie’s Band to take part in the show. After much heart-searching – and a lot of encouragement from Joan – the decision was taken to turn professional, a risky business as there were now two young daughters to provide for. However, with dances and stage shows during the winter and an equally successful Empire season in 1962, the wolf was kept from the door. In 1963 the Andy Stewart Show with the Ian Powrie Band took off for Australia and New Zealand for thirteen weeks. The former tractorman was now becoming a world traveller and life had changed considerably. No more getting up on a frosty morning to shaw neeps or gather stones. The ‘year of the typhoid’, 1964, saw the company in H.M. Theatre, Aberdeen, packing in the crowds despite the fear of an epidemic. Andy’s story at that time was that “….only in Aberdeen could you have 264 cases of typhoid out of a tin of corned beef – because only Aberdonians could get 264 slices out of one tin!” The audiences loved it. In 1966 another tour took the company back to New Zealand and Australia and, on their return, towards the end of another successful Aberdeen season, Ian Powrie broke the news that he was emigrating to set up a business with Andy’s manager, Max Kay, in Australia. Jimmy came home from Aberdeen that night in a state of shock – but, after a completely sleepless night, by morning Joan had convinced him that he should take over the band and try to make it under his own name. This he did and very successfully too, continuing to broadcast and making several LPs.
As Andy Stewart’s backing band, he toured Ireland, Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia, playing solo in the Carnagie Hall and in the Sydney Stadium and Opera House. The Band took part in many television programmes, a Grampian series and, even more successfully, ‘Scotch Corner’ produced by S.T.V. which went out on nationwide television with the band accompanying guest artistes such as Dana, Rolf Harris, Lulu, George Hamilton IV, Julie Felix and many others. Rolf Harris, who played piano accordion himself, was fascinated by the button-box and Jimmy became the proud possessor of a personal caricature of himself signed by the Australian entertainer.
Just before a long summer season in Blackpool, the Jimmy Blue Band had a wonderful experience when they took part in the film ‘Country Dance’ starring Peter O’Toole, Susannah Your and Brian Blessed. The music was recorded at Shepperton Studios in London and filming was done in Co. Wicklow. The film is shown often on Sky Television under the name ‘Brotherly Love’. During the dance in the film, the band played Jimmy’s tune ‘Bonnie Lass of Scotland’ (for which Andy had written words) and, when attending the premiere of the film at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Joan and Jimmy got a great thrill when they heard an orchestral arrangement of his tune being played the morning after ‘the dance’. Jimmy and Andy co-operated on many songs, Andy giving him the words and Jimmy sitting at the piano (yes, the piano) working out tunes to suit the words. Among his favourites were ‘The Glens of Angus’ and ‘Little Girl’.
In 1977, with both daughters now married, he decided he had had enough of hotel rooms throughout the world and took on a season playing solo at ‘Pipers’, a tourist spot in Lothian Road, Edinburgh. In November of that year he became head gardener / groundsman at Kilgraston, an independent girls’ boarding school in Bridge of Earn where Joan had been Secretary since 1970. When he took over, the walled garden grew nothing but turnips, rhubarb and weeds and the grounds were sadly overgrown. Jimmy set to and not only made the lawns and parklands beautiful, but made the walled garden so productive of flowers, fruit and vegetables that, as well as supplying the school, he held a shop every week to which the villagers came to buy their produce. Jimmy got the greatest satidfaction out of making Kilgraston beautiful and did this for 15 years. However, having taken on this job, he was re-engaged at ‘Pipers’ for the 1978 season. He worked at Kilgraston during the day, came home, had dinner, slept, bathed and set off for Edinburgh SEVEN NIGHTS PER WEEK for thirty weeks! No wonder he eventually had hard surgery! Jimmy had always pushed himself to the limits. One year, he and the band, with Andy, did two shows at Dundee Palace, then piled into the Band bus – yes, Andy as well – and Jimmy drove to London where they rehearsed at the Albert Hall and performed in the ‘The Duncan Macrae Memorial Show’. Right after the show Jimmy was behind the wheel again and drove straight back to Dundee where they did another two shows before Jimmy got home to bed!
After another short season in ‘Pipers’ in 1979, Jimmy was ‘back on the road’ playing at dances with Joan on piano, Angus Fitchet on fiddle and Jackie Cooper on drums. What great nights they were, meeting so many enthusiastic and lovely people. In 1970 having ‘guested’ at Gretna Accordion Club, he suggested starting one in Perth which was duly done with great success. Other Clubs started up and, having had a chat with Bobby Harvie who suggested Clubs should ‘pool’ guest artistes, Jimmy came up with the idea of forming an Association of Accordion and Fiddle Clubs. This Association went from strength to strength as did the N.A.A.F.C. Festival, now based at Musselburgh. Jimmy was, for twenty years, Chairman of the N.A.A.F.C., a movement which honoured him in 1990, presenting him with a portrait of himself and his wife, who, he claimed, had been the biggest asset in his career.
Jimmy thoroughly enjoyed adjudicating at Festivals and competitions and was almost most encouraging towards young players. He especially enjoyed the Perth Festival in October this year when he and John Carmichael had a great day’s adjudicating together – and a great day of exchanging stories as well. Jimmy was a great observer of character and his friends and family loved to listen to his impressions and humourous anecdotes about the people he had worked with or met in his travels. In spite of travelling so much and meeting so many people, Jimmy never really got over his shyness and always found it an ordeal meeting strangers, his rather abrupt manner covering his reserve. He was at his happiest with long-standing bosom friends, and holidays in Mull with Joan, Bobby and Agnes Crowe and, sometimes, Jackie Cooper, were his idea of bliss – no sun-kissed beaches for him!
Since a heart by-pass operation in 1994, although still playing occasionally, he was never happier than in his large garden which, in the summer, was transformed into a 9-hole putting green on a lawn which Gleneagles would have envied!
On his 70th birthday in September, a beautiful sunny day, accordionists, drummers, pipers and other assorted musician friends joined in a wonderful ‘hooley’ which went on until after dark – one of many memorable musical barbecues and parties held at Forgandenny. Jimmy was proud of his two daughters, Virginia and Sandra, and his sons-in-law and, of course, his four grandchildren, Katy, Rhoda, Murray and Polly, now 19, 18, 16 and 15. He would have been amazed – and embarrassed had he known of the tributes and hundreds of cards and letters sent on his passing.
One appropriate message to Joan read – “The song has ended but the melody lingers on”.
A Tribute to Jimmy Blue
by Alan Kindness, Leader of the Glendaruel SDB
I first met Jimmy in 1949 when he came with his family to work on Rossie Farm, Dunning, which marched with Broadleys Farm where I stayed. I was totally captivated by Jimmy’s playing of this strange accordion with buttons at both ends as up to that time I had only ever seen a piano key type.
From an early age I had always been keen on the accordion and hearing Jimmy play only served to increase my enthusiasm. After a spell at the ‘tattie lifting’ I purchased my first box – a 2 row, 8 bass Cassalli – shoulder straps, no thumb strap. Taking it along to Jimmy for his ‘seal of approval’ I was amazed to find that he had some difficulty with it.
Most button box players of the era started on the 2 row B/C model i.e. the outer and middle rows of the standard 3-row. This contraption I had bought was a C / C# model i.e. the middle and inside rows of the standard 3-row.
Jimmy’s sentiments were to ‘get rid of it’ but simple economics decreed that I stick with it and learn a ‘backside foremost’ style of fingering. Jimmy had a more colourful expression which included the word ‘elbow’. At Accordion Clubs and the like he frequently teased me about my style of fingering adding that he ‘had never quite fathomed out how it worked’.
One of my earliest memories of Jimmy is seeing him dancing round the living room in their house at Rossie while at the same time playing the concertina (I wonder how many folk knew that Jimmy could play this instrument) along with a band playing Scottish dance music ob the wireless (it wasn’t a radio in 1949/50).
I have fond memories too of sitting on the mudguard of his tractor (I would be 13/14 years of age at the time) and him telling me about the workings of the button box. On leaving school at age 15 years I went off to sea with the Merchant Navy but when home on leave I always made a point of visiting Jimmy and I remember the occasion when he opened the case to show me this wonderful new accordion he had just purchased – it was, of course, one of the original batch of Shand Morino’s which had come into the country. It was a beauty and it immediately became my ambition to own such a box. It took several more years for that ambition to be realised. By this time, of course, Jimmy was courting Joan McNeil and I well remember receiving a letter in Port Said from my mother enclosing a newspaper cutting with the photo of their wedding – I still have that photograph 44 years on.
At that time I was serving on a passenger ship and I was told by the ship’s Captain that I would be expected to play for an eightsome reel at the ‘Captain’s Party’ – I hadn’t a clue! In panic I phoned Jimmy from Liverpool Docks to ask ‘how many bars in an eightsome reel?’ Jimmy’s response was ‘Christ I’ve nae idea – phone me back in 10 minutes and I’ll have worked it out’. I did and he gave me the answer adding ‘if they’ve not finished, keep playing until they start birling’ – sound advice indeed which was to come in useful on many future occasions.
In 1956 I suffered a broken leg and while rehabilitating at Bridge of Earn Hospital I was invited to Forgandenny by Jimmy and Joan for ‘tea and a tune’. I had never played alongside a pianist before and to have a tune with Joan was pure magic and made me even more determined to play in a band.
A particular memory of that night was Jimmy, running down the Kinnaird Road carrying my box ands shouting to the bus driver to ‘wait, there’s a lame bugger coming’ and here I was hirpling along with 2 sticks trying vainly to keep up!! More recently my wife, Gladys, made a home movie of ‘This Is Your Life’ for my 60th birthday and I was gobsmacked when Jimmy appeared on this playing specially for me. I am sure that there cannot be many such recordings of Jimmy doing the honours in this way.
For 50 years Jimmy has been my inspiration, idol if you like. He played tunes I could only dream of playing. I know that there are many fine, talented button box players but for me Jimmy was the undisputed ‘King of the Button Box’. Saturday, 11th December 1999 in Forgandenny Churchyard has to be one of my saddest days.
Fyvie Castle
by Leila Powrie
The classic black writing on the card, showing a muted picture of Fyvie Castle, read, in part, Robert Lovie, requests the company of Mr and Mrs Ian Powrie to his 30th birthday party at Fyvie Castle 6 p.m. – Carriages 12.30 p.m. Fyvie Castle, over 900 years old, is kept in great order by the National Trust for Scotland. A visit to this prestigious building has long been in my mind, so I was doubly excited at the invitation. Our arrival at Fyvie was heralded by the bagpipes playing ‘The Bonnie Lass o’ Fyvie’. Into the entrance hall we were greeted by Robert and although I would have liked to have lingered to admire the carving above the fireplace, we were ushered, by a lovely young lady, up the Great Stone Wheel Staircase, 10 ft wide, where pictures of Mary Queen of Scots and James Stuart, the Old Pretender, were hanging, also enough shining suits of armour dating back to the 16th Century to clad the whole party.
In the drawing room we were given a choice of malt or champagne. Holding my champagne I was not aware of the illustrious guests filling the room. I was too busy looking at dozens of portraits by famous names such as Lawrence, Gainsborough, Reynolds, Romney, Raeburn and Hohner. Through to the music room where French Tapestries almost covered the walls. Methinks, acoustics in here will be dreadful. Not so. The sound was just wonderful. Rows of blue velvet and gilt chairs faced the ‘stage’ end of the floor. Above, the organ pipes were arranged and encased in a frame of beautifully carved wood. I’m left wondering where the organ is situated. There was a heavily carved wooden balustrade hiding a stair leading down to what I thought would be the artists room. Maybe the organ is downstairs. Right on time the concert began. Robert’s former Domini, McIan Rankin, opened the proceedings, and introduced our first ensemble. The musicians were Paul Anderson, John Bone, Alex Green, Esma Shepherd, and Ian Powrie. We sat in our reserved seats with a feeling of grandeur when the breathless anticipatory silence was broken by Ian Powrie saying ‘Jist talk amongst yersels, ‘til I get ready’. Everyone laughed and relaxed, so setting the seal for the evenings enjoyment. MC Domini had obviously done his homework when he expertly but couthily introduced each item. Robbie Shepherd started off fine then the fire alarm sounded, everyone laughed but sat still. Why is it that we never react with conviction to a fire alarm? After a minute it stopped.
I found it incredible that Robbie started exactly from where he had been interrupted. Esma would have him go back to the beginning, just in case we had missed the gist of the song. I think a duet from Robbie and Esma is long overdue. I always enjoy Robbie’s spot ; so infectious.
Alex Green was next on the programme. I think he has a wee electric motor inside that penny whistle. His playing of ‘The Music of Spey’ was quite spellbinding considering it was written for the fiddle, he played it with complete sensory knowledge of the music. He was accompanied by Esma who does it with such empathy.
Jock Duncan sang his bothy ballads in the real traditional style making his own melodic accompaniment through nasal control. My favourite ‘The Buchan Bobby’ was included in his trilogy.
I am a devotee of Paul Anderson’s playing and was delighted that he was able to be on the programme. Paul played as his first tune ‘Fyvie Castle’. In the second bar, Margaret Smith who accompanied him, played a single A flat with such ghostly feeling that I felt a real mixture of emotions. Scott Skinner must surely have felt the presence of Fyvie ghost ‘The Green Lady’ especially at the beginning of the second measure. Right next to me the great stone fireplace gave a sudden roar. I burst into tears. I composed myself when Paul finished with some catchy reels. It is great to know that our traditional music is in such safe young hands.
Debbie Stuart, the lovely opera singer from Dundee, sang songs from Carmen, Cole Porter and Shand. I now imagined various singers of the same calibre being brought to Fyvie to entertain Royalty. My doubts about the acoustics were completely dispelled with Debbie’s beautiful, melodious voice ringing round the room. She surprised Robert by asking him to join her in a duet. Simply beautiful.
Robert’s nephew, 7 year old Kyle, looking very smart in kilt outfit, sat on the edge of the stage his feet barely touching the floor. His Hohner 48 bass piano accordion strapped on, head down he played ‘The Dark Island’ with an amazing amount of feeling for one so young. Then he played a set of marches. We’ll hear more of Kyle in 10 years time. John Bone, his tutor, accompanied him on the piano in such a sensitive and pleasant manner detracting nothing from the little boy’s star turn.
MC Domini kept the flow going and when he spoke glowingly about Kyle asking for another ovation the applause nearly raised the roof of the castle.
All this time Robert sat surrounded by his charmingly couthy mum Alison, dad Bob, sister Avril and extended family, all bonnie and friendly as the North Easterners are wont to be.
Robert is a real ‘tour de force’ at managing a team of entertainers and usually has everything planned to the minute. Not this night. The entertainers were enjoying themselves and I hope that Robert was enjoying the performances and not being too worried about being over the time planned.
There was even time to have a look at the spectacular ceiling with its heraldic coats-of-arms and so much more to it than is written down. In days of yore all the rich embellishments in the plasterwork had a reason behind them. Such as Granny on her last legs wanting a flow of scrolls resembling her hair : the swag of a diaper from the newest arrival in the family. It was all there and I reveled in it, wishing I had more time.
At one point, as I sat admiring the surroundings I could hear the chatter from the guests. My goodness, I thought I understood a bit of the Doric but this must surely be another language. It sounded completely foreign I had a wee laugh. They are lovely folk.
Local lad John Bone was next on the programme, he is a family friend of the Lovie’s and tutor to a goodly number of pupils in Aberdeenshire. He too had a Hohner, of course a great deal bigger than Kyle’s was. I think John’s was a Morino IV. Resplendent in a kilt and plaid he fairly looked the part in this magnificent room. He played the set of tunes which was his entry for the Perth Festival and it was very evident why he took home the Championship. He finished with ‘The Carnival of Venice’, just great.
Frank Armstrong had written a great poem for Robert, giving us all an insight to his character, although, I do think his bit about meanness was just poetic licence. It was definitely not true, obvious from the fact that there we were sitting in this splendid hall lapping up his hospitality.
Ian Powrie, master of ad lib, asked the audience to wait until he got his horse and cairt yokit. He obviously felt the atmosphere of the castle when he played Bovaglies Plaid and other J. Scott Skinner tunes. The cairt in Ian’s ad lib was George Donald whose fondness for Ian shows through in true kindred spirit. John bone joined them to play Ian’s new composition ‘Robert Lovie’s 30th Birthday’. A fine tune for a fine man.
Last on the programme was George Donald. What a master of timing. He played and sang his own pawky songs with such fun. A very fitting end to a wonderful concert.
However, it was not really the end as the meenister who had been asked to thank the artistes, was an act in himself. He was straight from one of Alister Sim’s black and white movies. A real character our Re. Charles Birnie.
Time for food. Halfway down the Great Staircase we were into the Dining Room for our meal. Harry, the chef did not show any annoyance in the fact that we were 1½ hours late. The meal was SUPERB, served in most unusual shell-shaped pedestal dishes. 10 choices of main dish and the most delicious lemon meringue pie I have ever tasted, profiteroles, fruit salad, etc, etc.
M-mmmm
Then following the sound of the bagpipes, played by David Low, we were once again outside going towards the Racquet Court. Looking back at the floodlit Fyvie Castle, I again felt the emotions surfacing. What on all the Earth was wrong with me? The nearer we got to the Racquet Court the pipes sounds faded into the sound of Hebbie Gray and his Band. The court was beautifully decorated. Tables around the room were covered with white linen tablecloths each one supporting a three candled silver candelabra on which an arrangement of greenery and daffodils was entwined. All done by the Lovie family friend, Kitty Reid. The bar was at the door. So amid more champagne and malts we danced our way down the court to the table. I was particularly pleased with Hebbie on sax for the modern dancing. Ian Cruickshanks was on accordion.
I know now why Robert did not wear the kilt. At the end of the night’s jollification Robert was thrown in the air quite a few times by some of the lads. After happy goodnights to friends and a special thank you and goodnight to Robert, we went back through the castle to our carriages at the front. We piled into our Machine without a Horse – Kitty’s Toyota.
Next day I was still confused about my emotions the night before but dismissed it as part of the party mood. However, later in the day Kitty gave me a Fyvie Castle brochure and I was completely dumbfounded when I read that the famous Fyvie ghost’s name was Lilias Drummond. My family name is Drummond and my inherited name is Lilias. No wonder I felt her presence. She can be assured that a great night was had by all at Robert Lovie’s 30th Birthday Party.
The Stanley Ceilidh – November 1999
by Bill Black
Here we are once again reflecting on the annual ‘Stanley Ceilidh’, the last one of this century and what a way to end the 20th century. This, of course, was the 21st year of the event and what a year to remember, the general consensus seemed to be that this year was the best one ever. As the years go by we always seem to remark that we will never improve on the ceilidh just past but we are normally always proved wrong and I must agree with the majority who have already made it known that the 1999 ceilidh most definitely surpassed all previous events.
As with every function held there are always slight hiccups, but where there is a will these are soon brushed aside and the main purpose of the event takes centre stage. The main purpose of our ‘Stanley Ceilidh’, of course, is for all our supporters to have a really brilliant weekend and at the same time some young people, who are much less fortunate than we are, can benefit to some extent. This year the money raised went to the New School Butterstone which caters for children with severe learning difficulties and after Anne and I visited the School to present the money we realised how much hard work and dedication goes into catering for these children and also the vast amount of money required to purchase all the specialist equipment required to satisfy their needs, and in that respect we must sincerely thank you, the supporters of the ‘Stanley Ceilidh’ for your outstanding generosity which enabled us to hand over a cheque for the marvelous sum of £2,500 to the school.
A special mention must be made of certain individuals whose efforts and generosity really helped to enhance the amount of money collected. First of all a very sincere thank you must go to Dave Millward from Kilmelford in Argyllshire who has been a very staunch supporter of the ceilidh for a long time. Dave did a sponsored walk over the Alps and raised the fantastic sum of £526. A tremendous effort and certainly one which should not go unnoticed. Secondly a very big thank you must go to Mabel Gray who once again presented us with a fantastic Christmas Hamper which was the sole prize put up for raffle on the Friday night and it raised the amazing sum of £370. Thank you Mabel, most sincerely. Thirdly I must give my sincere thanks to all those who gave so generously to the raffle for the Saturday night. They are too numerous to mention but we ended up with a total of 54 prizes which created a really superb display.
Next I must mention all the very willing helpers who ‘buckler to’ over the weekend and took a great load off my shoulders. Suzanne Croy, Shirlry Campbell and Dave Millward who took control of selling raffle tickets and making the half time collection and did an excellent job. Also Ian Gray and his wife from Dumfries for all the help at home over the weekend with preparing of food and washing up and for taking charge of admissions at the door on Saturday night which was a real mammoth task.
Next I would like to express a big thank you to all the supporters of the ‘Stanley Ceilidh’ who came from all over Scotland, parts of England and Northern Ireland just to be part of this unbelievable weekend of fantastic Scottish music.
Last but not least, no words would be adequate to express my gratitude to all the musicians who came from all corners of the country to be part of this carnival of music and to give so much pleasure to so many people. A special thanks to all the backing musicians who gave of their talents so willingly to support all the front line players.
Thanks also to the management and staff of the Tayside Hotel for their ready co-operation over the weekend.
What can be said about this band from the Shetland Isles who played at the Saturday night dance. Alan Nicolson and his band were absolutely superb. I’ve had it said to me on a number of occasions since the ceilidh that this surely must be the greatest Scottsh band sound to come out of the Shetland Isles. The band consisted of Alan Nicolson on accordion, Margaret Scollay on keyboard, Allan Scollay on bass guitar and Ian Tulloch on drums. Guesting with the band for the weekend were Jim Halcrow on accordion and Brian Gear on fiddle. What a line-up and what a sound, and it was nice to see all the band members
So willing to sit in with all the other musicians and just have a good tune. Thanks very much lads and lass, it was a really great pleasure to have you and haste ye back.
A list of the musicians who appeared over the weekend is as follows :-
On accordion – Chris Oxtoby from Aylesbury, Donnie Smith, Dianne Mearns, Colin Johnston, Alex Morrison, James Corbett, Dave Millward, Lindsay Weir, Colin Garvin, Jim Halcrow, Alan Nicolson, Iain Cathcart, Shirley Campbell, James Coutts, Mhairi Coutts, Marian Anderson, Walter Beattie, Iain Anderson, Sandy Legget, Lynne Christie, Archie MacKillop, Graham Bell, Hamish MacDougall, Lynne Gould, Scott Gordon, Scott Leslie, Gordon Shand, Ian Cameron and Jim Hardie, and I even managed to get a wee tune myself.
On fiddler we had Ian Anderson, Brian Gear, Mark MacDougall, Carol Dobson and Susan MacIntosh.
On piano we had Anne Black, Mabel Gray, Judith Robertson, Violet Morrison, Owen Fielding, Margaret Scollay, Shauna Flockhart, Isobel Hodgson, Dianne Campbell and Graham Berry.
On drums were Robert MacFadyen, George Gray, George Darling, Ian Tulloch, Ian Adamson, Duncan Christie and George Bremner.
On bass guitar were Suzanne Croy, Alan Scollay and Mark MacDougall.
Giving us a wee rendering on the Jews Harp was one of our most loyal supporters, all the way from Dallas in Morayshire, Angus McKinnon at 91 years young, and it was nice to get a tune on the pipes from another loyal supporter, Dave Ketchin. Also what a lovely surprise it was to see and hear that master of song from Dumfries, John Caskie.
I sincerely hope I have remembered to give everyone a mention, but if by chance someone has been missed out, please accept my apologies.
Arrangements for the first ‘Stanley Ceilidh’ of the new millennium are already well under way, the dates being the 3rd, 4th and 5th November, and the band for the Saturday night dance will be that of the one and only Graham Mitchell from Huntly, and I hope once again we can depend on your fantastic support which we have become so used to and for which we must thank you one and all, from the bottom of our hearts.
On behalf of Anne and myself may we wish you all the very best of health and happiness in the coming year with lots of good Scottish music on your menu.
Until we meet again, all the very best.
Oban Accordion & Fiddle Club – 25th Anniversary
by A. McFadyen
Thursday, 5th November, was a very special evening for our Club – it was our 25th Anniversary.
Our Club Chairperson, Hector McFadyen, welcomed everyone and especially those who travelled from afar to be with us. Our guests for the evening were Alistair Hunter and his son Russell on fiddle and daughter Eileen on piano. Eileen also sand the famous ‘Hills of Lorne’ written by her grandfather Charlie – what a talented family. Alistair opened the very first Club night and it was lovely to have him return for our special night.
Players for the evening (too many to mention individually) came from as far as Inverness, Dunoon, Lochgilphead, Inveraray, Balloch and even Colonsay.
At the break the cake was piped in by Benderloch’s Angus McColl and cut by one of our most loyal members, Mary Reid. Everyone was then treated to a piece of cake and a glass of wine. A big thank you must go to Ewen Cameron from Combie St. Catering who kindly donated the cake.
Everyone took to the stage at the end for a stramash to round off a tremendous night enjoyed by all.
The Jimmy Blue Gallery
Photographs
CD Reviews
John Ellis and his Highland Country Band – Thistle and the Shamrock – LCOM5282
George Meikle and the Lothian SDB – Scottish Dances Volume 10 – Highlander Music HRMCD510
Book Review
Bert Murray’s Bon Accord Collection – Traditional and Contemporary Scottish Fiddle Music from North East Scotland
Letters to the Editor
It would seem to me that the large majority of the nonperforming enthusiasts of our Scottish music are of the opinion that if you are a performer then you are making a tidy sum of money from the use of your talent. That may be the case if you go out with a duo, or even a trio, (and even then you won’t make a fortune) but a number of us, including myself, use a five piece band all the time. You might say, why not go out with a trio or duo? My own thoughts on that are that if you depend on four musicians for most of your work, then it is unfair to drop any one of them just when you feel like it.
Scottish musicians are not a money grabbing bunch, but if you have traveled a round trip of perhaps a couple of hundred miles, and sometimes more, and very often have to deal with snow, ice or fog en route, and are left with sixty to eighty pounds in your hand, and still have your traveling costs to take care of, then it doesn’t take a mathematician to work out the economics of your hobby. As far as an hourly rate goes, a band will often leave home between five and six at night and get back around three in the morning, not a huge hourly rate for professional people working very unsocial hours.
As far as Accordion and Fiddle clubs go, I feel that the admission charges are far too low. Some Committees are of the opinion that if they put up their admission charge, the general public simply would not turn out. This I feel is nonsense. Where else could one go and get four hours of top class entertainment for the princely sum of £2.50 or very often just £2 and occasionally a cup of tea and a biscuit thrown in.
Go and see a film at any cinema and you’ll have at least a fiver admission, or hire a video for a night and it will cost you £3. Accordion Clubs don’t just happen, Committees put in a lot of hard work and sacrifice a lot of their own time and on almost all occasions do it completely free of charge, a fact which I am sure the general public appreciate and would support their efforts by gladly accepting a slightly higher admission charge which in turn would allow Committees to put a lot more five, or even six piece bands on their annual Syllabus.
I, like many others, have been going round the Clubs for a very long time and I continually hear the remark ‘Oh what a grand night’s entertainment, where else would you get a night like that for just a couple of pounds’. In the light of that I feel that Accordion Club supporters would have no qualms about paying a little extra at the door. The majority of Clubs hold about 9 meetings in any one season. I can’t see anyone objecting to an extra £9 spread over nine months. Even at £4 admission, that only amounts to £36 spread over 9 months for 36 hours of top class entertainment – quite a bargain I would have thought.
Another point I would like to make is the fact that the Gaelic Societies and Folk Societies throughout the country are handed large sums of money, I’m led to believe, mainly from the Arts Councils, to promote their culture. Why not our own traditional Scottish Dance music, surely something has to be done about that. Our SDM is surely just as important as any other part of our culture. I feel it is time we, the performers public, spoke up and made ourselves heard where it really matters because I’ll defy anyone to give me a watertight reason why our traditional SDM should not be supported alongside any of our other important traditional cultures.
As far as air time goes, one can turn on the radio and you can pick up folk music or Gaelic music at just about any time of the day or night (especially the former) and that applies to television as well to a certain extent. But, where oh where, is our traditional SDM, the music that thousands upon thousands of enthusiasts dance to all over Scotland, England, Ireland and in many other parts of the world. The boffins in charge of the airwaves seem to think the 45 minutes a week is enough to satisfy our needs. How wrong they are!
Come on lads and lasses, let’s hear from you. I know through conversations over the years that quite a substantial number of you feel the same way as I do. Meantime, keep the flag flying as long as you can afford to.
Bill Black, Leaside, Stanley
I am writing to express my gratitude to so many of the love and support given to me and my family during Jimmy’s sudden illness and death.
How proud (and amazed) he would have been had he known how many people traveled – some great distances – to pay their respects to him in Forgandenny Church. The many musicians present made the hymn-singing truly memorable and we were so pleased that many of you came to the hotel afterwards, giving us an opportunity of meeting and thanking you.
Robbie Shepherd’s contribution, also, helped to make the occasion a celebration of Jimmy’s life and music, which is what we had hoped for. The beautiful floral tributes from the Association and various clubs and the wonderful letters and messages, which gave us an insight into how others regarded Jimmy, have helped to make it easier for me and the family to cope with this huge change in our lives.
Our sincere thanks to all
Joan Blue
Take the Floor – Saturdays at 6.30pm with Robbie Shepherd
5th Feb 2000 – West Telferton Cale CB
12th Feb 2000 – Hector McFadyen SDB
19th Feb 2000 – Wayne Robertson SDB
26th Feb 2000 – OB – Elgin Town Hall – John Ellis & the Highland Country Band
4th Mar 2000 – Sandy Legget & the Carseloch CB
11th Mar 2000 – Allan MacIntosh & the Heather SDB
18th Mar 2000 – John Renton SDB
25th Mar 2000 – OB – Paisley Town Hall – Alasdair MacCuish & the Black Rose CB
CLUB DIARY
Aberdeen (Dee Motel) – 29th Feb 2000 – Jim Lindsay Trio
Alnwick (White Swan Hotel) – members only 9th Feb 2000 – Walter Perrie
Annan (St Andrew’s Social Club) - 20th Feb 2000 – Lyne Valley Band
Arbroath (Viewfield Hotel) - 6th Feb 2000 – Deirdre Adamson
Armadale (Masonic Hall) – 3rd Feb 2000 – Alan Crookston SDB
Balloch (St. Kessog’s Hall) – 20th Feb 2000 – Alan Gardiner SDB
Banchory (Burnett Arms Hotel) – 28th Feb 2000 - tbc
Banff & District (Banff Springs Hotel) – 23rd Feb 2000 – Ian Johnston SDB
Beith & District (Hotel de Croft, Dalry) – 21st Feb 2000 – Charlie Kirkpatrick Trio
Belford (Community Club) – 24th Feb 2000 – Robert Whitehead
Biggar (Municipal Hall) – 13th Feb 2000 – Club Night
Blairgowrie (Moorfield Hotel) - 8th Feb 2000 – Paul Anderson
Bromley (Trinity United Reform Church) - 8th Feb 2000 – John Stevens
Button Key (Windygates Institute) – 10th Feb 2000 – Gary Blair SDB
Campsie (Glazert House Hotel) - 1st Feb 2000 – Charlie Kirkpatrick Trio
Carlisle (Border Regiment Club, Carlisle Castle) - 10th Feb 2000 – Julie Best & Ron Hodgson
Castle Douglas (Ernespie House Hotel) – 15th Feb 2000 – George Meikle & the Lothian
Coalburn (Miners’ Welfare) - 17th Feb 2000 - George Meikle & the Lothian
Crathes (Crathes Hall, Banchory) - 13th Feb 2000 – All musicians welcome
Crieff & District (Arduthie Hotel) 3rd Feb 2000 – Jim Johnstone SDB
Cults (Cults Sports & Social Club) 9th Feb 2000 – Gordon Pattullo
Dalriada (Argyll Arms Hotel, Lochgilphead) 15th Feb 2000 – Tom Alexander
Dingwall (National Hotel) – 2nd Feb 2000 – Mark MacDougall & Friends
Dunblane (Westlands Hotel) – 15th Feb 2000 – John Morgan
Dunfermline (Headwell Bowling Club) – 8th Feb 2000 – George Meikle & the Lothian
Dunoon & Cowal (McColl’s Hotel) 4th Feb 2000 – Jim McGuire
East Kilbride (Sweepers, Cambuslang) – 24th Feb 2000 – Donald McLeod Trio
Ellon (Station Hotel) – 22nd Feb 2000 – Alistair Hunter Trio
Fintry (Fintry Sports Centre) – 28th Feb 2000 – Gordon Pattullo
Forfar (Plough Inn) - 27th Feb 2000 – Dick Black Band
Forres (Brig Motel) – 9th Feb 2000 – Jim Lindsay Duo
Galashiels (Abbotsford Arms Hotel) – 3rd Feb 2000 – George Meikle & the Lothian
Galston (Barr Castle Social Club) – 14th Feb 2000 – Seamus O’Sullivan
Glendale (Black Bull Hotel – Wooler) – 17th Feb 2000 – Andrew Knight Band
Glenfarg (Lomond Hotel) - 2nd Feb 2000 – John Morgan
Glenrothes (Victoria Hall, Coaltown of Balgownie) - 29th Feb 2000 – Clun Night with the Isles Family
Gretna (Halcrow Stadium) - 6th Feb 2000 – Gordon Pattullo
Highland (Drumossie Hotel) – 21st Feb 2000 – Thurso A&F Club
Inveraray (Loch Fyne Hotel) - 9th Feb 2000 – Archie John McVicar Trio
Isle of Skye – (The Royal Hotel, Portree) - 3rd Feb 2000 – The Black Rose CB
Islesteps (The Embassy Hotel) – 1st Feb 2000 – Bruce Lindsay Trio
Kelso (Ednam House Hotel) – 23rd Feb 2000 – Jim Lindsay (3-row)
Kintore (Torryburn Hotel) – 2nd Feb 2000 – Graeme Mitchell SDB
Lanark (Masonic Hall) - 28th Feb 2000 – Allan Smith SDB
Langholm (Crown Hotel) – 9th Feb 2000 – Scott Gordon
Lesmahagow (Masonic Hall) – 10th Feb 2000 – Jock Fraser Duo
Lewis & Harris (Stornoway Legion) - 3rd Feb 2000 - tbc
Livingston (Cairn Hotel) - 14th Feb 2000 – Burn Brothers (nb Monday)
Lockerbie (Queen’s Hotel) - 29th Feb 2000 – Ian Holmes Trio
Mauchline (Sorn Village Hall) 15th Feb 2000 – James Paterson (Peebles)
Montrose (Park Hotel) – 2nd Feb 2000 - AGM
Muirhead (Belmont Arms, Meigle) - 20th Feb 2000 – All players welcome
Newmill-on-Teviot (Newmill Country Inn) - 2nd Feb 2000 – Wattie Beattie & Friends
Newtongrange (Dean Tavern) – 28th Feb 2000 – Michael Philip & Paul Clancy
North East (Royal British Legion, Keith) – 1st Feb 2000 – Neil Dawson SDB
Oban (McTavish’s Kitchen) – 3rd Feb 2000 – Nicol McLaren SDB
Orkney (Ayre Hotel, Kirkwall) –
Peebles (Green Tree Hotel) – 24th Feb 2000 – Black Rose CB
Perth (Salutation Hotel) – 15th Feb 2000 – Sandy Legget Trio
Premier NI (Camlin Function Rooms) - 1st Feb 2000 – Paddy Neary
Renfrew (Masonic Hall, Broadloan) – 8th Feb 2000 – Angie MacEachern Band
Rothbury (Queen’s Head) - 3rd Feb 2000 – Marian Anderson SDB
Selkirk (Cricket Club) - 10th Feb 2000 – The Big Squeeze
Shetland (Shetland Hotel, Lerwick) -
Stirling (Terraces Hotel) - 13th Feb 2000 – Michael Philip SDB
Sutherland (Rogart Hall) - 26th Feb 2000 – Iain MacPhail SDB
Thornhill (Masonic Hall) - 9th Feb 2000 – Alistair McCulloch Duo
Thurso (Pentland Hotel) – 7th Feb 2000 – Local Night
Turriff (Royal Oak Hotel) – 3rd Feb 2000 – The Redcoats
Tynedale (Hexham Ex Service Club) – 17th Feb 2000 - tbc
Wick (McKay’s Hotel) – 15th Feb 2000 – MacKa’s SDB
Yarrow (Gordon Arms) - 16th Feb 2000 – Scott Leslie SDB
THERE WERE CLUB REPORTS FROM :-
1. Aberdeen
2. Alnwick
3. Annan
4. Arbroath
5. Banchory
6. Banff & District
7. Beith
8. Biggar
9. Blairgowrie
10. Button Key
11. Campsie
12. Carlisle
13. Coalburn
14. Crieff
15. Cults
16. Dingwall & District
17. Dunblane
18. Dunfermline
19. Dunoon & Cowal
20. East Kilbride
21. Fintry
22. Forres
23. Galston
24. Glendale
25. Glenrothes
26. Gretna
27. Highland
28. Inveraray
29. Isle of Skye
30. Islesteps
31. Kelso
32. Kintore
33. Lanark
34. Lesmahagow
35. Livingston
36. Montrose
37. Newmill-on-Teviot
38. Newtongrange
39. North East
40. Oban
41. Peebles
42. Perth
43. Premier
44. Renfrew
45. Rothbury
46. Stirling
47. Sutherland
48. Thornhill
49. Turriff
50. Tynedale
51. Wick
52. Yarrow
CLUB DIRECTORY AS AT OCT 1998
(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. Armadale A&F Club (Oct 1978? or 80) originally called Bathgate Club (for 2 months) Closed
6. Balloch A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per January 1978 issue – present)
7. Banchory A&F Club (1978 – present)
8. Banff & District A&F Club (Oct 1973 – present)
9. Beith & District A&F Club (Sept 1972 – per first edition – present)
10. Belford A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
11. Biggar A&F Club (Oct 1974 – present)
12. Blairgowrie A&F Club (
13. Bromley A&F Club
14. Button Key A&F Club (
15. Campbeltown A&F Club (
16. Campsie A&F Club (Nov 95 – present)
17. Carlisle A&F Club (joined Sept 1993 -
18. Castle Douglas A&F Club (c Sept 1980 – present)
19. Coalburn A&F Club (
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. East Kilbride A&F Club (Sept 1980)
29. Ellon A&F Club (
30. Fintry A&F Club (Dec 1972 – reformed Jan 1980 – present)
31. Forfar A&F Club (
32. Forres A&F Club (Jan 1978)
33. Galashiels A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
34. Galston A&F Club (Oct 1969 – per first edition – closed March 2006)
35. Glendale Accordion Club (Jan 1973)
36. Glenfarg A&F Club (formed 1988 joined Assoc Mar 95 -
37. Glenrothes A&F Club (Mar 93?
38. 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)
39. Highland A&F Club (Inverness) (Nov 1973 – present)
40. Inveraray A&F Club (Feb 1991 - present)
41. Islay A&F Club (23 Apr 93 -
42. Islesteps A&F Club (Jan 1981 – present – n.b. evolved from the original Dumfries Club)
43. Isle of Skye A&F Club (June 1983 – present)
44. Kelso A&F Club (May 1976 – present)
45. Kintore A&F Club (
46. Ladybank A&F Club (joined Apr 98 but formed
47. Lanark A&F Club (joined Sept 96 – present)
48. Langholm A&F Club (Oct 1967 - present)
49. Lesmahagow A&F Club (Nov 1979 – closed May 2005)
50. Lewis & Harris A&F Club (Aug 1994 -
51. Livingston A&F Club (Sept 1973 – present)
52. Lockerbie A&F Club (Nov 1973 - present)
53. Mauchline A&F Club (Sept 1983 - present)
54. Montrose A&F Club (joined Sept 1982 - present)
55. Muirhead A&F Club (Dec 1994 -
56. Newmill-on-Teviot (Hawick) (Formed late 1988 joined Assoc 1999
57. Newtongrange A&F Club (joined Sept 1977 - present)
58. North East A&F Club aka Keith A&FC (Sept 1971 - present)
59. Oban A&F Club (Nov 1975 - present)
60. Orkney A&F Club (Mar 1978 - present)
61. Peebles A&F Club (26 Nov 1981 - present)
62. Perth & District A&F Club (Aug 1970 - present)
63. Premier A&F Club NI (April 1980)
64. Renfrew A&F Club (1984 -
65. Rothbury Accordion Club (7th Feb 1974) orig called Coquetdale
66. Selkirk A&F Club (
67. Shetland A&F Club (Sept 1978 - present)
68. Stirling A&F Club (Oct 1991 - )
69. Sutherland A&F Club (
70. Thornhill A&F Club (joined Oct 1983 – see Nov 83 edition – closed April 2014)
71. Thurso A&F Club (Oct 1981 - present)
72. Turriff A&F Club (March 1982 - present)
73. Tynedale A&F Club (Nov 1980 - present)
74. Vancouver
75. Wick A&F Club (Oct 1975 - present)
76. Yarrow (prev known as Etterick & Yarrow) (Jan 1989 -
Not on official list at the start of the season (closed, did not renew membership or omitted in error?)
77. Acharacle & District A&F Club (cMay 1988)
78. Ayr A&F Club (Nov 1983 – per Nov 83 edition) Closed
79. Bonchester Accordion Club (Closed?)
80. Bridge of Allan (Walmer) A&F Club (Walmer Hotel, Bridge of Allan) (c March 1982)
81. Brigmill A&F Club (Oct 1990) Closed
82. Buchan A&F Club
83. Callander A&F Club (
84. Campbeltown & District A&F Club (c Dec 1980)
85. Cleland (cNov 1981 – March 1985) originally called Drumpellier A&F Club (for 2 months)
86. Club Accord
87. Coquetdale A&F Club (Feb 1974 or c1976/77 – 1981/2? – became Rothbury?)
88. Coupar Angus A&F Club (cSept 1978 - ?)
89. Cumnock A&F Club (October 1976 - forced to close cDec 1982 - see Jan 83 Editorial)
90. Denny & Dunipace A&F Club (Feb 1981)
91. Derwentside A&F Club
92. Dornoch A&F Club (first mention in directory 1986)
93. Dumfries Accordion Club (Oughtons) (April 1965 at the Hole in the Wa’)
94. Dunbar Cement Works A&F Club (Closed?)
95. Dundee & District A&F Club (1970? – 1995?)
96. Edinburgh A&F Club (Apr 1981) prev called Chrissie Leatham A&F Club (Oct 1980)
97. Falkirk A&F Club (Sept 1978 - )
98. Fort William A&F Club (21st Oct 1980 – per Dec 1980 B&F)
99. Gorebridge (cNov 1981) originally called Arniston A&F Club (for 2 months)
100. Greenhead Accordion Club (on the A69 between Brampton and Haltwistle)
101. Kirriemuir A&F Club (cSept 1981)
102. M.A.F.I.A. (1966 – 1993?)
103. Monklands A&F Club (Nov 1978 – closed cApril 1983)
104. Morecambe A&F Club (joined Sept 1982)
105. Mull A&F Club
106. Newcastleton Accordion Club
107. New Cumnock A&F Club (cMarch 1979)
108. Newton St Boswells Accordion Club (17th Oct 1972 see Apr 1984 obituary for Angus Park)
109. Ormiston Miners’ Welfare Society A&F Club (closed April 1992 – per Sept Editorial)
110. Reading Scottish Fiddlers (cMarch 1997
111. Renfrew A&F Club (original club 1974/5 lapsed after a few years then again in 1984)
112. Straiton Accordion Club (c1968 – closed March 1979)
113. Stranraer & District Accordion Club (1974 – per first edition)
114. Torthorwald A&F Club (near Dumfries)
115. Tranent A&F Club
116. Walmer (Bridge of Allan) A&F Club
117. Wellbank A&F Club
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