Scottish Country Dance Bands 3
The Irish Are Partial to Jim Cameron’s Music
At the last three annual Ghillies’ Balls at Balmoral the music has been provided by Jim Cameron & his Band.
During the supper break at the first Ball Jim, a former ploughman was introduced to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Margaret.
Her Majesty thanked him “for playing so delightfully”.
For Jim, who has much experience of playing for Royalty, that was his greatest moment.
Jim Cameron, whose home is in Kirriemuir, was born at Fullerton Farm, near Montrose, and spent his schooldays at Carsegowrie Farm, Aberlemno and Dunkenny Farm, Eassie, where his father was grieve.
Prizes for Ploughing
“I started work as a ploughman and was then in business as an aerated water manufacturer from 1926 until 1950. Even so, I liked to keep an interest in the land and was a keen competitor at ploughing matches”.
He is the proud possessor of two Highland Society medals and a gold medal for ploughing.
“I played at my first dance at the age of 14 at Cookston Farm, along with my father and a cousin from Newtyle – three fiddles, which was considered a band in these days.
“I have been playing the fiddle and had my own band for a very long number of years. In the early days, of course, it was just a case of playing around one’s home places and it is really since regular broadcasts of Scottish dance music commenced about 1945 that we have become known throughout the country and further afield”.
The Players
The personnel of the band has been unchanged for five years.
May Cameron (piano accordion) is Jim’s youngest daughter. She has her L.R.A.M. and A.R.C.M. degrees for piano and teaches music.
Bill Powrie (button-key accordion) took his Diploma in Agriculture at Edinburgh and is a representative with a Perth agricultural firm. His home is at Bankhead, Dupplin, Perth. He is a son of the well-known accordionist, Will Powrie, and brother of bandleader Ian Powrie.
Dod Michie (trumpet) lives in Ardler and is employed at Newtyle Bulb Farm.
Nigel Alexander (piano) has a joinery business in Alyth. He was one of the original members of the Hawthorne Band.
Henry Webster (drums) lives in Kirriemuir and is employed in one of the jute factories.
Visits to Ireland
The band has travelled the length and breadth of Scotland many times over.
!And there are many places in England to which we have been asked and been unable to visit, as the players’ work does not always permit such long journeys.
“However we have played in the North of England and also in the Midlands and London. Recently we had engagements in Coventry, Nottingham and Birmingham”.
In the last five years the band has completed seven tours of Ireland. During their second visit they were asked to make 104 recordings for a programme on Radio Eireann which was scheduled to run for two years. The programme continued for nearly four years.
No Mixing
“When we first went to Ireland we were rather apprehensive about dances with names such as ‘Walls of Limerick’ and ‘Siege of Ennis’, but soon found that our music suits the Irish dances perfectly.
“They do not have mixed programme of ceili and modern dancing such as we have here, but keep the teo type of dances quite separate. The largest number of dancers to whom we have played was in the City Hall, Cork, when 3,000 were dancing”.
That number has been nearly equalled in some of the marquee dances in Scotland – particularly Keith Show at which the Cameron Band have played for the past 10 years.
The band may well hold the record for the Variety of places in which they have played – castles, mansions, large modern ballrooms, town halls, village halls, marquees, bothies and barns – and in the open-air perched on top of lorries as platforms.
“When Bertram Mills’ circus visited Arbroath and Dundee in 1959, we took part in Sunday concerts in the ‘Big Top’. We enjoyed the opportunity of getting behind the scenes in the circus world”.
The band have made a number of records for Decca – “through which we have made friends all over the world”.
The Irish Are Partial to Jim Cameron’s Music
At the last three annual Ghillies’ Balls at Balmoral the music has been provided by Jim Cameron & his Band.
During the supper break at the first Ball Jim, a former ploughman was introduced to the Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Princess Margaret.
Her Majesty thanked him “for playing so delightfully”.
For Jim, who has much experience of playing for Royalty, that was his greatest moment.
Jim Cameron, whose home is in Kirriemuir, was born at Fullerton Farm, near Montrose, and spent his schooldays at Carsegowrie Farm, Aberlemno and Dunkenny Farm, Eassie, where his father was grieve.
Prizes for Ploughing
“I started work as a ploughman and was then in business as an aerated water manufacturer from 1926 until 1950. Even so, I liked to keep an interest in the land and was a keen competitor at ploughing matches”.
He is the proud possessor of two Highland Society medals and a gold medal for ploughing.
“I played at my first dance at the age of 14 at Cookston Farm, along with my father and a cousin from Newtyle – three fiddles, which was considered a band in these days.
“I have been playing the fiddle and had my own band for a very long number of years. In the early days, of course, it was just a case of playing around one’s home places and it is really since regular broadcasts of Scottish dance music commenced about 1945 that we have become known throughout the country and further afield”.
The Players
The personnel of the band has been unchanged for five years.
May Cameron (piano accordion) is Jim’s youngest daughter. She has her L.R.A.M. and A.R.C.M. degrees for piano and teaches music.
Bill Powrie (button-key accordion) took his Diploma in Agriculture at Edinburgh and is a representative with a Perth agricultural firm. His home is at Bankhead, Dupplin, Perth. He is a son of the well-known accordionist, Will Powrie, and brother of bandleader Ian Powrie.
Dod Michie (trumpet) lives in Ardler and is employed at Newtyle Bulb Farm.
Nigel Alexander (piano) has a joinery business in Alyth. He was one of the original members of the Hawthorne Band.
Henry Webster (drums) lives in Kirriemuir and is employed in one of the jute factories.
Visits to Ireland
The band has travelled the length and breadth of Scotland many times over.
!And there are many places in England to which we have been asked and been unable to visit, as the players’ work does not always permit such long journeys.
“However we have played in the North of England and also in the Midlands and London. Recently we had engagements in Coventry, Nottingham and Birmingham”.
In the last five years the band has completed seven tours of Ireland. During their second visit they were asked to make 104 recordings for a programme on Radio Eireann which was scheduled to run for two years. The programme continued for nearly four years.
No Mixing
“When we first went to Ireland we were rather apprehensive about dances with names such as ‘Walls of Limerick’ and ‘Siege of Ennis’, but soon found that our music suits the Irish dances perfectly.
“They do not have mixed programme of ceili and modern dancing such as we have here, but keep the teo type of dances quite separate. The largest number of dancers to whom we have played was in the City Hall, Cork, when 3,000 were dancing”.
That number has been nearly equalled in some of the marquee dances in Scotland – particularly Keith Show at which the Cameron Band have played for the past 10 years.
The band may well hold the record for the Variety of places in which they have played – castles, mansions, large modern ballrooms, town halls, village halls, marquees, bothies and barns – and in the open-air perched on top of lorries as platforms.
“When Bertram Mills’ circus visited Arbroath and Dundee in 1959, we took part in Sunday concerts in the ‘Big Top’. We enjoyed the opportunity of getting behind the scenes in the circus world”.
The band have made a number of records for Decca – “through which we have made friends all over the world”.