TONY REID OF BALNAKILLY
By Norrie Y. Williams
“500 folk in shorts and gym shoes jumping and screaming – coorse!”
Linking Pitlochry with Bridge of Cally at the southern end of Glenshee, the A924 road rises to around 1,300 feet above sea level at its highest point, giving spectacular views of the Perthshire hills in every quarter. Then as it drops down in a south easterly direction into picturesque Strathardle and at a height of about 750 feet, it winds through the attractive village of Kirkmichael. About half a mile from the centre of this community, in its own partially wooded estate stands the ‘Big Hoose’.
On a sunny but breezy day last August I had an appointment at this very house. As I got out of the car near the front door, the laird, a very erect six footer in kilt and open neck check shirt came out to greet me and ushered me into the conservatory where we ensconced in large wicker chairs.
Our one and only precious meeting previously had been in June, 1956, in Montrose, at the Rosemount Rooms where he was leading his own Scottish Broadcasting Band at the regular mid-week hop. His name and that of the ‘Big Hoose’ are combined in the title of a fine reel tune composed by well known Kirriemuir fiddler, Angus Cameron – ‘Tony Reid of Balnakilly’.
But why this visit? Well, Tony, always a man of ideas recently had the brainwave of producing a couple of albums featuring some recordings of his band made in the ‘50’s. As I have always been an avid fan of the group, these new releases – of which more later – revived many happy memories and made me determined to find out something of this man and what makes him tick, musically. I was in for a few surprises. His approach to arranging and playing our traditional music is both interesting and refreshing and gives food for thought.
MUSIC – THE FORMATIVE YEARS
As his father’s business required two bases, one on each side of the border, Tony, the youngest of three, was actually born in Sussex in 1926, but happily his earliest memories are of “God’s own country” – Balnakilly. His introduction to music was in the serious side of the art, not surprisingly as his mother was a concert pianist.
He started piano lessons at the age of 5, but fortunately he was exposed to ‘real’ music in the person of an old worthy Harry Livingston, who sat and played his fiddle outside the farm bothy which was just round the corner from the big house. By the time he was three or four, Tony had become a Scottish dance music enthusiast.
At the age of seven, again following family tradition, he went to prep school in Kent and within two years was playing the cello in addition to piano.
Next stop, Harrow Public School, and Tony’s classical music training blossomed still further with the addition of double bass and organ, the latter superseding piano.
As a cellist he was involved in orchestral and chamber music with the Harrow School and Harrow Philharmonic Orchestras, and as an organist with choral music (surprise, surprise) and other classical music of all kinds.
But amidst all this erudition there was one saving grace, one escape route so to speak in the shape of a ‘box’ under the bed, a 24 bass Hohner piano key instrument. Tony had acquired this, because strange as it may seem, his mother albeit a concert pianist, possessed a piano accordion and as a 13 or 14 year old he had been intrigued by this.
The musical powers that be at Harrow might not have looked on Tony as the ‘flavour of the month’ had they known that frequently on returning from playing cello at some culture function he would have a tune on the box, but he was fortunate in that he started his musical training at Harrow under a truly great musician and a Scot to boot, Dr Henry Havelgal. The good doctor had a sneaking affection for all things Scottish and would undoubtedly have given young Tony every encouragement in his traditional excursions. Interesting to note too, that the assistant music master and principal organ teacher, Hector McCullough, also hailed from north of the border, Perth to be precise.
THE FIRST BAND AND THE SCOTTISH REFORM SOCIETY
When Tony left Harrow in 1944, age 17 ½, having volunteered for the forces, he was the proud possessor of a single coupler 80 bass Italian made ‘Semprini’ accordion, which he played until his demob in 1948, by which time he had reached the rank of Captain in the Irish Guards Armour.
Then followed 3 years at Cambridge University studying agriculture and estate management. Having had a good grounding in Scottish Country and Highland dancing at a tender age with both ‘Dancie Reid’ (Newtyle) and piper/dancer Lily McMillan (Kirkmichael), it was only natural that our man would home in on the Cambridge University Strathspey and Reel Society but and I quote…”500 folk in shorts and gym shoes jumping and screaming with the music going about eight times the proper speed and run by a couple of research students from Liverpool – coorse!”
This was more than Scottish flesh and blood could stand but the sheer ‘awfulness’ of the whole set-up produced an excellent spin-off and antidote. It brought together a number of like-minded enthusiasts and through this Tony met up with four fellow students, all Scots, who were also competent musicians.
A five piece band was duly formed with the specific purpose of producing some 12” 78 r.p.m. Scottish dance records which could actually be used for set dancing – the visiting standard 10” commercial discs did not cater for this. To complete the perfect aforementioned antidote a limited membership group was formed known as ‘The Scottish Reform Society’, which upheld the true traditions of our dances.
ON THE AIR
Authentic Scottish dance bands were a rarity in the south of England, word got around and things took off with a vengeance. Oxford, London, Bury St. Edmonds, Chelmsford, - in no time at all Tony’s band was overbooked and they found themselves playing almost out of control.
For the record the band comprised Tony himself on lead accordion (a 120 bass Paolo Soprani), on fiddle Alastair MacDonell, now minister of St. Mary’s, Haddington, Lucy Ashton on second accordion, Bill Leslie on piano and David Bouser on drums. Incidentally, Alastair and Bill are members of the current ‘Auld Reekie’ band, which has recently put out a double album of Scottish Country Dances ’Capital Reels’ on the Lismor label.
Three of Tony’s group were at that time Aberdeen based, one being Lucy who handled the bulk of the band bookings.
Once, in 1950 during a university vacation, she said to Tony, “You know we’ve got a job in Beechgrove Terrace today?” “What job’s that?” “The B.B.C.” A successful audition with Herbert Wiseman resulted in three broadcasts for the Cambridge band.
This was when I first heard of Tony, and was impressed by the fresh sound of the group, liked the choice of tunes and especially his way of playing jigs.
I remember being very taken with their version of ‘My Wife’s a Wanton Wee Thing’ and in a rummage around afterwards was delighted to find it in a ‘Kerr’s Collection’. The band had rough edges, yes maybe, but it was swinging and had a sparkle. The two accordions, by the way, played in unison.
THE ‘MESSAGE’
For the first six months after the completion of his university training and before taking over Balnakilly Estate from his father, Tony worked as a post graduate student with one of the great hill farmers of the Aberfeldy district Michael McDermott, whose eldest son, Duncan was and still is, an excellent piper (currently a member of the celebrated ‘Atholl Pipers’) and an accordion player. He and Tony got stuck into the music especially the pipe variety (good lads), Tony learning quite a bit about some of the extra grace notes patterns, ‘birls’, grips etc, and how to simulate these on the accordion. They teamed up on pipes and box doing a number of concert turns in the Aberfeldy area with considerable success, except in the eyes of other big pipers, who considered it the ultimate desecration.
Other players who influenced Tony over the years especially in the field of pipe music were Iain McMillan of Kirkmichael and Bobby MacLeod of Tobermory.
The former, a shepherd and a superb Scottish fiddler was the youngest brother of Lily McMillan, the piper and dancing tutor mentioned earlier. He emigrated to Rhodesia after the war but made frequent visits home and during these sojourns he and Tony had long musical sessions far into the night, with our man learning a lot of fiddle and pipe tunes which were completely new to him.
Tony’s first meeting with Bobby MacLeod was at a dance in the wee Blackwater Hall in Glenshee, where all the Scottish broadcasting bands used to play.
Tony was introduced to Bobby, who had heard him through the Cambridge band broadcasts, invited him up to have a tune (on Alasdair Downie’s accordion).
After the dance, the whole band went back to Balnakilly for refreshments and a ‘session’ and from the first meeting Tony and Bobby became firm friends with frequent subsequent visits by the Tobermory maestro. “I was influenced by him, he played pipe music unashamedly, it wasn’t being watered down, or turned into a diatonic scale, it was being played the way it should be. Suddenly, one heard a whole different sound”. So say all of us.
And one mustn’t forget the contribution by yet another eminent Scottish dance band leader, Jim Cameron of Kirriemuir. He it was who encouraged Tony to form a band in the first place and gave help and advice whenever he could.
It would be appropriate at this point to put down some of Tony’s thoughts on the Scottish dance music scene of the 50’s and on his own approach to arranging and presenting our music.
THE SECOND BAND (GLENDARUEL)
On the 1950’s – “There was a watershed at that time. We had a lot of indigenous Scottish players, fiddlers and accordionists, mainly self taught but with the ability to play Scottish music the way it’s meant to be, beautiful with a tremendous lilt and lift – few had any musical training, mostly self taught and playing be ear. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Then we had the professional musicians, the ……… of this world (no names, no pack-drill), you couldn’t fault them musically, but they did not have this magic element, the missing factor, “the message’ so difficult to define, it’s the 40/50% that is not on the music. Without it Scottish music is a jumble of notes.
Now somewhere the challenge was to combine the two, and this is what we attempted to do. We were trying to couple the ability to play Scottish music with a fairly thorough musical training”.
To interrupt the flow here briefly. After taking over the reins at Balnakilly, Tony had managed to team up with four willing collaborators who were prepared to meet the above mentioned challenge to formulate and develop their own style together. On fiddle Derek Auld, piano Bill Hendry (Dundee) and latterly Eric Stewart (Luncarty), double bass John Casey (a native of Manchester but resident in Perth) and lastly on drums Wattie Crole (Blairgowrie) who talked Tony into forming the group.
Because it used the march ‘Glendaruel Highlanders’ as its signature tune, it became known as the ‘Glendaruel Scottish Dance Band’, broadcasting regularly from 1954 until its disbandment in 1959 due to business and family pressures etc.
COUNTERPOINT
But back to Tony on arrangement and presentation :- “There is an incredible similarity between classical and Scottish music. A lot of folk don’t appreciate that classical composers like Handel wrote a wealth of dance music, gavottes, minuet’s etc for dancing and listening.
Handel had this fantastic counterpoint in all his light music and it was this harmonisation which Scottish music so desperately needed.
Applying this counterpoint idea to the arrangement, not only gives beat a harmony, it is also directional. Arranged correctly it will lead the music to climax or take it out of a climax, it will point it this way, point it that way. This comes through automatically and everybody gets caught up in the infection of it, with the harmonic sequences and bass line progressions steering the whole thing”.
By this time I was agog and standing in six feet of water (metaphorically speaking) but Tony clarified the situation by demonstrating counterpoint on his box with the tune ‘Hot Punch’. “You know what a figured or ground bass is?” I didn’t! So he showed me – it is a kind of fundamental walking bass which not only harmonises with the melody line but also provides a basis for chord sequences. The water level dropped. Here endeth the lesson.
THE ‘BOXES’
And with the mention of box – the instrument in question is a very fine, grey, mother of pearl, hand made Hohner Morino IV of ’51-’52 vintage. It’s one previous owner, Bobby MacLeod, kept it for a short time because it had octavina tuning, which although having a fine tone range, did not give three reeds in line for the ‘Scottish sound’. Tony had two new sets of reeds made by Hohner to rectify this and used the instrument throughout the life of the Glendaruel band.
Sandwiched for a short period between the Paolo Soprani accordion of the Cambridge band – a sharp sound with a good bite – and a Morino IV, was a Frontaline which had a kinder sound. Amplification was becoming more prevalent, so tone rather than volume was the order of the day.
THE SOUND OF THE ‘50’s
I was resident in Bedfordshire when I first heard the ‘Glendaruel Band’ in 1955 and was completely ‘sent’. I corresponded briefly with Tony who was most punctilious and courteous in replying. Space precludes further enlargement here but I would strongly recommend all Scottish dance music enthusiasts to get these new tapes and hear them for themselves.
The first thing that strikes one is the strong synchronised beat of the double bass / bass drum combination which lifts and drives the whole thing along. Again to quote, “If you’ve got a really first class rhythm section behind you like Wattie, John and Bill, you have total freedom to use the left hand for on and off-beat dynamics. The whole thing gets caught in a swaying motion. Relax into it, let it drive you on, your job is to play the music and interpret it…”
And believe me, Tony practiced what he preached, the exciting bounce and lift of the music on these recordings, not to mention the first class bass lines bear out every word.
THE ‘60’S AND AFTER
After the demise of the ‘Glendaruel’ in 1959, Tony did spells relieving with other bands, e.g. Angus Fitchet’s and Bobby MacLeod’s, and in the late ‘60’s and ‘70’s he frequently provided double bass backing for groups during the musical evening at his ‘Edelweiss Hotel’ in Glen Derby. Naturally, he has a fund of stories of events that happened over the years, but sadly space permits only the briefest mention of two such incidents.
Bobby MacLeod was ill, and Tony took over the ‘hot seat’ at a big Scottish Country Dance in York with 800 present. Sharing the front line on fiddle was erstwhile band colleague, Derek Auld. He collected his instrument from its perch on the engine cowling of the new rear engined V.W. van, opened the case and there lay something like a curled up banana skin – the glue had melted! A stand in fiddle of sorts was borrowed and they got through.
On another occasion at a big ball at Blair Atholl with Bobby MacLeod’s band officiating, the lights got progressively dimmer and the amplification faded so that by midnight the place was in darkness save for a few candles. Reels and Highland dances were now out of the question, so Bobby, Pibroch MacKenzie and the rest of the band played the most fantastic modern swing music for the remainder of the function. But why had the lights failed? The electrical supply was from a water driven generator. To cope with the amplification demands, a second turbo generator had been installed, but no extra water – so!
For the last few years, Tony has been plagued by an affliction which traps the tendons causing the fingers to curl up. Despite two operations, the problem is still there and he can no longer play properly, but he is very philosophical about the whole thing, still enjoys listening to the music and keeps himself very busy helping his wife, Helen, with the family business of self catering cottages, log cabins etc.
Helen also runs the Balnakilly Riding Centre and is a professional coach in all forms of athletics.
Incidentally, one of Tony’s forbearers was Byron Ruadh, alias John Reid, born 1721, who eventually reached the rank of General in a Highland Regiment. He was also an eminent musician, a piper, flautist and composer, his most famous piece being ‘The Garb of Old Gaul’. It’s in the blood right enough!
Reluctantly, I had to leave the lovely setting of Balnakilly with its swimming pool, croquet lawns, horses etc., for another appointment – I had learned a lot and I could have listener for hours.
Box and Fiddle
February 1991
Update to “The Boxes” above.
I spoke on the phone to Tony on 21st March 2007 and he explained that while he and Helen were on holiday in South Africa in 1999 they received a phone call to say that their home, Balnakilly House, had been burned to the ground with the loss of the entire contents including Bobby MacLeod’s accordion, a grand piano, a double bass, his huge record collection, and irreplaceable photos and reel-to-reel recordings of ‘jam sessions’ with many of the famous Scottish Dance Bands of yesteryear.
It transpired that a man who had moved into the locality, and who seemed nice enough on the surface, was in fact an arsonist with 55 previous convictions. The fire authorities reckoned that he had deliberately set six fires in Balnakilly, hence the complete loss. All Tony and Helen were left with were the few items of clothing etc they had taken on holiday with them.
CT
On a sunny but breezy day last August I had an appointment at this very house. As I got out of the car near the front door, the laird, a very erect six footer in kilt and open neck check shirt came out to greet me and ushered me into the conservatory where we ensconced in large wicker chairs.
Our one and only precious meeting previously had been in June, 1956, in Montrose, at the Rosemount Rooms where he was leading his own Scottish Broadcasting Band at the regular mid-week hop. His name and that of the ‘Big Hoose’ are combined in the title of a fine reel tune composed by well known Kirriemuir fiddler, Angus Cameron – ‘Tony Reid of Balnakilly’.
But why this visit? Well, Tony, always a man of ideas recently had the brainwave of producing a couple of albums featuring some recordings of his band made in the ‘50’s. As I have always been an avid fan of the group, these new releases – of which more later – revived many happy memories and made me determined to find out something of this man and what makes him tick, musically. I was in for a few surprises. His approach to arranging and playing our traditional music is both interesting and refreshing and gives food for thought.
MUSIC – THE FORMATIVE YEARS
As his father’s business required two bases, one on each side of the border, Tony, the youngest of three, was actually born in Sussex in 1926, but happily his earliest memories are of “God’s own country” – Balnakilly. His introduction to music was in the serious side of the art, not surprisingly as his mother was a concert pianist.
He started piano lessons at the age of 5, but fortunately he was exposed to ‘real’ music in the person of an old worthy Harry Livingston, who sat and played his fiddle outside the farm bothy which was just round the corner from the big house. By the time he was three or four, Tony had become a Scottish dance music enthusiast.
At the age of seven, again following family tradition, he went to prep school in Kent and within two years was playing the cello in addition to piano.
Next stop, Harrow Public School, and Tony’s classical music training blossomed still further with the addition of double bass and organ, the latter superseding piano.
As a cellist he was involved in orchestral and chamber music with the Harrow School and Harrow Philharmonic Orchestras, and as an organist with choral music (surprise, surprise) and other classical music of all kinds.
But amidst all this erudition there was one saving grace, one escape route so to speak in the shape of a ‘box’ under the bed, a 24 bass Hohner piano key instrument. Tony had acquired this, because strange as it may seem, his mother albeit a concert pianist, possessed a piano accordion and as a 13 or 14 year old he had been intrigued by this.
The musical powers that be at Harrow might not have looked on Tony as the ‘flavour of the month’ had they known that frequently on returning from playing cello at some culture function he would have a tune on the box, but he was fortunate in that he started his musical training at Harrow under a truly great musician and a Scot to boot, Dr Henry Havelgal. The good doctor had a sneaking affection for all things Scottish and would undoubtedly have given young Tony every encouragement in his traditional excursions. Interesting to note too, that the assistant music master and principal organ teacher, Hector McCullough, also hailed from north of the border, Perth to be precise.
THE FIRST BAND AND THE SCOTTISH REFORM SOCIETY
When Tony left Harrow in 1944, age 17 ½, having volunteered for the forces, he was the proud possessor of a single coupler 80 bass Italian made ‘Semprini’ accordion, which he played until his demob in 1948, by which time he had reached the rank of Captain in the Irish Guards Armour.
Then followed 3 years at Cambridge University studying agriculture and estate management. Having had a good grounding in Scottish Country and Highland dancing at a tender age with both ‘Dancie Reid’ (Newtyle) and piper/dancer Lily McMillan (Kirkmichael), it was only natural that our man would home in on the Cambridge University Strathspey and Reel Society but and I quote…”500 folk in shorts and gym shoes jumping and screaming with the music going about eight times the proper speed and run by a couple of research students from Liverpool – coorse!”
This was more than Scottish flesh and blood could stand but the sheer ‘awfulness’ of the whole set-up produced an excellent spin-off and antidote. It brought together a number of like-minded enthusiasts and through this Tony met up with four fellow students, all Scots, who were also competent musicians.
A five piece band was duly formed with the specific purpose of producing some 12” 78 r.p.m. Scottish dance records which could actually be used for set dancing – the visiting standard 10” commercial discs did not cater for this. To complete the perfect aforementioned antidote a limited membership group was formed known as ‘The Scottish Reform Society’, which upheld the true traditions of our dances.
ON THE AIR
Authentic Scottish dance bands were a rarity in the south of England, word got around and things took off with a vengeance. Oxford, London, Bury St. Edmonds, Chelmsford, - in no time at all Tony’s band was overbooked and they found themselves playing almost out of control.
For the record the band comprised Tony himself on lead accordion (a 120 bass Paolo Soprani), on fiddle Alastair MacDonell, now minister of St. Mary’s, Haddington, Lucy Ashton on second accordion, Bill Leslie on piano and David Bouser on drums. Incidentally, Alastair and Bill are members of the current ‘Auld Reekie’ band, which has recently put out a double album of Scottish Country Dances ’Capital Reels’ on the Lismor label.
Three of Tony’s group were at that time Aberdeen based, one being Lucy who handled the bulk of the band bookings.
Once, in 1950 during a university vacation, she said to Tony, “You know we’ve got a job in Beechgrove Terrace today?” “What job’s that?” “The B.B.C.” A successful audition with Herbert Wiseman resulted in three broadcasts for the Cambridge band.
This was when I first heard of Tony, and was impressed by the fresh sound of the group, liked the choice of tunes and especially his way of playing jigs.
I remember being very taken with their version of ‘My Wife’s a Wanton Wee Thing’ and in a rummage around afterwards was delighted to find it in a ‘Kerr’s Collection’. The band had rough edges, yes maybe, but it was swinging and had a sparkle. The two accordions, by the way, played in unison.
THE ‘MESSAGE’
For the first six months after the completion of his university training and before taking over Balnakilly Estate from his father, Tony worked as a post graduate student with one of the great hill farmers of the Aberfeldy district Michael McDermott, whose eldest son, Duncan was and still is, an excellent piper (currently a member of the celebrated ‘Atholl Pipers’) and an accordion player. He and Tony got stuck into the music especially the pipe variety (good lads), Tony learning quite a bit about some of the extra grace notes patterns, ‘birls’, grips etc, and how to simulate these on the accordion. They teamed up on pipes and box doing a number of concert turns in the Aberfeldy area with considerable success, except in the eyes of other big pipers, who considered it the ultimate desecration.
Other players who influenced Tony over the years especially in the field of pipe music were Iain McMillan of Kirkmichael and Bobby MacLeod of Tobermory.
The former, a shepherd and a superb Scottish fiddler was the youngest brother of Lily McMillan, the piper and dancing tutor mentioned earlier. He emigrated to Rhodesia after the war but made frequent visits home and during these sojourns he and Tony had long musical sessions far into the night, with our man learning a lot of fiddle and pipe tunes which were completely new to him.
Tony’s first meeting with Bobby MacLeod was at a dance in the wee Blackwater Hall in Glenshee, where all the Scottish broadcasting bands used to play.
Tony was introduced to Bobby, who had heard him through the Cambridge band broadcasts, invited him up to have a tune (on Alasdair Downie’s accordion).
After the dance, the whole band went back to Balnakilly for refreshments and a ‘session’ and from the first meeting Tony and Bobby became firm friends with frequent subsequent visits by the Tobermory maestro. “I was influenced by him, he played pipe music unashamedly, it wasn’t being watered down, or turned into a diatonic scale, it was being played the way it should be. Suddenly, one heard a whole different sound”. So say all of us.
And one mustn’t forget the contribution by yet another eminent Scottish dance band leader, Jim Cameron of Kirriemuir. He it was who encouraged Tony to form a band in the first place and gave help and advice whenever he could.
It would be appropriate at this point to put down some of Tony’s thoughts on the Scottish dance music scene of the 50’s and on his own approach to arranging and presenting our music.
THE SECOND BAND (GLENDARUEL)
On the 1950’s – “There was a watershed at that time. We had a lot of indigenous Scottish players, fiddlers and accordionists, mainly self taught but with the ability to play Scottish music the way it’s meant to be, beautiful with a tremendous lilt and lift – few had any musical training, mostly self taught and playing be ear. Nothing wrong with that at all.
Then we had the professional musicians, the ……… of this world (no names, no pack-drill), you couldn’t fault them musically, but they did not have this magic element, the missing factor, “the message’ so difficult to define, it’s the 40/50% that is not on the music. Without it Scottish music is a jumble of notes.
Now somewhere the challenge was to combine the two, and this is what we attempted to do. We were trying to couple the ability to play Scottish music with a fairly thorough musical training”.
To interrupt the flow here briefly. After taking over the reins at Balnakilly, Tony had managed to team up with four willing collaborators who were prepared to meet the above mentioned challenge to formulate and develop their own style together. On fiddle Derek Auld, piano Bill Hendry (Dundee) and latterly Eric Stewart (Luncarty), double bass John Casey (a native of Manchester but resident in Perth) and lastly on drums Wattie Crole (Blairgowrie) who talked Tony into forming the group.
Because it used the march ‘Glendaruel Highlanders’ as its signature tune, it became known as the ‘Glendaruel Scottish Dance Band’, broadcasting regularly from 1954 until its disbandment in 1959 due to business and family pressures etc.
COUNTERPOINT
But back to Tony on arrangement and presentation :- “There is an incredible similarity between classical and Scottish music. A lot of folk don’t appreciate that classical composers like Handel wrote a wealth of dance music, gavottes, minuet’s etc for dancing and listening.
Handel had this fantastic counterpoint in all his light music and it was this harmonisation which Scottish music so desperately needed.
Applying this counterpoint idea to the arrangement, not only gives beat a harmony, it is also directional. Arranged correctly it will lead the music to climax or take it out of a climax, it will point it this way, point it that way. This comes through automatically and everybody gets caught up in the infection of it, with the harmonic sequences and bass line progressions steering the whole thing”.
By this time I was agog and standing in six feet of water (metaphorically speaking) but Tony clarified the situation by demonstrating counterpoint on his box with the tune ‘Hot Punch’. “You know what a figured or ground bass is?” I didn’t! So he showed me – it is a kind of fundamental walking bass which not only harmonises with the melody line but also provides a basis for chord sequences. The water level dropped. Here endeth the lesson.
THE ‘BOXES’
And with the mention of box – the instrument in question is a very fine, grey, mother of pearl, hand made Hohner Morino IV of ’51-’52 vintage. It’s one previous owner, Bobby MacLeod, kept it for a short time because it had octavina tuning, which although having a fine tone range, did not give three reeds in line for the ‘Scottish sound’. Tony had two new sets of reeds made by Hohner to rectify this and used the instrument throughout the life of the Glendaruel band.
Sandwiched for a short period between the Paolo Soprani accordion of the Cambridge band – a sharp sound with a good bite – and a Morino IV, was a Frontaline which had a kinder sound. Amplification was becoming more prevalent, so tone rather than volume was the order of the day.
THE SOUND OF THE ‘50’s
I was resident in Bedfordshire when I first heard the ‘Glendaruel Band’ in 1955 and was completely ‘sent’. I corresponded briefly with Tony who was most punctilious and courteous in replying. Space precludes further enlargement here but I would strongly recommend all Scottish dance music enthusiasts to get these new tapes and hear them for themselves.
The first thing that strikes one is the strong synchronised beat of the double bass / bass drum combination which lifts and drives the whole thing along. Again to quote, “If you’ve got a really first class rhythm section behind you like Wattie, John and Bill, you have total freedom to use the left hand for on and off-beat dynamics. The whole thing gets caught in a swaying motion. Relax into it, let it drive you on, your job is to play the music and interpret it…”
And believe me, Tony practiced what he preached, the exciting bounce and lift of the music on these recordings, not to mention the first class bass lines bear out every word.
THE ‘60’S AND AFTER
After the demise of the ‘Glendaruel’ in 1959, Tony did spells relieving with other bands, e.g. Angus Fitchet’s and Bobby MacLeod’s, and in the late ‘60’s and ‘70’s he frequently provided double bass backing for groups during the musical evening at his ‘Edelweiss Hotel’ in Glen Derby. Naturally, he has a fund of stories of events that happened over the years, but sadly space permits only the briefest mention of two such incidents.
Bobby MacLeod was ill, and Tony took over the ‘hot seat’ at a big Scottish Country Dance in York with 800 present. Sharing the front line on fiddle was erstwhile band colleague, Derek Auld. He collected his instrument from its perch on the engine cowling of the new rear engined V.W. van, opened the case and there lay something like a curled up banana skin – the glue had melted! A stand in fiddle of sorts was borrowed and they got through.
On another occasion at a big ball at Blair Atholl with Bobby MacLeod’s band officiating, the lights got progressively dimmer and the amplification faded so that by midnight the place was in darkness save for a few candles. Reels and Highland dances were now out of the question, so Bobby, Pibroch MacKenzie and the rest of the band played the most fantastic modern swing music for the remainder of the function. But why had the lights failed? The electrical supply was from a water driven generator. To cope with the amplification demands, a second turbo generator had been installed, but no extra water – so!
For the last few years, Tony has been plagued by an affliction which traps the tendons causing the fingers to curl up. Despite two operations, the problem is still there and he can no longer play properly, but he is very philosophical about the whole thing, still enjoys listening to the music and keeps himself very busy helping his wife, Helen, with the family business of self catering cottages, log cabins etc.
Helen also runs the Balnakilly Riding Centre and is a professional coach in all forms of athletics.
Incidentally, one of Tony’s forbearers was Byron Ruadh, alias John Reid, born 1721, who eventually reached the rank of General in a Highland Regiment. He was also an eminent musician, a piper, flautist and composer, his most famous piece being ‘The Garb of Old Gaul’. It’s in the blood right enough!
Reluctantly, I had to leave the lovely setting of Balnakilly with its swimming pool, croquet lawns, horses etc., for another appointment – I had learned a lot and I could have listener for hours.
Box and Fiddle
February 1991
Update to “The Boxes” above.
I spoke on the phone to Tony on 21st March 2007 and he explained that while he and Helen were on holiday in South Africa in 1999 they received a phone call to say that their home, Balnakilly House, had been burned to the ground with the loss of the entire contents including Bobby MacLeod’s accordion, a grand piano, a double bass, his huge record collection, and irreplaceable photos and reel-to-reel recordings of ‘jam sessions’ with many of the famous Scottish Dance Bands of yesteryear.
It transpired that a man who had moved into the locality, and who seemed nice enough on the surface, was in fact an arsonist with 55 previous convictions. The fire authorities reckoned that he had deliberately set six fires in Balnakilly, hence the complete loss. All Tony and Helen were left with were the few items of clothing etc they had taken on holiday with them.
CT