| Biography | ||
11/21/04 |
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I first picked up a little two row accordion at the age of 6 and tinkered around on the instrument. It was a Hohner Double Ray and it was lying under a table in my uncle Eddie’s house in Dunkeld. There had been a session the night before in the house with Eddie rattling off tunes on the melodion and mouth organ and my father playing mouth organ and Jews Harp. Songs and tunes until the small hours. Myself and my three sisters had been sent upstairs to bed but we’d lie awake and listen to all the hilarity going on and next morning we would squeeze at the bellows of the abandoned melodeon and puff air through the mouth organs. My parents bought a 48 bass piano accordion and playing by ear on this instrument for a couple of years, I was thoroughly hooked. Five years of study ensued with Marianne and William Campbell, music teachers who also ran an accordion band that played charity events and school halls and the like. This was great experience in playing to live audiences which stood me in good stead for things to come. At the age of 14, my father would take me round to visit with George Kettrick, friend and drummer in a dance band. George loved jazz and introduced me to the sounds of all the great jazz players. In the kitchen, the drums would be set up and we would play tunes and tell stories. George kept me right with the tempos of the quickstep, slow foxtrot, tango etc. and invited me to his dance band gigs to do a short guest artist spot. Later on, George would drum for me on my own dance gigs. We were usually a three piece band with Jim Allan on guitar or Finlay Syme on piano. Occasionally we were joined on fiddle by Calum Skarras who used to be part of Alistair Downies band. Other line ups included Allan Manson on Fender Rhodes and Shaun Dewar on drums. Busking was always a part of my musical life and the partners in crime there were Big Davy MacDonald, fine piper and Shaun Dewar on Pipe Band Snare. I met these two lads on trips out to France and Germany with Stirling Burgh Pipe Band. We were regularly heard on the streets of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Falkirk and Stirling. In the mid eighties, I was invited by Denny and Dunipace Pipe Band to take part in a Music Festival in Galicia, North Spain, and it was here that I met up with accordion player Iain MacKenzie. A few days after getting back from Spain, Iain was booked by Rita Grzmil, Scottish Dance Instructor and Choreographer, to take part in a World Music and Dance Festival in Belgium. Iain was a band member short and invited me along to complete the line up. It was in Belgium that I met the great musician, Stevie Gillies. Stevie was out as part of the Pipe Band and was keen to join in with the sessions that were happening after the official programmed events. When we got back to Scotland, Iain, Stevie and myself got together in Iains Bachelor pad in Friar Street Stirling and put together the three piece band Rusty Nail which to this day still makes an appearance in the most unlikely of places. The band, Rusty Nail, three piece with myself on accordion and vocals, Iain MacKenzie on accordion, drums, spoons electric keyboard and vocals and Stevie Gillies on electric and acoustic guitars bagpipes and vocals, played a much varied programme including classical, folk and jazz tunes interspersed with songs, stories and poems. In those days, we travelled around the country in a Maxi which held all the instruments and PA system and there was still enough space for the three of us to get a great sleep wherever we had parked up for the night. In May 1987, Iain and myself left Scotland with £50, a box of King Edward Cigars and a bottle of Malt Whisky and took the bus out to Belgium. With a rucksack and an accordion each, we made our way around Europe for six months, playing little theatres, pubs and acoustic rooms but mainly as a street show, busking everywhere from cities to mountain villages. We had to be back to Scotland in the november of that year as we had a gig booked for the WRI in Muthill on the 11th of November. The three piece band with Stevie in the line up was put back together and gigs all over Scotland came pouring in. A few months later, Iain got itchy feet and decided to travel to Greece and take up a new job with his partner Sally whom he’d met out in North Spain. His new position entailed looking after several pigs on a farm in Greece and he commemorated the occasion by dedicating a tune to one of the pigs that had a dodgy leg. The tune was named ‘’Soo wi’ the gammy leg’’. Before Iain left, Stevie suggested that we should record something for posterity and booked us six hours in Davie Patersons studio, Trakatak. This was to be the first album we had all been involved in and were a bit confused as to the system of recording. We arrived at the studio on the evening in question and Davie told us to set up our gear while he made a cup of tea. When he came back, we had all the instruments set up including the PA as if we were about to do a live gig. Davie put us right and we disassembled half the kit and put it back in the maxi. He got us a sound up and asked what the first number was to which we all looked at each other and said, ‘’eh, dunno, what should we play’’. For the next 45 minutes, we shouted keys and played tunes. The whole recording was completed in that six hour session including mixdown and the first run of three cassettes. In 1989, Blackeyed Biddy came to the Glengarry Hotel and played. After their gig, a session took off in the bar and carried on into the small hours. That evening, Lionel McClelland mentioned that Billy Henderson, the singer was set to leave the band having had enough of the long hours on the road and a replacement third man was required. A rehearsal took place in Moffat, Lionels hometown and a few days later, we were on stage in Balerno Folk Club. The line up was Lionel on whistle, flute, guitar, double bass, mandola and vocals and Kris Koren on guitar, octave mandola, banjo, mandolin bodhran and vocals and myself accordion and vocals. The biggest expense in the band after diesel was strings. We would keep a few music shops going in string sales. These two guys were and still are great musicians and the experience of playing with them and all those wonderful instruments was a great experience. I learned a lot from those guys, the way they arranged the music. We became very tight once the structure of the arrangements got to be natural. The way they tied their show together with banter and humour made us a very popular band on the folk circuit. Blackeyed Biddy saw performances all over the UK and Europe, Middle East and USA playing Folk Festivals, Theatres, Caledonian Societies and any other gig that was a good excuse to play. We recorded an album in a tiny studio in Carrbridge near Aviemore with Pete Rossin on the desk. It was a little eight track desk with the quarter inch tape mechanism built into the console. The rule that governed the recording was simply, if it couldn’t be played live, it wasn’t on the album. A multitrack free zone. The album High Spirits came out in the early nineties and was featured on Folk Radio programmes all over the world. These days Kris who was always the tech head of the band, has a recording and live sound business going with John Weatherby, one of the greatest sound guys on the planet. ‘’Lugs like Pluto’’ these two. Blackeyed Biddy gigs still happen to this day and recently the lineup has been myself, Lionel and Fiddle player extrodinaire, Derek Spence. We were featured recently doing a live performance on the Robbie Shepherd show. For a short time, I moved across to Ireland to check out some of the great music over there. Stevie Gillies headed out and joined me and we played a few gigs around Dublin and done some busking in the legendary Grafton Street. We met so many great players in Ireland but one that stood out from the crowd was Antony McAulay fiddle player from Kilkenny. Antony is one of the greatest Irish fiddle players I have ever had the pleasure to play tunes with. Dave Cantwell who drummed with The Big Dish approached me with an idea for an album. Dave had been working a blues band with the Late Andy Harrison. Andy had a stunning voice and was a musician of the very highest calibre. One of the nicest most helpful guys on the circuit, Andy had never really made any recordings and Dave wanted to remedy that. Dave’s idea was to get together with some musicians that would be up for doing an album for the sheer fun of it and have Andy lead the album with his vocals. We all came to this album with entirely different musical backgrounds and what came out of the Cantychiels sessions was a magical mix of influences that couldn’t quite be pinned down or pigeon holed. With the line up of Marianne Campbell on fiddle, Rory Campbell on pipes and whistles, Dave on drums and percussion, Harry Sullivan on guitar, Brian McFie on guitar Brian McAlpine on Piano and accordion, myself on accordion and of course Andy on vocals and guitar, we headed out to Nick Turner’s studio at Ardnamurchan and camped out for a week to record the album. We would literally jam some ideas at night and record them the following day. The album hit the top of the Greentrax album chart and was featured on Radio Scotland. We played a few live gigs but it was very difficult to arrange dates that all players were free for. It was a privelege to have worked with Andy Harrison who sadly passed away some months after the recording of the album. Andy surprised everybody when he was really unwell by finding strength and Energy from somewhere and getting up out of his sick bed to arrange his farewell gig. There were so many musicians and friends at that gig, it was difficult to get in the place and everybody got up on stage and played a tune in tribute to Andy. Then Andy got up there and played his guitar and sang his songs right from his heart. It was a very emotional day for everybody. Andy Harrison touched the hearts of everybody he met and is sadly missed. His music lives on in the minds of the people that knew him and I feel very privileged indeed to have worked with him. Canada came calling next and fiddle based group, Clan Terra enlisted me to record an album and then do some dates around Canada including Calgary Folk Festival. Brilliant fiddle players seem to be everywhere you look in Canada and the players in Clan Terra were no exception. Big Joe Hertz, Matt Woodward and Barbara Rose all mindblowing players with loads of original material and original ideas. It was tremendous fun working with these guys and all complimented beautifully by the musicians in the backline, Keith Smith on guitar, Kris Daniels, on guitar and bodhran and Kodi Hutchinson on upright bass with Duncan MacDonald on guitar and vocals. Duncan’s song ‘’Thank God I’m not a Duck’’ has one of the longest notes I have ever heard a vocalist hold. I think his record is about three and a half minutes. The album Waiting For The Wickerman was a huge success and was later showcased by the band for seven weeks at Epcott for Disney. Euan Martin of Redferret Entertainments then put together a four week tour of Scotland for the band with some great gigs on Islands and in Distillerys. What more could you ask for. Clan Terra returned to Canada and recorded another great album called ’’The Eye of the Hurricane’’. Back to Scotland and a season with the Scottish Show Shehallion which opened the new Armadillo Theatre in Glasgow. A forty piece band complete with Ballet Dancers, Modern Dancers and the Wallace Clan. Big Aldo Morrow, drummer with Fat Sam’s Big Band came on the phone next with an idea for a Ceilidh Band. Ceilidh Minogue was to be the name and the line up includes the great fiddle player Gavin Marwick, Bob Turner on Piano, myself and Aldo on drums. On forming the band, within weeks, the diary was filling up with Ceilidh Minogue dates. The band took off and is in it’s fifth year now and is still as busy as ever with recent visits to the Middle East, Tunisia, London and gigs all over Scotland. We are regularly joined by other great players such as: Pete Clark on fiddle, Angus Wares the mighty guitar picker from Dundee, Duncan Findlay all round genius on guitar, Campbell Normand, Edinburgh based Jazz pianist and Marianne Campbell on fiddle. After all that, finally a gig on the doorstep. The Shoes, Oban based band consisting of acoustic guitar player extrodinaire, Finlay Wells, Stevie Gillies on electric guitar and myself on MIDI accordion. Delving into everything from Pat Metheny to Bach, the Shoes are undefinable. This line up is Soon to produce an album of mainly original writing and their live show is becoming a fascination for a great many ‘’Shoeheads’’. Finlay as well as being a brilliant guitar player also runs his own recording studio in Oban. It is here that Stevie Gillies and I put together our latest album, ‘’The Gem’s a Bogey’’ which is an anthology of mine and Stevie’s musical history. The album includes material from old private archive recordings as well as from a cross section of the albums we have been involved with.
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This site was last updated 11/21/04