Search Results for: Jimmy Shand

John Carmichael is one of the great characters of the Scottish music scene and one of the music’s most dedicated advocates through his work as a musician, performer, bandleader, television producer, accordion teacher and competition adjudicator. Born in Glasgow on October 31, 1938 to a father from Tiree and a mother from Buckie, in Banffshire, […]

The career of East Lothian accordionist Jim Johnstone stands as a landmark bridge between today’s Scottish music and the dance-band heyday of the 1940s to the 1960s. The latter is an era whose importance is sometimes overlooked nowadays, outwith box-and-fiddle circles, but which saw Scottish musicians playing to stadium-sized crowds around the world, and reaching […]

Long before he developed a second career as the notorious foil for Phil Cunningham’s onstage stories, Fergie MacDonald had regal status. As the Ceilidh King, Fergie took the authentic, raw and right ceilidh dance band style to village halls across the length and breadth of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Fergie and his band were […]

The Alexander Brothers are Scottish music legends who for fifty years have taken their talent, professionalism and musicianship to adoring audiences in theatres and concert halls across the world. Their record sales are phenomenal – at one point in the 1960s they even outsold the Beatles in Scotland – and their longevity has made them […]

Billy Thom was the most influential Scottish dance band drummer of his era and a musician whose modest description of himself as “just a teuchter drummer” belied the accomplishment of a playing style that graced countless recordings and broadcasts. He was born in Bridge of Allan on January 20, 1937 and became fascinated with the […]