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Musical Memories of Kilwinning in the 1950's & 1960's

 

 By : Eddie Johnstone – The Hi-Fi Combo

      [Earliest Musical Influences]

 

 

Born Edward Johnstone in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland, I was named after my father Eddie. Aged five years I attended Eglinton & District Primary School, in the south of Kilwinning [The Ironworks] or in the vernacular “The Airnworks”, prior to moving onto Kilwinning High School in 1959.

 

                                                   

 

My earliest musical memories are well recorded - if only in my mind - and I appreciated all those people who were a part of them. My very earliest memory was of my father, who had been disabled by a stroke at a young age, bouncing me on his knee as he sang "The Farmer's Boy" or "Ca' the Yowes" – very badly. If he couldn't remember the words he simply substituted 'diddle - dee'. I inherited that trait when I later went on stage which rendered me next to useless as a vocalist. Thanks dad . . however as a keyboard player I was no' bad . . .  I suppose. Thanks mum and dad.

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My Primary 2 class teacher was Wendy E. Wood [called WEE Woody - as a result of her well known W.E. Wood signature on our prize certificates - yes I did get one - usually presented by headmaster Francie Ferguson, who - it's rumoured - Disney modelled Grumpy on, and his name's at the bottom of the certificate. My mother Annie Young Johnstone even kept my Report Card . . . she was that chuffed. Whilst compiling this website I just noticed my dad's scrawled signature for the first time in years which brought a wee lump to my throat - he had one good arm only . .  hence his scrawl. Because Francie was still in his "Dig for Victory" mode, as it was after all just 8 years after the WWII had ended, he always made the weans go in and dig his garden and plant his vegetables. I still have the blisters to this day.

 

Anyway, during music period WEE Wendy would often perform pieces by Handel on the piano and I particularly recall the class listening to a 78 rpm recording of Where 'ere You Walk sung by a counter-tenor with the children singing it back to the teacher. Nowadays, my favourite counter-tenor is James Bowman singing The Ode to Queen Ann with a Crispian Steele-Perkins' trumpet obbligato.  Also, in those days I wore glasses and I would often hide my NHS spectacles under a pile of stones en-route to school and recover them on the way home - if they were still there of course.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                     

 

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I have very fond memories of three of the girls in my primary 7 class, May Walker, Grace Galloway and Joan Mitchell performing in harmony the big hit of the moment, Phil Spector’s 'To Know Him Is to Love Him' - then a big hit by the Teddy Bears. I loved it and it remained a major influence. 

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In later secondary school years, at Kilwinning High School, when our music teacher, the wonderfully amiable Andy Young, had left the room the class would persuade me to play some rock 'n' roll on the piano. I did, and as the piano is a rather noisy instrument, I was caught often by Andy . . .  who would order me to play another rocker . . as he couldn't play them. Andy taught us the songs from Gilbert & Sullivan's The Mikado.

 

 

 

                                                                                   

I recall two teenagers in my housing area resting on the pavement strumming these seemingly over sized acoustic guitars. [I didn't realise that it wasn't really that the guitars were overly big but simply it was me who was overly wee]. One player I recall strumming C&W numbers was wee Degan Galloway with his brother Freddie singing. The other music they played was called 'skiffle' and the song which I remember was Freight Train by Chas McDevitt Skiffle Band featuring Nancy Whiskey on vocals.

 

 

                                                                 

 

 

My aunt and uncle, Margaret and Jim Begley [an army man] owned a large American harmonium organ which worked by pumping the two pedals furiously whilst playing the keyboard. This produced a terrible sound but it was my first taste of fingering a keyboard. I also remember playing a 78 rpm record of the hit song Indian Love Call by Slim Whitman non stop on their new-fangled, state of the art, hi tech console - what was it called now? - oh yes . . a record player. I was always being told to be quiet by my sweetie-eating Auntie Margaret - always eating Imperial mints [candy] and would never think of giving ye' one - she also had the habit of calling a spade a spade [even if it wisnae a spade], so I guess this also would be around the mid fifties.

 

An important part of my musical education was learning to play the flute in my home town band Kilwinning Amateur Prize Flute Band [who practiced in The  British Legion Hall. My uncle, Captain [James] Young [a navy man] was the one who got my brother Jimmy [a McEwan's Export man] and I into the band. I drew the short straw and got to play the Bb bass flute whilst 'oor' Jimmy got to play first flute. That meant he was given a wee, toty 'cool' flute and got to play all the great tunes that you could skliff your feet to [not allowed any more and don't ask] whilst I ended up with a monster flute which came in two big bits that you had to lick and which then had to be screwed together. I'd then end up playing what sounded like the frog's chorus four to the bar. Uncle James I'll never forgive you. My tutor was a wee guy named Adam someone who I never ever thanked . . as you do when you are young so 50 years late Thank you Adam 'Someone'. My family influence would later prove to be invaluable in getting the British Legion hall for The Hi-Fi Combo to practice in. Check out my "flute bonn" influenced composition on my new Musical's theme "Jennie Wade March" on which I get to play all the flutes, drums, tubas, triangle, in fact everything. Click left to hear it.                                         

                                                                         

  THE BUG HUT

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However I am able to pin down exactly the time [and the song] when the music bug really bit me, and for this I have to thank Miss Debbie Reynolds the American actress /dancer/ singer. She doesn’t know however as I haven’t yet told her and she certainly hasn't bothered to ask me. The time was August 1957 and fresh from her recent starring role alongside Gene Kelly in "Singing in the Rain" Debbie had a chart hit on her hands with a ballad called “Tammy” which peaked at number one in the US charts and also in the British charts. The song Tammy was taken from her latest, film Tammy and the Bachelor.

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As a nine year old, each Saturday morning I would, along with my pals, attend the local Kingsway Cinema matinee, up on Almswall Road, affectionately  known locally as the Bug Hut [the inspiration behind my great song hit “Bug Hut Blues”]. It would cost threepence to get in or six jam jars valued at a ha'apenny each [accepted as payment due to glass shortage as it was just a few years after the war] plus we always had threepence to spend - they never charged for the bugs. But The Kingsway Cinema had a touch of class - I always remember the toilet urinal was outside . . against the back wall - I don't know where the lassies went. If you hailed from a rich family one 'ginger' bottle [lemonade] sufficed as entry fee, the redemption value being threepence. However there were no rich families in Kilwinning. Just very good ones.

 

                                               

 

 

After the matinee as a matter of habit, had a cowboy film been featured we would ride home on invisible horses, if a war film, we would shoot everyone on sight, and if a space film we would simply, of course, fly home. But this particular film [Tammy and the Bachelor] was in effect a love story complete with smoochy music and kissing. The boys would greet kissing with much booing and stamping of feet as the girls rebuked us as they hissed “Sshhhhh”. As they tried to regain order, the usherettes' zig-zagging flashlights would I suppose have resembled a scene from the blitz of only twelve years or so earlier.

 

                                   

 

I didn't stamp my feet, and I can still see Debbie Reynolds in her role of Tambrey Tyree sitting at that log cabin window singing and convincing herself that Ta-ammy Ta-ammy, Tammy's in Love. Anyway, it certainly had an effect on me because on arriving home I headed straight to the bedroom where a piano had lain untouched. After a short time I realised my parents and sisters were observing me. They had heard me playing Tammy note for note from memory using one 'C' triad . . . that anyone could play. My father immediately compared me to Mozart. My parents then made a great sacrifice financially in order to send me to music lessons costing five shillings per lesson. How many Kilwiningites can recall the wonderful music tutor Elsa J Baird, from Main Street, Kilwinning who trained me in the rudiments of music and helped me put my RCM piano certificates on my wall. Thanks entirely to my parents, Annie and Eddie scraping the money together every week - to this day earnings wise, despite working in The Brick Work, The Iron Work, The Steel Work, Welch Margetson, I.C.I. and Ballochmyle Hospital - music has been my one constant.

 

                                                          

 

Finally, prepare to be left breathless as the only other music I shall mention which influenced me in my pre Hi-Fi Combo days was Gustav Mahlers 2nd Symphony in 'C' minor, commonly referred to as The Resurrection Symphony. I was given the album and told to listen to it by my music teacher, Mrs Baird. I found it extremely heavy going until the final movement hit me, when the female choir soared to reach notes they had no right getting up to. This literally took my breath away and from that day I was hooked on Classical music. I now have five versions of Mahlers 2nd in my collection including, would you believe, one by a Conductor who only ever performs the Mahler 2nd [how sad is that?]. However if anyone decided to give the full Symphony a listen, as well as the amazing version below, do select the version by Sir George Solti with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.     

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This then is my favourite part - the fantastic, glorious 5th movement [finale] - mainly because I always wanted to sit at that big Kilwinning Abbey Church organ just to hold the big Eb chord at the end of Resurrection which seems to last for about five minutes . . . but no one would let me. I live in hope.

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