Sir James Shand MBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(January 28 1908 — December 23 2000) was a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
musician who played traditional Scottish dance music on the
accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
.
James Shand was born in
East WemyssEast Wemyss is a small town situated on the south coast of the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. In the United Kingdom Census 2001 the population was recorded as 1841....
in
FifeFife is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. It was originally one of the Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland.It is a...
, son of a farm ploughman turned miner. One of nine children, they soon moved to the
burghA Burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United Kingdom...
of
AuchtermuchtyAuchtermuchty is a town in Fife, Scotland, situated beside Pitlour Hill nine miles north of Glenrothes. Until 1975 it was a royal burgh, established under charter of King James V in 1517...
.The town now boasts a larger than life-sized sculpture of Shand - the supposed god of Scottish music. His father was a skilled melodeon player.
Sir James Shand MBEThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions...
(January 28 1908 — December 23 2000) was a
ScottishScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
musician who played traditional Scottish dance music on the
accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
.
Early life
James Shand was born in
East WemyssEast Wemyss is a small town situated on the south coast of the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland. In the United Kingdom Census 2001 the population was recorded as 1841....
in
FifeFife is a council area of Scotland, situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire. It was originally one of the Pictish kingdoms, known as Fib, and is still commonly known as the Kingdom of Fife within Scotland.It is a...
, son of a farm ploughman turned miner. One of nine children, they soon moved to the
burghA Burgh was an autonomous corporate entity in Scotland, usually a town. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when David I created the first royal burghs. Burgh status was broadly analogous to borough status, found in the rest of the United Kingdom...
of
AuchtermuchtyAuchtermuchty is a town in Fife, Scotland, situated beside Pitlour Hill nine miles north of Glenrothes. Until 1975 it was a royal burgh, established under charter of King James V in 1517...
.The town now boasts a larger than life-sized sculpture of Shand - the supposed god of Scottish music. His father was a skilled melodeon player. Jimmy started with the mouth organ and soon played the fiddle. At the age of 14 he had to leave school and go down the mines. He played at social events and competitions. His enthusiasm for motor-bikes turned to an advantage when he played for events all round Fife. In 1926 he did benefit gigs for striking miners and was consequently prevented from returning to colliery work. One day Jimmy and a friend were admiring the instruments in the window of Forbes' Music Shop in Dundee. His friend said "It wouldn't cost you to try one". Jimmy walked in and strapped on an accordion. The owner heard Jimmy and immediately offered him a job as travelling salesman and debt-collector. He soon acquired a van and drove all over the north of Scotland. He switched to the British chromatic button accordion, an instrument he stuck with for the rest of his life.
Early musical career
He failed an audition for the BBC because he kept time with his foot. At a time when gramophones were very much luxury items he made two records for the Regal Zonophone label in 1933. His career took off when he switched to making 78s for the
BeltonaBeltona may refer to:*Beltona Records, a British record label founded in 1923*Beltona Resonator Instruments, makers of resonator guitars and resonator ukuleles in New Zealand...
label (1935 - 1940). Most of the Beltona recordings were solo, but he experimented with small bands. This boosted sales. He appeared in a promo film shown in cinemas. While the image showed his fingers moving in a blur, Jimmy was disappointed to hear the sound track playing a slow air. He was prevented from joining the RAF by a digestive disorder, and spent the war years in the Fire Service. On New Year's morning on 1945 he made his first broadcast with "Jimmy Shand and Band". This was the first of many such BBC radio and television appearances.
Works
Soon after the war he became a full-time musician and adopted a punishing life-style later adopted by rock bands. He would play Inverness one night, London the next night and still drive the van back, at breakneck speed, to bed in Dundee. He took his trademark bald head, Buddy Holly specs and full kilted regalia, Scottish reels, waltzes, jigs and strathspeys to North America, Australia and New Zealand, including Carnegie Hall in New York. Now on the EMI/ Parlophone label, he released one single per month in the mid fifties, including his only top 20 hit - "The Bluebell Polka" (1955). It was produced by
George MartinSir George Henry Martin CBE is a British record producer, arranger and composer. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"—a title that he owes to his work as producer of all but one of The Beatles' original records, as well as playing piano on some of The Beatles tracks—and is...
, who was later to work with the Beatles. He was awarded an MBE in 1962. This period is remembered affectionately by Richard Thompson, who played Shand tunes on "Henry the Human Fly" and "Strict Tempo". In 1991, Thompson paid tribute to Shand with an original song, "Don't Sit on My Jimmy Shands". In 1972 he went into semi-retirement. From then he played only small venues in out-of-the-way places for a reduced fee. He was made a freeman of Auchtermuchty in 1974, North East Fife in 1980 and Fife in 1998. He became Sir Jimmy Shand in 1999. His portrait is in the Scottish National Gallery, close to
Niel GowNiel Gow was possibly the most famous Scottish fiddler of the 18th century.-Biography:Gow was born in Inver, Perthshire, as the son of John Gow and Catherine McEwan. He started playing the fiddle when very young and at age 13 received his first formal lessons from one John Cameron...
. In 1983 he released a retrospective album with the cheeky title "The First 50 years". At the age of 88 he recorded an album and video with his son, "Dancing with the Shands". His signature tune was "Bonnie Dundee", which was what he also named the band bus.
More than 330 compositions are credited to Jimmy Shand. He recorded more tracks than the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined. In 1985,
British RailBritish Railways , which later traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the British railway system from the nationalisation of the 'Big Four' British railway companies in 1948 until privatisation in stages from 1994 to 1997...
named a locomotive
Jimmy Shand. He was dissatisfied with the chromatic button-key
accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
s available on the market in the 1940s so he designed his own one. The
HohnerFor the music band from Cologne, see Höhner.Hohner Musikinstrumente GmbH & Co. KG is a company specialising in the manufacture of musical instruments. Founded in 1857 by Matthias Hohner , Hohner is identified especially with harmonicas and accordions. The Hohner company has invented and produced...
company still manufactures the "Shand Morino" to his specifications. There is a biography
The Jimmy Shand Story: The King of Scottish Dance Music by Ian Cameron (2001). A number of his older recordings have been re-released by
Beltona RecordsBeltona Records is a British record label founded in 1923, producing recordings 'of a mainly Scottish interest'. The company's early history began with 78rpm gramophone records of traditional Scottish music. They produced music common of the time, i.e. dance and barn music. Typical instrumentation...
.
- "Call me precious I don't mind
- 78s are hard to find
- You just can't get the shellac since the war
- This one's the Beltona brand
- Finest label in the land
- They don't make them like that any more"
- — "Don't Sit on My Jimmy Shands" by Richard Thompson
To many Scottish people Jimmy Shand is the greatest musician to have ever lived and there are Jimmy Shand fan clubs all over Scotland, who hold regular meetings and fundraisers in honour of their favourite accordion player. Many Jimmy Shand die hards claim that Sir Jimmy's popularity and fame has spread to China and Japan - however this has yet to be proved.
External links