Jimmy Shand
Sir James Shand (Jimmy Shand) 1908-2000) played traditional Scottish dance music on the accordion. His signature tune was ‘The Bluebell’.
James Shand was born in East Wemyss in Fife, son of a farm ploughman turned miner and one of nine children. 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. 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 a music shop in Dundee. His friend said: “It wouldn’t cost you to try one,” so Jimmy walked in and strapped on an accordion. The owner, Charles Forbes, 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.
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 Beltona label (1935–1940). Most of the Beltona recordings were solo, but he experimented with small bands. This boosted sales. On New Year’s Day morning in 1945 he made his first broadcast with “Jimmy Shand and his Band”. This was the first of many such BBC radio and television appearances.
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 spectacles and full kilted regalia, Scottish reels, jigs and strathspeys to Australia, New Zealand and North America, including Carnegie Hall in New York. On the EMI/ Parlophone label, he released one single per month in the mid fifties, including his only top 20 hit in the UK Singles Chart – “The Bluebell Polka” (1955). More than 330 compositions are credited to Jimmy Shand. He recorded more tracks than the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined.
Regional Tags: Fife
