Stuart Thomson's Web Site

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First - the boring stuff
Mistakes can and do happen, so should you find something amiss within my pages
(ie P1 - P10) like a broken link or something similar, just let me know and I will do my
absolute best to attend to it promptly.
I endeavour to check on a regular basis that all links I list are functioning.

You will find the page no. at the bottom of the page
<Isn't technology a marvellous thing!>
and inside the "Navigation Menu" panel.

Please note that "External links" are completely outwith my control.

If your patience hasn't totally run out before you reach my "Favourite Links" on P10, you can speed to that page from any other within the site, by simply scrolling to the "Site Navigator" which you will find near the end of each page. Then simply click on "Favourite Links"

(But of course you already understood all that, didn't you?)

Of course you did. Now - read on..................

First: a little about me

My name is Stuart Thomson.

(Well I said "A little"!
......and that's already more than I meant to say!)




	My main interests Scottish Country Dance Music and Scottish Country Dance Music Oh, I forgot to list Scottish Country Dance Music.


My interest in the accordion My parents were both musical, my father played accordion, my mother played piano. Christmas1960 - I received my first accordion from a certain Mr. S. Claus. (You know, the old guy with the red suit and a white beard?) "Yippeee!" I thought. After a few moments, my next thought was: "..wait a minute...what's an accordion...?" Well, I was only 3 and-a-half years old! "Unusual present" I thought. After all, I couldn't play it! According to some, I still can't. However, I digress - all was to become clear before long. Tuition was all part of the cunning plan! That first accordion was a red, 12 Bass HOHNER STUDENT model, similar to the one pictured on the right.	*Hohner Student 12 bass*


	I can remember Saturday mornings involving a 20 mile round trip to Cumnock for my lesson from the late Bobby Adamson. Bobby, a former Muirkirk man himself, was a highly respected teacher and composer. Two of his better known compositions are "The McFarlane March" and "Triumph March", still popular in the piano accordion world today.

In the latter part of 1967, the accordion was "relegated" to taking a back seat as far as I was concerned - well, to be more precise, it was actually placed case and all in a cupboard. It was pretty much forgotten about for around 3 years. When it finally saw the light of day again, it was being "traded-in" against its replacement - wait for it - a portable cassette recorder. I bet you can spot the similarities instantly...............no, maybe not! I have great difficulty with that too - now! Such were the complexities of youth! (You know, knowing everything and never ever needing to ask a question of your elders -anyway, what could they possibly know?)


Moving ahead hastily to 1974, I "took the notion" of the accordion again. This was the year I became the proud owner of my first "full-size" 120 bass accordion, a magnesium framed Hohner Atlantic IVN Musette.	*Hohner Atlantic IVN Musette*

*Corelli Universal*	The Atlantic was rather short-lived, being replaced in 1977 with a wooden structured Corelli Universal, pictured left - and modelled by a particularly cool looking long-haired layabout - no, sorry, I meant youth! *(The Corelli I still have........ the looks too.... it's just that I've sort of added to them - quite considerably!)*

My first venture into the world of recording was in 1976 when I was 19 years young.
I still had my Atlantic.
(You remember the era, pink shirts, floral ties, flared trousers, "platform sole" shoes ......oh yes - and sprained ankles!.... .......not that the two could have been in any way related.......

.........anyway, back to the recording, which came about through an acquaintance of mine, dating back to 1967 (yes, go to the top of the maths class - but only if you had worked out that I was age 10).

He was a "well known face" around Ayrshire and beyond, a shepherd by the name of John Loch.
Thanks to John, my brother Kenny and I made our first recording together in a BBC Radio programme, one of a series on the Accordion & Fiddle scene in Scotland. Our programme featured the combined forces of two Ayrshire Clubs, Straiton and Galston.

Produced by Ben Lyons and Compered by Alasdair Gillies, the artiste list for the programme included:

· John Loch and the Blackthorn Band
John Loch (Acc), Kenny Thomson (2nd Acc), Liz Guthrie (Piano), Dave Waters (Bass) and Bert Curdy (Drums)

· Bob Lillie

· Bobby Stewart

· Jim Hutcheon

· Ronnie Easton

· Dick Holland & Derek Hamilton

· Alf Silk

· Kenny & Stuart Thomson

· David Ross

· Special Guest: Jim Cassidy

Fast Fwd to 2003:
A Multitude of Morinos!

Knee-deep in Morinos!
Photos taken after having "a tune or twa!"
with Sandy Nixon

Let's play "Spot the Morino"

There's one, there's another one, there's another........

No, to be serious, the accordions in the above image range in years from -
oldest manufactured a musette tuned 1939 2+1 model, (2 treble couplers, 1 bass coupler, pictured top left) to
a straight tuned 1978 IVN model, (four voice treble, "N" series, pictured bottom centre)

Site Navigator

P1 Stuart's Homepage | P2 Wardlaw S D B index | P3 The Wardlaw Sound

P4 Wardlaw S D B history | P5 About the name | P6 Muirkirk

P7 Macadam's Stone | P8 Sanquhar Brig | P9 Tibbie's Brig | P10 Favourite Links

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Stuart Thomson

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Last updated 1^st January 2008

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My main interests