THE Evening Times writer Jack House made his way to Auchtermuchty one day in the summer of 1976. A police car arrived and showed him the rest of the way to his destination.
“You’ll find Jimmy there”, the driver told House, indicating a group of houses.
House’s quarry that day was Jimmy Shand, the virtuoso, world-famous accordion player, who had been out of the limelight for a year or two, following a serious operation. “He’s still as well-known and as much-loved as ever”, noted House. “A lady from New Zealand was just leaving as I arrived, and while I was in the Shand bungalow the phone never seemed to stop ringing”.
Now there was talk of Jimmy coming out of retirement to tour Australia and New Zealand with the Alexander Brothers. “Oh, it’s not fixed yet”, Jimmy said. “I haven’t made up my mind, though there’s a lot of folk in Australia and New Zealand I’d like to see”. He glanced out at his estate and across at the hills. “I never fancy leaving this”, he conceded.
One of the reasons for the House call was that Shand had written his first hymn, for Action Research, a national fund for research into crippling diseases.
It had been a while since Shand had appeared in front of a live audience, though he still took his accordion along to socials and small concerts in and around Auchtermuchty.
As House looked on, he took out his accordion. “It seemed to nestle in his arms like a loved one”, observed House. “Then away his fingers flew and I realised that age – he’s 69 – and illness have not affected his world-renowned ability one whit”.
Sir Jimmy Shand MBE died in December 2000, aged 92. Obituaries noted is distinguished career and many achievements, and to his immense contribution to the popularising of Scottish music.
Read more: Herald Diary
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here