Prestonpans Airts Burns Club Supper

There is a great wealth of talent coming out of the Prestonpans Airts Burns club these days. This was evident at the annual burns supper that took place on Saturday 27th January at the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club.

A handful of new members have given the club a new lease of life and with Ian giving the Immortal Memory and Billy and Gordon giving excellent renditions of some of burns classic works, it augers well for the future.

Another excellent speaker is Tom who gave the immortal memory in 2005, and on the musical side, Tony sang an played Ye banks and Braes and The Braes o' Killiecrankie-O (A big change from his days in the Panther rock band when Deep Purple was his favourite choice of song!).

It was a family affair for myself with my father-in-law Davie Jefferies being the honorary president of the club, Iain Jefferies being my brother in-law and my oldest son, Stephen Wilson attending the supper for the first time. (Stephen and his Grandpa Jeff pictured to the left).

I was asked along to sing Now Westlin' winds and Aye Waulkin' o, probably two of my favourite songs. Now Westlin' Winds is a beautifully crafted song that describes the tension between man and nature and also describes the joy felt by the young Robert Burns as he walks out with his Peggy dear on a beautiful autumn evening. The song is truly a work of art. Aye Waulin' o' is a sad song about a young woman who is unable to sleep for thinking of her estranged lover. I'm asked to sing all types of songs while entertaining in bars and also when playing at dances but these songs are my favourites.

As you may have guessed it was a very successful evening and I'm really looking forward to the next one.

Prestonpans Labour Party new year bottle party 2007

The annual new year bottle party took place in the Prestonpans Community Centre on Saturday 6th 2007. I think we must have been doing this gig for about twenty years.

The first one was in the Pans Town Hall, my mate Hessel organised a wee band featuring himself, Jimmy Currie, Hecker and myself. I remember it well, Jimmy walked in and I said,"What's in the case Jimmy, yur accordion?", to which he replied, "Naw! the carry oot". So of course we got wired into the bevy and played on until the police arrived and told us to stop at about 3am. The Town Hall is right next to the police station so that didn't help. But sense prevailed and the annual event was moved to the Community Centre and for many years the legendary bottle party carried on well into the next morning!

We've had many great bottle party gigs and this years was one of the better ones. The usual suspects got up to sing, Hessle, Colin T, Stuart and Davie, oh and the young woman who works in the Gothenburg but I can't remember her name, she was pretty good.

I was also very luck to be able to borrow Iain's 1965 custom powder blue Rickenbacker guitar for the gig.

What a joy to play and great sound and it looks so so cool! Thanks Iain.

Hogmanay gig

Don't normally play Hogmanay but Steven Cross at the Prestoungrange Gothenburg asked us and I thought, why not.

It was a sell-out and a champagne reception and meal at 7pm. We started playing at 8.30pm and had a really good sound. It was packed and the crowd were almost sitting on the stage.
People were up dancing from the start, the piper played in the New Year then we all sang "A Guid New Year" and "Auld Lang Syne". What a great night!

Hopefully we'll be asked back next year!

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