Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?

Subject: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,Miranda
Date: 17 Feb 19 - 03:00 AM

I've seen one photograph of Williamson on the fiddle from the Corries website. Aside from that, I can't find any footage of him on the violin, nor do I recall finding an audio recording.

Does anyone know if a recording or footage exists? Thanks.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 17 Feb 19 - 02:41 PM

The only confirmation i can find is on the Forres Corries Tribute website which has a photo
showing a violin among their instruments lying on a table.
   I don't recall any concerts where a violin was used.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 17 Feb 19 - 02:49 PM

A bit like the above from "johnmc", the fiddle is the one [ "folk" ] instrument I can't recall seeing or hearing Roy Williamson ever playing, and yet I'm sure I have seen a photo of him somewhere playing one.
I was at the auction of Roy's instruments after he died, and still have the catalogue from that sale somewhere. I will have a look and see if there's a fiddle in there anywhere.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,ottery
Date: 02 Mar 19 - 04:55 AM

Don't know of any footage, but you can hear him playing the fiddle on "Peat, Fire, Flame" to introduce the song Mormons Braes.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: StephenH
Date: 04 Mar 19 - 12:46 PM

Maybe a little tangential to this discussion but I looked through the
Corries lps I have and found Ronnie Browne credited with playing fiddle
on two tracks on "Kishmul's Galley":
"Twa Corbies" and "The Shamrock and the Thistle."

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 04 Mar 19 - 01:10 PM

I read his (Ronnie's) excellent autobiography and, I must say, it would lead me to suspect the credits are erroneous.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,Fasteddy
Date: 06 Mar 19 - 02:44 AM

I saw a Corries concert in Dundee way back in the early 80's and Roy played fiddle on one song.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,Miranda
Date: 06 Mar 19 - 05:46 AM

Replying to what Ottery said,
Interesting. However, there are a multitude of instruments being played in the recording. I hear the guitar and harmonica, and possibly the accordion if I'm hearing right. If Roy is playing the fiddle, harmonica for either he or Ronnie is plausible, but neither of them could possibly play that and another instrument at the same time.

There are sounds from instruments I possibly don't know, and a few instruments the Corries played that operate in a way I don't understand (Combolins), also I often think there are two instruments being played when a Combolin is played. So it's possible that maybe they aren't really playing that many instruments, but I was thinking that maybe someone was playing the other instruments. It wasn't always just the Corries who were playing sometimes too.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Mar 19 - 06:07 AM

"It wasn't always just the Corries who were playing sometimes too."
Examples, please ?

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 06 Mar 19 - 11:32 AM

I knew I'd seen him playing a fiddle somewhere. The LP cover of "The Peat Fire Flame" has a montage of photos on the front of the album sleeve. Roy is shown playing a fiddle on the second top left photo. I don't have the recording, so can't say whether or not he plays fiddle on that particular record or not.
[ PS - it would appear to be the same photo as is on their website, mentioned by the original poster ].

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,ottery
Date: 06 Mar 19 - 02:05 PM

I see I made an odd typo in my earlier post - I meant of course "Mormond Braes" - no Mormons of any description involved AFAIK.

I was about to insist that it must have been Roy who played the fiddle on Mormond Braes based largely on my view? prejudice? that Roy tended to be the more musically adventurous of the two, and that the number of instruments heard on Peat Fire Flame could be accounted for by double tracking.

However, I typed "Mormond Braes" into Google and a Youtube recording of the song came up as sung by the Corries. No visuals of course - however, the uploader had put together a string of photos. At 0:59 you can see Ronnie playing some kind of bowed instrument. A bowed psaltery??? See it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtXfQVn1C-4

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: nigelgatherer
Date: 07 Mar 19 - 11:15 AM

The wording on the back of the LP sleeve suggests that they played ALL the instruments on the album:

"...The advantage of recording in a studio is the facility of double-tracking, the laying of one track on top of another; thus the Corries who play between them, guitars, pipes, harmonicas, whistles, flutes, concertina, mandolins, boranns [sic], FIDDLE, combolins and a host of ancillaries, jews harp, rubber bands, etc, had a most enjoyable time, in their words 'painting sound pictures', not so enjoyable for the poor recording engineer though!"
Alan Spence [the recording engineer :-) ]

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: nigelgatherer
Date: 07 Mar 19 - 11:22 AM

I've had a quick listen through the whole album, and I can hear fiddle on two tracks, the aforementioned "Mormond Braes" and "The Poachers". On that evidence Roy was not a bad fiddler, better than his namesake Robin Williamson.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,kenny
Date: 22 Mar 19 - 06:33 AM

I found the auction catalogue of the sale of Roy Williamson's instruments. Item #94 was an "old violin", which sold for £45. No more information than that, I'm afraid, but it would appear that Roy certainly did own at least 1 fiddle.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,ActiusAquila
Date: 04 Aug 19 - 12:39 AM

I've read "Flower of Scotland, Roy Williamson my Father" by Roy's daughter Karen. If I recall correctly there is a part somewhere in the book that details Roy learning to play the fiddle, which if Karen is correct he learned by ear with minimal help from others. Additionally the book states that fiddle was one of the last instruments he learned to play. That explains why you don't hear one in the earlier recordings. Ronnie's book doesn't mention fiddle at all and I don't think he can play it.

Subject: RE: Footage of Roy Williamson fiddling?
From: GUEST,It'sMagic
Date: 27 Nov 22 - 09:46 AM

Not sure it's actually Roy playing the fiddle on Mormond Braes,though it might have been, as it isn't spectacular fiddling. Unfortunately, I only have the CDs, which don't have much information on them. What I can repeat is that Roy's daughter Karen, in her book, Flower of Scotland - My Father Roy Williamson - said the fiddle was the last instrument he learned, and I don't when that would have been. Ronnie said (in his own autobiography That Guy Fae the Corries) or in an interview somewhere that he didn't play the fiddle, but he scratched a bow against one to make the sinister sound in Twa Corbies.