“Lamentable Fiddlers” in Sandy Bell's Bar…

Subject: RE: “Lamentable Fiddlers” in Sandy Bells…
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Nov 24 - 03:51 PM

We all have start somewhere Barbara.
Don't forget that.

Subject: RE: “Lamentable Fiddlers” in Sandy Bells…
From: Johnny J
Date: 28 Nov 24 - 01:50 PM

It was actually called The Forest Hill Bar in Barbara's younger days but I won't stoop to the last poster's level.

Maybe Joe could correct my typo? However, I probably drank in Sandy Bell's Bar before this "Groovy" gadge was born.

Subject: RE: “Lamentable Fiddlers” in Sandy Bells…
From: GUEST,groovy
Date: 28 Nov 24 - 01:41 PM

It's Sandy Bell's, you moron!

Subject: RE: “Lamentable Fiddlers” in Sandy Bells…
From: Johnny J
Date: 28 Nov 24 - 01:10 PM

Thanks Dave....

I also realise part of the article was behind a pay wall. So, here it is in full..

"Fife-raised chart-topper Barbara Dickson, who now lives in the Capital has said she gets “very upset” when she hears fiddle players in Sandy Bell’s “making a racket” and feels like telling them to “shut up”.

The multi-million-selling artist, who recently announced her Farewell Tour, was a regular at the famous Forrest Road pub back in the mid-1960s. But Dickson, 77, told the 'A Kick Up The Arts' podcast that “everybody has a completely wrong idea of what Sandy Bell’s was”, adding that “it was not a music pub”.

Recalling what the boozer was like in her younger days, she said: “The first archway, forward of that to the door was all regulars, like crusty old guys with flat caps on with their pints of light, probably in those days. They had nothing whatsoever to do with the arty-farty crowd at the back.

“We would meet at the back, by the ladies’ loo door, there could be 20 of us. We would be Edinburgh people and also people coming through like Billy Connolly, Gerry Rafferty, Tam Harvey and people from Glasgow, and we’d all just stand with our pints at the back.
“Nobody took out instruments and eventually somebody – usually someone like the late Derek Moffat, who was a wonderful member of The McCalmans – would burst into song a capella and we would all join in. That was Sandy Bell’s to me.

“We did that all over the place. You didn’t presume to take a guitar out of a case, it was like taking the mickey.”

Dickson continued: “This is why I get very upset when I hear rather lamentable fiddle playing in Sandy Bell’s. I feel like going up and saying ‘excuse me, do you think you could just shut up, because that’s horrible, that racket you’re making. You need to go and listen to Aly Bain, and then come back’. "

Subject: RE: “Lamentable Fiddlers” in Sandy Bells…
From: DaveRo
Date: 28 Nov 24 - 12:57 PM

Johnny J wrote: still too big for the "blue clicky" facility

Use my Simple linkifier

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/edinburgh-pubs-barbara-dickson-upset-by-musicians-making-a-racket-in-famous-edinburgh-pub-4884093

Subject: RE: “Lamentable Fiddlers” in Sandy Bell's Bar…
From: Johnny J
Date: 28 Nov 24 - 12:49 PM

Here's a shorter link but it's still too big for the "blue clicky" facility

https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/edinburgh-pubs-barbara-dickson-upset-by-musicians-making-a-racket-in-famous-edinburgh-pub-4884093

Subject: “Lamentable Fiddlers” in Sandy Bell's Bar…
From: Johnny J
Date: 28 Nov 24 - 12:47 PM

“Lamentable Fiddlers” in Sandy Bell's…

There’s a newspaper article reporting comments by Barbara Dickson in relation to the music in Sandy Bells. I also had a lot of respect for Barbara and have enjoyed her music for many years. However, I’m quite upset about her comments here.

[long link removed so page would wrap properly] ---mudelf
Sorry about the long link..

Of course, the pub has changed over the years but there’s nothing wrong with with the quality of the music albeit the sessions tend to be more “organised” these days. However, there were tunes in Bells as far back as the seventies and many legendary musicians e.g. Jock Tamson’s Bairns and many more cut their teeth there.

I am hoping that Barbara was misquoted/represented by a young unknowledgeable journalist as I’d like to think she was a lot more charitable than that.

Anyway even if the music wasn’t great, that’s not the point. It’s all about people getting together for a tune or song and not “big names”.