www.rockingscots.co.uk

Rockingscots is a website dedicated to Scottish beat groups of the '60s and  early '70s. Visit the Rockingscots homepage for more groups or to e-mail us.

Ayrshire Bands of the '60s and early 70s

This site takes the form of very brief biographies of Ayrshire bands and musicians of the 1960s and 1970s. We believe that those who trod the boards to entertain us then should not be forgotten.  We are keen to have more (in some cases any!) info on the following bands:  Crate, Sweat Band, Lemon Cloud, Tuf Banana, The Beat Merchants, Gull.or indeed ANY others. E-mail us any info, photos etc or get in touch with Rockingscots just to say hello! 

Pic above is of John 'Toad' McNeilage of Lemon Cloud, Pure Greed, Uniform et al - taken in Fulham in the early '80s. 
No longer spankin' the plank with us but up there with Jimi, Duane, Buddy, etc instead.  Pic courtesy of 'Finiki'.  

Please click on a link or scroll down below.

Pure Greed: Dates: 1969 - 1970. From: Ayr, Prestwick, Troon, Girvan. Personnel: Ronnie Piper drums, John 'Toad' McNeilage - lead guitar, Billy Bryant - Vocals/guitar, Rib - Bass, Monty - keyboard. Manager - Tom Jones. Musical style: Contemporary rock covers. Venues: Ballrooms, all over Scotland. Biggest gig: Radio One Club. Roadies - Brian 'Blec 'McKee & Hughie 'Snotters' Green.

Kleen Machine: Dates: 1968; Personnel: Donnie Briggs (bass), Les Morton (guitar), Monty McGill (keyboards), Ronnie 'China' Mills (Drums/Vocals), Brian 'Spike' Milligan Vocals), Big Tam (Road Crew), Billy Paton (Road Crew). Manager :- Martin Frutin. Info: Donnie Briggs.

Above photo shows our Spike left and Tom Jones from August 2000. Jones' 50th birthday!. Both still very active in the Ayrshire music scene.

A reasonably flattering pic from the mid 1980s of Tom McCartney (left) and Brian 'Blec' McKee, ex-Pure Greed roadie.
In the Crabtree (of course) near Fulham football ground.

Brian Low: A tribute from Colin Jamieson, one time drummer with the Corsairs and still playing in Germany - see above.
Brian Low was resident drummer at the Sunday band show at the Ayr Pavillion in the  early 60's. The show was compared by bandleader Andy Currie. The audience could send up requests for the band to play, written preferably, on the back of a five pound note as "auld Andy" would say. A popular request at the time was "let there be drums" from Sandy Nelson,a chart hit at the time. Brian did a great job of it, and it was different every time he played it. The band show also had guest bands, who would play for an hour or so. Some bands would play together with the resident band at the end of the show, this usually featured the solo instrumentalists including of course, the drummers. Brian ate them up every time. He also played with Tommy Trousdale for a short time then, he went to Germany with a blues band called the Blues System, featuring a great organist Jimmy Cosker and a local guitar hero at the time Jimmy Paterson.  Sadly, Brian passed away a few years ago but it should be acknowledged what a great talent he was.

Lex Dawn and the Rock Tunes: possibly from Dalmellington.  Lex on lead guitar, unknown drummer, tenor and baritone sax players, Margaret Wilcox - vocals;  no bass player.  Margaret was 16 or 17 and very like Brenda Lee. One night in the Pavilion around 1959 there was a good crowd in but Lex heads for the toilet after the end of a number.  The crowd get restless waiting and starts to heckle the band. Margaret picks up Lex's guitar  and they launch into a Chuck Berry number  with Margaret singing and playing lead guitar.  Lex comes back but the crowd want more of Margaret and there was a great laugh when she wouldn't give him his guitar back - but he was a great guy and took it well. Info from Robbie Gilmour.

Girl in a Crowd : From: Ayr; Dates: 1969-70; Personnel: Iain Ogilvie -Bass, Campbell Morris -Guitar, Helen Duncan - vocals, Denny - drums; Musical Style: Jefferson Airplane - Fleetwood Mac and others Venues: Ayrshire Gigs Biggest Gig: British Leyland Canteen, Bathgate - Placed sixth in NME Scottish heat; Info: Iain Ogilvie

Snids:  From Ayr, Prestwick and Kilwinning, 1971.  Members were: Bert Smith - vocals, Arnie Green - guitar, Ronnie Piper - drums, Stuart Chambers - bass.  Occasional dancers - Sandra Goslin, Alison Taylor (recruited for gigs in Golspie, Montrose, St Andrews etc.).  Tom Jones - Manager.  Hughie Green and Donny (the van) Fox - roadies.  A blues/rock band covering songs by Rory Gallagher, Eric Clapton etc. The highlight of their  short but interesting career was a gig at The Locarno Ballroom, East Kilbride as support to a young, up and coming Irish band, Thin Lizzie.  Info: Arnie Green - a resident of Dublin for several years now and still a Phil Lynott fan.

Gyro: From: Ayr; Dates:1969-71;Personnel: Alex Kelly - vocals, Tommy 'Ticker' Kerr - drums (later Jim Morrison), Ian Stirret - guitar; Musical Style: pop covers.; Venues: Ayr clubs; Biggest Gig: Bobby Jones

Uniform: From: Ayr and Troon; Dates: 1972; Personnel: John 'Toad' McNeilage - guitar, Arnie Green - guitar, Bert Smith - vocals, Stuart Chambers - bass.  There was no drummer.  Musical Style: They sat on stools and did covers of C, S & N, Neil Young, Wishbone Ash, love etc.  Venues: Pubs; Biggest Gig: The Tup, Cumnock

Name Unknown #1: Ian McNair - guitar, Iain Lambert - drums, Alister Reid and Jimmy Hastings. 12 year old kids from Mauchline.

Big Dick and the Cowboys: From Mauchline and from a time before such a name acquired its present boastful connotations - or was it??

Regus Negative: From Cumnock/New Cumnock/Mauchline Dates: 1968-1970. Tommy McGinn-vocals, Ian McNair - guitar, Drew McCartney drums, Billy (Neddy) Williamson (sadly another who is no longer with us) - organ, Alistair Milroy-bass. Others at one time - John (Bead) Brodie - trumpet, Daw - sax, Francie Mone  - may also have played bass briefly. Musical Style: Pop/Rock covers Biggest gig: Ayr Ice rink, Preston Town Hall  - Xmas 68 supporting the Foundations.

The Inset: From: Mauchline/Cumnock Dates: 1966-1968. Personnel at various times - John Lyall (no longer with us) - drums. Iain Lambert - drums, Ronnie White - Guitar, Jeff Tomkinson-guitar, Billie Logan - keyboard, Alistair Hutchence-bass, Pat Ferry - bass Hughie Goudie - bass and Tam McGinn from New Cumnock - vocals. Billy Mitchell-trumpet, Billy Mossie - sax, Albert ? - trumpet. Also: Wullie Bruce - vocals/organ? Musical Style: Motown/Stax/Pop Biggest Gig: Electric Garden Glasgow + Netherthird Hop (joke!)

Dusty Hutt: From:Mauchline /Cumnock/Dalmellington; Dates:1969-70; Personnel: Billy Logan - keyboards, Ronnie White - guitar, Norman Lawrence - vocals/harmonica, Ian McNair - bass, Iain Lambert - drums. Musical Style: pop & R&B covers. Gigged everywhere. Supported everyone. Manager - Jim Reddy from Catrine. Roadie - Robert 'Miff' Smith - renowned singer, guitarist and web site contributor. See pic below - taken in Arran - probably summer 1975 - the guitar (a Yamaha FG) got nicked in October of that year from our squat in Park Royal!  Pic courtesy of Tina Thompson.  That was the past.  Want to know the future? Then see Tina's astrology site at: http://www.astrotina.com

Colourblind: Wullie Bruce - vocals, others - guys from Kilmarnock's Henry Crow??

Info on Regus Negative, Inset, Dusty Hutt and Colourblind - Iain Lambert plus Neil Wodhams/Iain McNair.

The Breeez #1: From: Ayr; Dates: 196?-1971; Personnel: Bobby Watson - rhythm guitar (left in '69); John Hawkey - vocals & guitar (not long enough with us), John Whiteside - bass, Ronnie Anderson - drums. Musical Style: Contemporary rock Once did an open air gig in the entrance to the Bobby Jones. Also did a 'progressive music' night at the 13-16 age ABC club.  Numbers like Cream's Politician - blues really.  Very bold move at the time. 

The Tones : Forerunner of the Breeez circa 1965? -  memorably played the Odeon kid's club in Ayr one Saturday morning doing Kinks covers while the MC desperately tried to get some 'Tone-mania' screaming going.

The Breeez #2: From: Ayr & Mauchline; Dates: 1973; Personnel: John Whiteside - bass/guitar, Ronnie Anderson - drums, Iain McNair - bass/guitar & vocals; Musical Style: Rock - Rory Gallagher etc. Great version of Blue's Little Jody. Venues: The Tup etc.

The Chase: Mainly from Saltcoats. In existence from mid 60s-mid 80s. John Pettigrew - guitar, Jim McWhinnie on C3 & Rhodes, John Boyd vocals & bass (earlier days it was wee Jim Whatever) plus various drummers. Played along side most of the above bands. Resident in the Bobby Jones cellar, worked for Tam Paton, spent obligatory year playing bases in Germany. You name it they probably played it. John Boyd had/has a band in Shetland called Pure Greed that made a CD and had/has a website. Info: John Pettigrew.

Cheers