Hamish McGregor

Early bands while still at Edinburgh’s Merchiston Castle School included ‘Mr Montague Moth’s Cacophonous Jazz Musicians’ which made private recording. Later spent a year with ‘Old Bailey and his Jazz Advocates’ in mid-1960s before leaving to form a series of bands under his own name. These included the 7-piece Dixieland style ‘Hamish McGregor and his Clansmen’ (1965-67) with Tommy Lister (tpt), Hamish McGregor (rds), Dave Margaroni (tbn), Mike McMeekin (gtr), Tim Faeroe (bs), Jack Finlay (pno), Bill Kyle (drms). In 1967 came the 10-piece soul band ‘The Memphis Road Show’ (1967-69) with Hamish McGregor and Gordon Cruikshank (rds), Tommy Lister and Pete Martin (tpt), Colin Archbold (bs), John Fitzsimons (gtr), various drummers including Stuart Tosh, Dougie Rome (Hammond organ), and singers including Ricky Midnight. Later came the 7-piece jazz and R & B combo ‘Seven Up’ with Andrew Lauder (tpt), Hamish McGregor (rds) Dave Margaroni (tbn), Johnnie and Mike Harper (gtr), Chick Murray (drms) and a bass guitar player. Hamish was responsible for the re-forming of the ‘Old Bailey’ Band in 1975 which reappeared as ‘Old Bailey’s Jazz Advocates’ (1975-79) with Andrew Lauder (tpt), Hamish McGregor (rds), Sam Smith (tbn), Johnnie Harper (bjo/gtr), Graham Blamire (bs) and Chick Murray (drms). This band played long residencies at the Fountain Inn, Barnton and the Caledonian Hotel, Princes Street and other venues, as well as producing a number of recordings. Later the band included Fionna Duncan (voc), Johnny McGuff (tbn), Mike Hart (bjo) and Tom Finlay (pno) after the band amalgamated with ‘The New Society Syncopators’ to become ‘The Scottish Jazz Advocates’ (1979-84), which he co-led with Mike Hart and which produced more recordings and played at many jazz festivals in Europe and in the USA. After leaving this band in 1984, Hamish formed ‘Fat Sams Band’, a professional standard 9-piece band playing ‘jump jive’, R & B and Swing. This band made many recordings and played all over the world until the band was discontinued in the 2010s.