Nicol McLaren, a
Sales Specialist with Dalgety Arable Ltd, is the Chairman of The National
Association of Accordion and Fiddle Clubs. He started playing the
accordion at the age of nine, when his father bought an old 48 bass Bell
piano accordion from a junk shop in Stirling.
Ian McCallum (who
played with the Grace MacCleaver Band) worked for his father on the farm
at Dunmore, and Nicol's Uncle was the late Alex MacArthur. There was
no shortage of dance music around when young Nicol was growing up. He was
taught initially by Marion Campbell of Larbert.
It was his Uncle Alex
who first gave Nicol the inspiration to be a band leader. On the
opening night of The Biggar Accordion and Fiddle Club, the family was part
of the huge crowd in The Clydesdale Hotel when Alex asked his wee nephew
to have a tune. Alex then said he would put a bunch of
"no-hopers" around him to see if he could make a band out of
them. The "no-hopers" were Ian Powrie on fiddle, Jim
Johnstone on second accordion, Bobby Brown on piano, Robin Brock on bass
and Bobby Colgan on drums. Nicol came off the stage feeling about
ten feet tall, and determined to lead his own band one day.
Nicol studied
Agriculture at Edinburgh University, and music took a back seat for a
while. The "bug" was soon back however, and Nicol formed
The Glencraig Scottish Dance Band in 1984.
Outside music,
Nicol's hobbies are rugby (he played full-back for Murrayfield RFC for
twelve years), golf and curling. He was runner up on "The
Krypton Factor" in the early nineties.
He presents a weekly
Scottish Dance Music programme, "Sporrans a Burlin'" on
Heartland FM, and recently stood in for Robbie Shepherd as guest presenter
on “Take the Floor”. Nicol
is helping to design a new SEM accordion specifically for the Scottish
Market.
His services are much
in demand for adjudicating and compering as well as playing. He has
been known to do the odd turn at Burns Suppers, delivering The Immortal
Memory in Bahrain and Toasting the Haggis in Basingstoke. Playing for dance has also taken him to Corsica and Abu Dhabi
recently.
Nicol has composed a
number of Scottish Dance Tunes, many of which are published by Shian Music
in Dollar.
He brings a great
sense of fun to the Island Fling, and we can be sure that there will be
never a dull moment when he’s around!
