Tribute to Will Starr of Croy, Stirlingshire, king of the solo Scottish 3-row button box accordion.

Will Starr - 'Daddy of them All' A Tribute to Will Starr, King of the solo Scottish accordionists Scotland's best accordionist and solo performer, Will Starr's music, his recordings and his life The Will Starr Band, The music of Scotland, Scottish country dancing, Scottish dance bands, Scottish culture, traditional accordion music of Scotland, Will Starr jigs, strathspeys, reels, pipe marches, schottishe, slow airs, mazurkas, hornpipes, polkas, retreats, two steps and waltzes, Musette accordion music compositions, Scottish accordion dance music, Will Starr of Croy, Stirlingshire, Scotland The Kilt is My Delight, The White Heather Group, Morino accordion by Hohner of Germany, button key accordions, Bevin Boy, Ivan Starovisky, William Starrs, Scottish Half-Hour, The Scottish Music Hall Society, Robert Wilson Scottish tenor singer, Harry Gordon Scottish comedian entertainer, Scottish legends, Scottish music hall entertainers, Scottish accordion champions,

Grampian TV Recording:

These movie clips are of Will Starr playing in the Grampian TV Hogmanay Show, December 1975. They are taken from an old VHS video recording in which the reproduction is not so good.

However, the sound is reasonable and you will still hear and see the playing excellence of Will Starr. His bellows control, his fingering and his control of timing during a live broadcast - with all its distractions - is truly astonishing.

The clips also demonstrate the great sense of fun that Will brought to his performances - with his famous 'kick' being much in evidence.

In these clips he is playing his black Hohner Morino 4-row button accordion - the one with the dummy fourth row.

To PLAY, left click on a Movie link. To DOWNLOAD, right click and choose Save Target As...

Movie 1 - 2 minutes 30 seconds
Here Will plays a set of three Jigs while displaying all the panache of a real virtuoso performer.

Movie 2 - 1 minute 05 seconds
This clip sees Will playing a Reel, starting off at blistering pace, getting ever faster until he finishes at blinding speed, yet still manages to maintain total control of fingers, bellows and timing.

Movie 3 - 1 minute 26 seconds
In this skit Will acts as the stooge for Ronnie Coburn's joke.

Movie 4 - 2 minutes 46 seconds
In this clip Will plays a novelty piece, 'The Fastest Drummer in the Kingdom of Fife' with his friend Ronnie Coburn playing drums. He then starts off with a Polka speeding up to a Reel, where Ronnie dances. Everything then descends into general frivolity between Will and Ronnie.

Movie 5 - 1 minute 50 seconds
Here we see Will joining in with the band as an accompaniment to a female singer and the audience, in the song, 'The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen'.

Note:
A copy of the video of the Show was very kindly provided by Will Starr's sisters.

If anyone has a better quality video of this Show and would like to share it, please contact us and we will post it to the web site for everyone to enjoy.

top of page

Grampian TV Recording:

Note:

Web Site by IT-SERVE © 1999 - 2013