1. Sir James Shand was a Scottish musician who played traditional Scottish dance music on the accordion.
17 Facts About Jimmy Shand
1. 2.
James Jimmy Shand was born in East Wemyss in Fife, Scotland, son of a farm ploughman turned coal miner and one of nine children.
3.
Jimmy Shand started with the mouth organ and soon played the fiddle.
4.
Jimmy Shand's friend said: "It wouldn't cost you to try one," so Shand walked in and strapped on an accordion.
5.
Jimmy Shand soon acquired a van and drove all over the north of Scotland.
6.
Jimmy Shand switched to the British chromatic button accordion, an instrument he stuck with for the rest of his life.
7.
Jimmy Shand sponsored a motorcycle road racer from Errol, Perthshire called Jack Gow, a multiple Scottish Motorcycle Racing champion and later a motorcycle dealer in Dundee.
8.
Jimmy Shand failed an audition for the BBC because he kept time with his foot.
9.
Jimmy Shand's career took off when he switched to making 78s for the Beltona label.
10.
Jimmy Shand appeared in a promo film shown in cinemas.
11.
Jimmy Shand was prevented from joining the RAF by a digestive disorder, and spent the war years in the Fire Service.
12.
Jimmy Shand took his trademark bald head, Buddy Holly spectacles and full kilted regalia, Scottish reels, jigs and strathspeys to Australia, New Zealand and North America, including Carnegie Hall in New York.
13.
Jimmy Shand was made a freeman of Auchtermuchty in 1974, North East Fife in 1980 and Fife in 1998.
14.
Jimmy Shand's portrait is in the Scottish National Gallery, close to Niel Gow.
15.
Jimmy Shand recorded more tracks than the Beatles and Elvis Presley combined.
16.
Jimmy Shand was dissatisfied with the chromatic button-key accordions available on the market in the 1940s so he designed his own one.
17.
Jimmy Shand is the only artist worldwide to have his name used by the Hohner company as a model name for a musical instrument.