Nigel Your news that Bella has been seen around Crieff has confirmed some rumours of long-standing. Information had reached us from several sources (Rod Paterson and Pete Clark, for example, have recently had to endure some unpleasant heckling) that she had settled in the Perthshire area. She's a good age now, but can still rattle a braw pair o speens.
Unfortunately your sighting of her in saltire and corsets does bring back some painful memories (well, folk memories in our case - we're too young to have witnessed the original outrages). Here's the story as we understand it , and as it has been passed down to us. When Bella started the band just after the war the impact she had on the Scottish Country Dance scene cannot be overestimated. Justly feted wherever she went, it seemed to many only a matter of time before she came to the attention of the BBC and hence to wider national notice. When, however, the BBC declined to broadcast Bella and her band (citing the absence of accordions and too many minor seventh chords) it seemed to turn her mind. Her behaviour became increasingly erratic and bizarre, culminating in the notorious 'Windygates Button Key Club' incident, when she was last seen brandishing an axe and a rag-filled petrol can, shouting 'My work is now done' to anyone who cared to listen. Fortunately widespread damage was prevented. After Bella's disappearance following this, the band decided to keep going, but an adherence to the original name and a sense of indebtedness to the founder meant that their gigs were largely confined to the various bothans and shielings of the 'ceilidh underground'. Finally in the mid-nineties increasingly insistent messages from mysterious go-betweens to the inheritors of the name prompted the band to emerge into the open. The climate had changed. We were able to go about our business unhampered by the bitter memories of a previous generation, and play venues such as Aberfeldy Town Hall with impunity. With no audience, but impunity nonetheless. 'Bella, Bella!' indeed! David Francis t/f (44) (0)131 557 1050 (o); (44) (0)131 669 8824 (h) Posted to Scots-L - The Traditional Scottish Music & Culture List - To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
