Dick Glasgow

“When I first came to North Antrim I was amazed to find that there were no traditional music classes on the Causeway Coast. Then I learned of the late Jim McGill’s excellent work, & decided to carry it on, to the best of my ability, by running weekly junior sessions in the homes of Jim’s former students.

By the autumn of ’95 I had five different weekly house sessions in Ballycastle, plus one in Armoy & one in Portstewart. There were so many because of numbers & varying levels of ability, & each session had a daft name like Fiddlesticks, Fiddle Frogs, Fiddle Puppets, Fiddle Fever, Fiddle Feet & Fiddle Fidgets.

Very soon however, they were all asking to learn new tunes, so I founded the 'Jim McGill School of Traditional Music’, in 1995, & started weekly Fiddle & Whistle classes in the Ace Office, Ballycastle, naming the school after Jim, to help keep his name alive in the area, & synonymous with Traditional Music.

It was in ’95 too, that I started a new weekly Pub session, for beginners, in a new session pub for Ballycastle, the Central Bar, then known as Kerry Joe’s, & I’m delighted to say that it’s still going strong. It has always been an easy going session, not one of those 'try & keep up with the fastest player’ jobs, so learners feel comfortable.
1995 also saw me being asked to take over the Fiddle classes for the Education Board in the Ballymoney Music Centre, a job I carried out weekly till the end of the ’90s.

I have also tried weekly Pub sessions in the Harbour Bar & Tessie’s in Ballycastle, the Nook in Bushmills & the Harbour Bar in Portrush, which unfortunately didn’t work out, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Other sessions which I have started, & that are still going strong, after a number of years are, the Carrick a Rede in Ballintoy, the Smugglers Inn & Distillers Arms, Bushmills, & the Springhill Bar in Portrush.

In 1996 I worked for my TTCT (Traditional Music Teaching Certificate) in Dublin, & the following year, gave up the day job to teach full time.

Before I turned my hand to teaching music however, I got up to a number of capers over the years, which you may like to hear about. I worked as a Gamekeeper (plus 4s 'n all the tweeds), at Brechin Castle, in Angus, Scotland, & also in Co. Meath, Ireland at Dunsany Estate, near Dunshaughlin, & also at Slane Castle (long before the Rock Concerts were held there).

For a year, I was an apprentice Falconer, at the Falconry Centre of Ireland, near Clonmel, Tipperary (Falcons, Eagles, the works).

I was a Private Gardener for a number of years on two Scottish Estates, one near Grantown on Spey, & the other by Aberdeen, so you see kids my green fingers are not from picking my nose.

I tried my hand at Zoo Keeping in the Bird Gardens of Edinburgh Zoo, & with the Birds of Prey & Paddock Animals at Twycross Zoo, near Birmingham, where Molly Badden kept her TV Chimps for the 'Tea’ adverts. I was in charge of the Bird Gardens of Pittencrief Park, Dunfermline, Fife, for a couple of years too. I also worked for many years as a Pest Control Officer in Co. Antrim as well as the Highlands & the N E of Scotland, chasing Rats, Mice & Cockroaches from Dundee to Skye, & back again.

I spent a cold year Busking on the streets of Dublin, before heading to Berlin to play (& drink) my way through the Irish Pubs for a year, where I met my wife Sabine, & the rest, as they say, is history – I just took up teaching music to get away from the monotony of it all!!!”

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