BCD – Benn Gunn

BENN GUNN – CREW

James Devlin – Flute Vocals
Davy Lawson – Guitar
Brian Devlin – Bass
Dave Clark – Drums
George Murray Melville – Head Roadie
Malcolm Smith – Sound
Brian Strachan – Roadie
Brian Smith – Manager..”He’d rather give up some profit margin to sleep soundly at night”. Brian ran the FOOLS – clothes shop at the bottom of Morningside, opposite the Canny Man’s.
Neil Ross – Rel Studio Engineer
Tom Kidd – Photographer
Heather – Manager – First early gigs

Mid 1975 we reformed for gigs and a studio session which was paid for by Polygram
Dave had returned to full time education so some friends who played drums in other bands sat in
1975 : Andy Munro – jazz drummer from Mama Flyer, for a couple of gigs and in the REL recordings.
Andy is now a solo artist as professional children’s clown act. Plays guitar.
1975 : Dave Swanson – jazz drummer from, East West, for couple of gigs before Jim Burns joined
1975 : Jim Burns – Big drums. Jim was the mainstay drummer during that period.

Repertoire


The following list is about 80% of the tunes we played. Based on Free, Rory Gallagher , Taste, Tull, Hendrix , Cream. Mainly blues numbers and our own compositions.

Young And Schoolin (Benn Gunn) – slow fast rock number
Caught Me Leaving (Benn Gunn)
Bye The Bye (Benn Gunn)
To Be Seen With You (Benn Gunn)
During The Bell (Benn Gunn)
Just Like That JLT (Benn Gunn) instrumental
12 bar slide guitar solo with lawson bottleneck stuff
God Rest Yea Merry Gentlemen : – arr traditional for Christmas. Instrumental rock version pre: Jethro Tull
Hands Up (Rory Gallagher, Taste)
Feel So Good (Rory Gallagher)
Play In Time (Jethro Tull)
Serenade To A Cockoo (Roland Kirk) – G minor blues
Cats Squirrel (Jethro Tull)
Fire And Water (Free)
Wishing Well (Free)
Plynth (Jeff Beck) – good opening number
Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac/Peter Green) – what a shape were we in !
All Along The Watchtower (Hendrix version of Bob Dylan)
Comin Home (Herbie Mann) – C minor blues for flute
Voodoo Chile (Jimi Hendrix)
Help myself Ill be there (Benn Gunn) – No idea but not the motown version – no where to hide

Gigs

1973 this is just a fragment of our diary it is from our busiest time there are loads of gigs missing particularly the Borders i.e. Duns and other Scottish gigs at Napier College, Edinburgh College Of Commerce – Sighthill, Glasgow University and The International Club, all of which we have no records.
The Harness at Tollcross – we were the regular house band.
St. Clements Wells were a rival local band

1973

March 23rd Harness Edinburgh March
March 24th Harness Edinburgh
April 16th Harness Edinburgh
April 28th Peel Hospital – Galashields
May 4th Felicity’s party Morningside at the Mercison Youth Club, Edinburgh
May 8th Herriot Watt University edinburgh
May 17th Cephas Club West End Edinburgh
May 25th Harness Edinburgh
May 31st Queen Margaret Margaret’s College Edinburgh
June 6th Queen Margaret Margaret’s College Edinburgh
June 7th Kings Hotel Hawick
June 15th Harness Edinburgh
June 16th Gala-shields
June 17th Kirckaldy
June 26th Stephenson’s College Gig Was At Tiffany Tiffany”s Club
July 2nd Royal Albert Hotel – Kirkcaldy
July 13th Royal Albert Hotel – Kirkcaldy
July 14th Alberfeldy
July 15th Queens Hotel – Dundee
July 21st Harness – Edinburgh
August 3rd Falkland Bar – Kirkcaldy
August 5th Falkland Bar – Kirkcaldy
August 10th Falkland Bar – Kirkcaldy
August 20th George Square Theatre – Edinburgh
August 24th Kirkcaldy
August 26th Kirkcaldy
September 9th kirkcaldy
September 19th Edinburgh College of Commerce – Sighthill
September 29th Seaforth at Drysart
October 12th Harness Time : 20:00-21:30
October 12th Napier College Time : 22:00-23:30 joint gig with Factory Evening and was titled “Magic Fantastic”
October 19th Edinburgh University support for Manfred Mann
October 20th Glasgow University – Queen Margaret College support for Chicken Shack
October 31st – Dance unknown location
December 17th Leith Town Hall – Stevenson College freshers 11 00 – 12 30

1974

1974 kept hardly any diary entries for pub gigs or recording sessions rel after september ”73 but were playing friday and saturday nights and usually sunday lunchtimes every week mainly because we got a good deal on the pa hire pickup every Friday afternoon and return Monday morning from our friends at REL.