Tartan Tours Of Canada Presents
20 Selections of Johnny's Favorite Songs with Johnny Forrest
Glasgow-born Johnny Forrest was a household name in the Sixties and Seventies, when the “lad” with the kilt and the accordion did regular TV guest appearances on the Don Messer Jubilee TV show. He also went on tour with the famous Maritime fiddler along with the show’s regulars, Marg Osborne and Charlie Chamberlain. Forrest was hired as a regular on the Don Messer show in 1966, where he was a very popular part of the weekly show until the sudden death of Don Messer in 1973.
As a child growing up in Scotland, Johnny loved the accordion and he said, “my dad bought me my first small accordion when I was five years old, he paid a pound for it, which was a lot of money back then. I can remember taking the accordion to bed with me and polishing it. There were always parties going on at our house and I can remember my parents getting me out of bed to come and play the accordion and accompany the singers at the parties.”
At the age of nine years old Johnny was already entertaining and touring his native land with a professional group of entertainers, singing and doing pantomime. At age 19, Johnny emigrated to Canada and settled in Edmonton, where he worked at various jobs but it was always music that filled any spare time. He had a seven year association with CFRN radio and TV in Alberta, as well as doing a six week series for CBC Edmonton.
Although Johnny loved to sing his Scottish songs, his repertoire is many and varied. Johnny laughingly calls himself, “the only Western singer with a Scottish accent.” Forrest loves singing, entertaining and meeting and talking to people, he always has a joke or two for them and takes great delight in seeing them laugh. The funny thing about most of his jokes is that they are true and from his childhood memories and like most Celts, when times were tough they kept going by making jokes out of what could have been very sad situations.
Johnny moved to the West coast in 1973, settling in Richmond, where he got into the travel business through a mutual friend. He has now been in the travel business for the past 21 years and owns and operates Tartan Tours Limited which specializes in tours to Scotland and Australia. But Johnny still plays his piano accordion and this past July, he did several concerts in Alberta, where he played to packed houses. The concerts were sponsored by the local Wetaskiwin radio station. “It was a real delight to know that seniors still remembered me from the Don Messer TV show,” Johnny said with pride.
One little known fact about Johnny Forrest is that he is listed as number 10 on the Word’s Records of Gospel Music, with Pat Boone listed as numbers eight and nine, and Burl Ives as number 16. Johnny is listed as Canadian-Scottish and the title of the CD is Amazing Grace – WCS 5538.
For all of his accomplishments, Johnny is still a big kid at heart. When he is not at Tartan Tours or doing concerts, he is driving a big yellow school bus that takes kids to a French school in Richmond. He said, “I sing to the kids on the bus such songs as How Much is That Doggie in the Window and If I Knew You Were coming I’d Have Baked a Cake, and the kids know the words now and sing along with me.”
Johnny has recorded several CD’s and the latest is entitled Tartan Tours of Canada Presents – 20 Selections of Johnny’s Favorite Music with Johnny Forrest. Tracks on the CD include: Come in, Come in; Harry Lauder Medley, The Tartan; Maggie; Set of Scottish Jigs; The Northern Lights of Aberdeen; Take Me Back; The Road to the Isles; Amazing Grace; Danny Boy; Skyline of Skye; Daisy Daisy Medley; A Scottish Soldier; Scotland Forever; Set of Scottish Reels; Loch Lomond/Flower of Scotland; Scotland the Brave; I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen; and These Are My Mountains.
Johnny has been invited to perform at a fundraising concert on November 13, at Gibsons Legion Hall on the Sunshine Coast. This fundraiser is for the Coast String Fiddlers, a group of young fiddlers on the Sunshine Coast, who are raising funds to finance a tour of Scotland next year.
With a full schedule already, Johnny has just added another project...a book. This will be an autobiography of his life, which will include a lot about his childhood in Scotland. He said, “every page will be true and every page will be a laugh.” Watch The Celtic Connection for more information about Johnny’s book, it should be a “hoot mon”.
For bookings, to purchase Johnny Forrest’s CDs, or for information on Tartan Tours, call (604) 273-3601, or call toll free in Canada 1-877-482-7826.
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90 Years on the Beat
Vancouver Police Pipe Band
The Vancouver Police Pipe Band is celebrating it's 90th Anniversary with a commemorative CD entitled, 90 Years on the Beat. The liner notes are actually a 24 page booklet with the illustrious history and photos of the band, which has had a very interesting and colourful past. It has also played a very significant role in the formative years of what has become one of the most respected pipe band communities in the world.
The CD was produced to commemorate the band’s significance to the history of the Vancouver Police Department, the City of Vancouver and the piping and drumming community of Vancouver and British Columbia. It was designed to appeal to average pipe band music enthusiasts as they make up a large percentage of the band’s audience.
In 1914, at the opening ceremonies for the Vancouver Police Headquarters, a group of pipers so impressed Chief Constable Malcolm MacLennan that he instructed the Vancouver Police Department to form its own pipe band. His timing was fortunate as the department had within its precincts one of North America’s finest solo pipers, its custodian, Donald MacIver of Torridon, Scotland.
In October of that year MacIver began teaching 10 constables, eight of whom had never fingered a chanter. Five beginner drummers also began training under Constable Andrew Campbell. Thus began the first of 90 years on the beat, making the Vancouver Police Pipe Band one of the oldest continuously serving police pipe bands in the world.
T Vancouver Police Pipe Band have travelled and performed in the United States, Hawaii and attended the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. While the band was in Hawaii in November 1963, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States, was assassinated.
In tribute to the President, the band performed a Retreat Ceremony in Honolulu and a group of pipers played a lament on the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbour. In recognition of these performances, band members were presented with silver commemorative medals. When President Lyndon B. Johnson visited Vancouver in 1964, the band was asked to repeat the performance for him.
The band has many long-term dedicated members, but it has one piper who holds the record with 53 years service. Andy Perrie joined the band as a piper in 1951 when he became a member of the Vancouver Police Department.
His career in the band includes 18 years as Pipe Major starting in 1967 until he retired from the police force in 1985. However he did not retire from the band, and still remains a very active member in his role as Pipe Sergeant.
The track list includes a selection of tunes ranging from traditional and well-known popular favourites to more contemporary popular compositions. Several tracks also include organ, piano, and string accompaniment provided by Alex Jappy and his daughter, Maureen Jappy O’Brien. Both are well regarded in the Scottish Country Dance community for their musical ability.
Tracks on the CD are: MacKenzie Highlanders; Battle of the Somme/Dagshi Hills; Split Set with Drum Salute; Edinburgh Toun Set; My Home and 6/8s; 2004 Competition MSR; Bells of Dunblane; Green Hills/Battle is O’er; The Dancers’ Set; Sam Hannah/Lady Dorothea; Classic Set; A Salute to America; Rocket Fuel/Crags of Tumbledown; Amazing Grace; Andy Perrie; Cullen Anderson; The Keel Row; Piper’s Cave/72nd’s Farewell to Aberdeen; 2004 Competition Medley; Drunken Piper/We Will Take The Good Old Way; Scotland The Brave/No Awa’ Tae Bide Awa’; MacKenzie Highlanders - Reprise.
To purchase 90 Year’s On The Beat, call: (604) 836-6517 or (604) 866-9436 or online: www.pipeband.ca.
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