Molendinar

molendinar

A Glasgow-based folk band of the 1970s.

In an interview Mick West recalled:

“We were sitting about drinking and playing and singing. Since we enjoyed it so much, why not get a band together? So we did. It kind of grew organically into quite a big band. Alan McFadyen, Fergus Muirhead, Sandy Stanage, Kenny Campbell, Chris Miller, Mark Hamilton.”

The name Molendinar was apt, Stuart Eydmann came up with it, It used to be a beautiful burn that flowed through Glasgow. Now its a covered sewer. So what happened to Molendinar?

“We never really took the music too seriously. We were into enjoying the music and having a good time. No worries about having rehearsals or arrangements!.”

After two or three years Molendinar withered away. p. 27

Sandy Stanage relates how he became involved through the Centre One and Forum Folk Clubs at East Kilbride:

Centre One, being as it was part of a big social club, was probably quite cash-rich and attracted a number of big names of the day, like The McCalmans, John Watt and Davie Stewart, The Laggan (Arthur Johnstone’s band, who were quite big at the time), and the Battlefield Band. It was also where I first met and heard Jim and Sylvia Barnes. I soon got involved in doing floor spots with various people and eventually got to hear about another folk club in East Kilbride, at the Forum Bar. Centre One gradually faded and disappeared over the space of a year or so but The Forum went from strength to strength, giving some now very well-known people their first Scottish gigs. I became very much part of the “crowd” and this led to my being invited by one of the other regulars, Allan McFadyen, to join a band which was being put together in Glasgow and which eventually became Molendinar, with Mick West and Stuart Eydmann. Molendinar played mostly around Glasgow and the West of Scotland for a couple of years…

Tracks recorded as part of a demo session, London, April 1977. Sandy Stanage (guitar, cittern), Mick West (voice, percussion), Alan McFadyen (guitar), Stuart Eydmann (fiddle, bouzouki).

Arthur MacBride

Twa Bonny Boys

Departing Song

Unidentified Reels

Recorded live in concert East Berlin February 1979. From LP 9 Festival des Politischen Liedes (Amiga 8 45 169). Mick West (voice, percussion), Alan McFadyen (guitar), Stuart Eydmann (fiddle), Mark Hamilton (bagpipes, whistle), Fergus Muirhead (bagpipes) and Chris Miller (fiddle).

Paddy’s Leather Breeches

MickAlan

Farewell my Lovely Nancy

Sung by Mick West and Alan McFadyen (above) of Molendinar. c. 1980.

The following Mp3 tracks were recorded at a reunion of Molendinar as part of a celebration of the life of the late Tony Cuffe held in Glasgow in 2003.