[speaker001:] ... how you got started singing?
[Mabel:] How I got started singing?
[speaker001:] Aye.
[Mabel:] [LAUGHTER]... Well me, oh, how I got started singing, it was really just... I didn't sing very much really. My dad was a good singer. He wasn't a trained singer or anything, it was, just happened that he, he was a good singer. My younger brother he's a good singer as well. But er us
[speaker001:] Did he sing at home, your dad?
[Mabel:] He just sang round about the house, aha. And we just, he knew a lot of the, he was interested in si singing and he just knew the words and and just sang round about the house.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] And he just sang too. You know that's how he he learnt.
[speaker001:] So what were his favourite songs?
[Mabel:] Oh dear, he was... what would you say, I don't know... He liked the kind of... ballads, er he was a more a kind of bay he liked a ballad, so I really couldn't tell you who was his favourite singer or anything like that, just if a song interested him he just
[speaker001:] What do you mean by ballad kind of songs?
[Mabel:] Well more the slow, er songs, not the fast.
[speaker001:] The love songs and things like that?
[Mabel:] Things like that. Mhm.... but I I never sang anywhere, I just sang round the house as well. [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] And it was really er I think it was really the pantomimes that I started singing
[speaker001:] Was it?
[Mabel:] here, oh yes. I never I never went out
[speaker001:] Were you were you in the drama clubs here when you were younger then as well?
[Mabel:] I was in the Drama Club when I was when I stayed at home, but we didn't do pantomimes, we we did plays, one act plays, and three act plays, we did three act plays. We never did pantomimes. And er... but that's the only time, you sang at weddings. [LAUGHTER] So I said, Come on Mabel, sing. Or my father would sing
[speaker001:] So how long did you live in for?
[Mabel:] We've, into the village, we lived out in the countryside till I was eight, and we come down into the I should say town shouldn't I, we come down into the town when I was eight and I was there till I was twenty two, and I came up here, when I got married.
[speaker001:] Mhm, is Leslie from this part of the country?
[Mabel:] Les is from... oh well he was, I think he was three when he came up here. He lived in, he was born in Castle Douglas.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] But I think he was three when his father was sh came up here to work.
[speaker001:] What did his father do when he came here?
[Mabel:] Electrician, you know he still worked for the the electricity board.
[speaker001:] [cough] [cough] Did he come with the start of the scheme then really?
[Mabel:] No well it wasn't the scheme he worked on, he would go round and sort your cooker or you know he was that, maintenance, the maintenance side. Er other thing, and they lived down there opposite the garage, that was the electricity board house then.
[speaker001:] So would that be about er the late fifties or something you would you came here then yourself?
[Mabel:] I ca I came here in nineteen sixty one.
[speaker001:] Sixty one.
[Mabel:] Mhm.... That's when I got married, nineteen sixty one, I came up.
[speaker001:] What did you think of when you came?
[Mabel:] [LAUGHTER] Well it was just a quiet wee village just... I had come, wasn't much different it was quiet as well.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] And er there wasn't there wasn't much difference really. Everybody was very friendly, it didn't matter whether you were an incomer or not, they always spoke.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] You got to know people... very quick... in. That was one thing about the village, and your your neighbour would where Jane is the now, I don't think she'll have hardly seen her neighbour in Dumfries, but here they were always you know
[speaker001:] You couldn't get away from them. [LAUGHTER]
[Mabel:] [LAUGHTER] Oh they were in or out.
[speaker001:] So did you do any singing when you came here first? What was the first kind of thing you got involved in?
[Mabel:] Oh the rural choir, I forgot about that, yes, I joined the rural choir and. And er I couldn't sight read or anything like, I can't sight read. But I can remember once when I was at the school Mrs was our music teacher and we were to go from doh to far, you know doh to far, and they used to s, she used to say listen to Mabel, Mabel's the only one one of you that can go from doh to far. [LAUGHTER] But er... so when we came Mrs the sight reading of course I was lost because she used to
[speaker001:] Is that Mrs John?
[Mabel:] No Mrs Billy.
[speaker001:] Billy.
[Mabel:] She used to take the rural choir.
[speaker001:] How long had it been going then when you came?
[Mabel:] Oh it had been going for quite some time, I don't know really when they would start.
[speaker001:] Was it all ladies?
[Mabel:] Mhm, yes, oh aye, all ladies.
[speaker001:] [cough]
[Mabel:] she was nearly retired, Billy
[speaker001:] [cough]
[Mabel:] she was nearly retiring by the, no still the girls go to her at the school so she must have been going for, two or three years after we came up here, but I would be in the choir just, maybe two or three years. And then it
[speaker001:] And did it
[Mabel:] it fell the choir fell folded up,
[speaker001:] Folded up and she
[Mabel:] Aye, oh
[speaker001:] retired?
[Mabel:] There was nobody else took it on.
[speaker001:] Was there a church choir going at that time then?
[Mabel:] Yes, aye there would be, just the same ladies that have s been in it for years.
[speaker001:] But there were men in it for quite a while, I was wondering when that kind of faded out.
[Mabel:] Oh that was faded out before
[speaker001:] That was a good while before
[Mabel:] Aye before we came up here. I wonder if, it Mr, was it choir or his father or something that had it, I can if I can remember somebody saying.
[speaker001:] So what was going on in the way of entertainments and things like that when you came to?
[Mabel:] When I came up to live here? There was quite a few dances, in er, do you mean dances in the Town Hall?... Ah there would be... there well just one or two, not not every week or anything like that as far as I can remember.
[speaker001:] Just a few over the winter?
[Mabel:] Just aye, aye, oh they didn't have them in the in the summer, and of course in them days well the... the bars shut at ten o'clock which meant you know they came into the dance hall just after that where nowadays the bars shut at twelve o'clock and
[speaker001:] It's hardly worth having a dance.
[Mabel:] It's not worth having a dance. But I heard the Town Hall was having one, not the Town, was it the Town Hall or Community Council having one between, I think it's the Town Hall, between Christmas and New Year and really I don't think it's worth their while... having them then.
[speaker001:] Do you think that's been a big thing contributing to there being aless dances and things then?
[Mabel:] Do you mean the bars being op oh I think
[speaker001:] And clubs.
[Mabel:] I think so really
[speaker001:] Do you think it's the main thing?
[Mabel:] I think that's what's really, it's killed them... as far
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] as the dances are concerned.... And another thing is the young ones don't dance. They can
[speaker001:] Do you mean by young ones my generation?
[Mabel:] I mean, yes, well maybe you can but I do [LAUGHTER] but the the younger ones are ever er you know younger ones like Carl and them, they can disco but they they can't waltz or... er foxtrot or
[speaker001:] How did you learn to waltz then?
[Mabel:] Just by going to dances, just by going to dances, we just, you just picked it up, your your partner could do it and you just learnt from there.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] That's one thing I've always been a quick learner which has been quite
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] I think Jane's got... er that as well. She seem to be able to pick thing sup.
[speaker001:] Does she like dancing?
[Mabel:] Not as fa not the dancing but when she was working in an office you know they just needed to show her something once and she could pick it up.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] It was the same in the the pantomimes when Lily has learnt learnt the dancing, I could er after she had showed us about twice I could I could have it no bother and the rest of them were still struggling away trying to learn the steps. So it's quite an advantage.
[speaker001:] So did you go to dances quite a lot before you were married?
[Mabel:] Oh yes in aye.
[speaker001:] Was that the place where everybody went to
[Mabel:] To the Town Hall.
[speaker001:] young lads and lasses would get together?
[Mabel:] Lasses would yes, aye, to the dances. And they used to run... er buses to different places, you know, you used to go to different places, and.
[speaker001:] And what kind of band played for the dances when you were in then?
[Mabel:] Bands like what Tommy has, you know accordion bands. That er they were all more or less that kind of band.
[speaker001:] So by the time you came here it would mostly just be Tommy that was playing?
[Mabel:] Roundabouts, er the only one I can remember is Tommy round about, you know playing er in the Hall. And, it was just these kind of bands that
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] were in those days, the accordion bands. So... but we fair enjoyed them [LAUGHTER], they think, the younger ones don't like them nowadays but
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] we enjoyed them. Cos I like, I like the accordion, I like country dancing.
[speaker001:] Did you go to the Country Dancing Club at all?
[Mabel:] Oh yes. Went to the Country Dancing Club, used to go all over to the Country Dances
[speaker001:] Oh?
[Mabel:] to different places.
[speaker001:] It was supposed to have been quite good up at,?
[Mabel:] Aye it was sti, yes it was still going when I came up here. Mhm
[speaker001:] Aha.
[Mabel:] Was it Mrs, from took it?
[speaker001:] And were there men went to the country dancing as well?
[Mabel:] Oh yes, oh yes, aye. Not so many men as went ladies but er
[speaker001:] Do you think
[Mabel:] there was a lot of men.
[speaker001:] the rise of the Country Dancing Clubs was maybe be to kind of try and compensate in a way for the dances themselves going down, ordinary dances, folk were wanting to do the Scottish dancing and things?
[Mabel:] It could have been but you found you found at the Country Dancing, it was different people that was at the Country Dancing than what than what it was at the... more at the the ordinary dances.
[speaker001:] Folk that maybe would have been shy to go to a
[Mabel:] Mhm.
[speaker001:] a big dance?
[Mabel:] Yes er maybe but would come to the country dancing.
[speaker001:] Or some of the older folk maybe that
[Mabel:] Folk, I think yes, it was more, mhm.
[speaker001:] Right.
[Mabel:] But you get country dancing that's very energetic really. [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] Yes.
[Mabel:] But I oh I used to go to the country dancing.
[speaker001:] So was there a drama club going in when you came here?
[Mabel:] No.
[speaker001:] That would be finished up?
[Mabel:] That was finished up, mhm.
[speaker001:] What about the one, was it still going? When you came here?
[Mabel:] I don't think so, I can't remember... eh it going then.
[speaker001:] Because I think it was Tommy that said it was really after the one finished and there was nothing else round about that there was a gap of a few years and then you got started again here.
[Mabel:] Yes, but er it was actually Mike that got it back up here, Mike and Grace, John 's first wife that started it up. I can remember Leslie coming home, I think I must have been expecting Doreen at the time, that was in, that was early early on, nineteen, well that was nineteen sixty three, and he was, he had heard that had I had been in the Gatehouse Drama Club, and er he said, Would I be interested in com in coming to the Drama in if they started? Leslie said he would need a special part for me then. [LAUGHTER] But that it took another oh quite a number of years really to get it started up.
[speaker001:] They were very good for it's first
[Mabel:] Oh the first concert oh yes
[speaker001:] those kind of people.
[Mabel:] The f I often find that really the first year it was more fun... and er then when they started on the plays and that it got more serious and
[speaker001:] A bit more like hard work really?
[Mabel:] It was really, there wasn't so much fun in it, it was all more serious. And when Bobby was there it really was
[speaker001:] I remember
[Mabel:] Oh yes.
[speaker001:] He and Andy together were very good.
[Mabel:] Mhm, yes, oh they were, aha. Bobby was really, he just kept it going really.
[speaker001:] Sometimes just one person like that or a couple of people?
[Mabel:] It, it just needs a character really, just to keep it going. And he really was a character.... somehow in the drama, even though it's so long since he passed away.
[speaker001:] There's nobody can replace individual people.
[Mabel:] There no, no, nobody at all.
[speaker001:] And do you think er the others feel that like you do about doing the plays that it's maybe a bit more of a strain you know the competitions and
[Mabel:] I think some of them do, yes, I know s er some of them have said how much they enjoyed it when it started off first, but er... but now it's just got that wee bit more serious. We're with the plays, with going to the festival of course, you can't,... you must be serious when you're practising for something like that.
[speaker001:] Do you feel like it's almost like doing a different thing that you're not, you know when you're actually acting in the play you're more self conscious and you're more conscious of what you're you're moving and you're speaking and whereas the likes of the panto you know you just be yourself really with a bit of fun thrown in.
[Mabel:] Yeah, yes, oh yes aye the plays... the plays you've got to... think what you're doing wand if you miss your cue line you're putting your, the person next, off as well that it is more... er serious and you've got to think more I think
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] really. But however
[speaker001:] So you just kind of kept kept on singing, after the choir and that finished?
[Mabel:] Aha, when the pantomime started up that was just carried on in there. Not that I'm a great, good or great singer it's just... I seem to have a strong voice. [LAUGHTER] Unfortunately you can always hear me above everybody else. [LAUGHTER] Oh dear. That's, you can
[speaker001:] But if er if folks spoke about you you know they would they would say you were a singer? Because you're seen in public and you do sing in public, there's a lot of people that sing but as you say it's sometimes just in their own homes or they used to but they would never sing in public, they used to sing in the choir.
[Mabel:] Yes, sing in public, no no. I've I wouldn't... I don't think I would go out if somebody said, Would you come... and sing... er at such and such a thing. I I don't think I would go. But in the pantomime, well you're singing with everybody else, you're not er on your own really. And the pantomimes a different thing altogether.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] And I mun that... I must have words in front of me, if I don't have words in front of me even though I know it, I I still forget it. But er
[speaker001:] That's right, just nerves.
[Mabel:] I think it's the nervousness that just knocks the words coming out of your head. Oh,
[speaker001:] It's easy to do. Aha.
[Mabel:] oh aye.
[speaker001:] But er... do you quite like singing for folk that know you? Do you like singing in the village, where everybody knows you, or would you in some ways be less nervous do you think if you were singing like even to folk,... who just don't so well?
[Mabel:] Quite know me so well?
[speaker001:] Do you think that makes any difference?
[Mabel:] I think it would really in a way... and yet the people in know how you sing so the... whereas the maybe wouldn't know.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] And you would [LAUGHTER] you would be more, you'd be more nervous in case they they thought, Well she's terrible isn't she?
[speaker001:] But it would also be fresher for them, you know
[Mabel:] Oh yes.
[speaker001:] folk folk that know you either w might be too critical or they might just switch off because they have heard it before.
[Mabel:] They have heard it before, mhm.... But I've never... well I've never really
[speaker001:] You've never
[Mabel:] sang in... anything other than the pantomime that
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] int he village you know, except maybe at... at the Social or something like that, said, Come on up and sing and then I forget my words and [LAUGHTER] that's me.
[speaker001:] Do you like to know where, for quite a while in advance what you're going to sing then?
[Mabel:] I do really. Aha, I do really. If somebody's would l if somebody wanted me to sing I really would like to know er because
[speaker001:] Do you not have a wee store of your favourite things then that you
[Mabel:] Oh I have a wee store, yes, but you see you don't carry them, I don't carry them with me, if I carried them with me I could sing I could, well that's it,
[speaker001:] If you did it more often maybe,
[Mabel:] I feel if, yes, you would remember them an awful lot easier.
[speaker001:] Aha.
[Mabel:] But er
[speaker001:] What, how did how did you collect the songs that you sing then, I mean were they just things that
[Mabel:] Just taking... aye, just songs that I liked and... I just er take them off tapes and, and records, and I just write them down,
[speaker001:] Do you do that all the time? Are you always, when you're hearing something
[Mabel:] Mhm.
[speaker001:] you're listening
[Mabel:] Mhm.
[speaker001:] thinking, Oh I'd like to sing that.
[Mabel:] And I'd like to, aye, and I just... write it down in a... if it's on a tape you can put that pause on and just take line by line, you know.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] But erm... and if you listen to the tape long enough you can, I can pick up the tune,
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] as well, and just, and have the words. And then as long as the pianist or the accordionist know the tune I'm alright [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] Can you take it off the
[Mabel:] Mhm. music as well though if you had to? If somebody gave you a bit of sheet music? No. No I would have to learn the tune like by listening to the
[speaker001:] Aha.
[Mabel:] to the person singing.
[speaker001:] Aha.
[Mabel:] That's the only way I would... learn a tune, I couldn't sight-read the
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] the music off a sheet.
[speaker001:] Right.... Do you have you ever had a go at the piano or that?
[Mabel:] No, though I would like to have been able to have played, I can remember saying to my mother once, I would like to have been able to have learnt the piano. And er but of course they couldn't afford to buy me a piano to learn on so
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] that was it.
[speaker001:] Any other instruments
[Mabel:] Mhm.
[speaker001:] you particularly like?
[Mabel:] I that I like? Or would have, to listen to?
[speaker001:] To listen to, to listen to, mhm.
[Mabel:] I like the guitar, I like to listen to the guitar, not the classical stuff, I'm sorry to say but, I like to listen to the guitar. Or er a clarinet, I like the sound of
[speaker001:] Aha, aha
[Mabel:] oh I like the sound of a clarinet, mhm, I think they're lovely. But er the piano's the only one I would of like to have learnt to play.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] I often feel sorry that I never... was able to play but
[speaker001:] Oh you still could [LAUGHTER]
[Mabel:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] Plenty of adverts about.
[Mabel:] Yes oh yes, aye.
[speaker001:] practice in the town hall. [LAUGHTER]
[Mabel:] Well we had a piano actually, we got it for Doreen and Doreen... she started to learn, she went to Mr. Remember Mr that used to live at? She went to him and then he flitted away. And er she just never went anywhere else and gave up. And Carol liked to come through and just tinker but she never got lessons or anything so we just sold it.
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] But, as long as the... music had doh ray mes written on it I could play with one hand but
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] other than that I was lost.
[speaker001:] Mhm, do you think it's quite good
[Mabel:] Mhm.
[speaker001:] that they're getting a lot of music at school these days and?
[Mabel:] I think it is, yes, I think it's a great thing really.
[speaker001:] Do you think it's important?...
[Mabel:] Yes, erm... I can't give you a reason why I think it's important though. [LAUGHTER] But I think it is. I think it's a it's the lighter side of the... their their schooling. They have a serious side but they must have a lighter side as well, mustn't they? In the school.
[speaker001:] But you must really enjoy singing to... yourself, you must find that something
[Mabel:] Oh I do.
[speaker001:] you get out of singing that you don't get anywhere else.
[Mabel:] Its's no, no, I I do enjoy, I r I like singing. I like the music. I I'm really interested in music.
[speaker001:] Do you feel as if you're really expressing something
[Mabel:] In the music, in the song.
[speaker001:] Even if it's just a simple wee song?
[Mabel:] Mhm, mhm, it is, it's lovely.
[speaker001:] everybody should be able to feel that they can do that, you know?...
[Mabel:] Aha. Aye, sure they should.
[speaker001:] So is there an what kind of things would you like to see... in the village and round about int eh way of more music or less music or a different music? Would you like more dances? Or?
[Mabel:] Myself, I'd I'd really enjoy dancing, er so does Leslie, Leslie enjoys dancing as well. But er
[speaker001:] You would go to more it there were more do you think?
[Mabel:] Well nowadays I don't know whether you should record this or not, but nowadays erm they'll not go unless they've been to the bar or something before that well unfortunately Leslie's not able to drink now, he can't after his operation, he can't take, it just upsets him altogether so he can't go to the bar and all the rest of the company have been to the bar and they're in a different mood than what Leslie is, so Leslie'll just not go, and it just, it's kind of, cut him off
[speaker001:] Mhm.
[Mabel:] there, you know.
[speaker001:] That's a shame. [recording ends]