Bill’s key role in the west nears its end in retirement
AMONG the many letters of thanks and appreciation, one former customer of Bill Gray wrote: ‘We will miss this gracious, delightful man.’
As news began to spread that Bill was about to retire after a 70year career as a piano tuner, many people felt compelled to let him know that his friendship would be missed just as much as his undoubted mastery of pitch-perfect tuning.
He has had customers and friends the length and breadth of Argyll and the islands, and at one time kept instruments in shape from Southend, Kintyre, to the northernmost tip of Skye. It all began in the immediate post-war years when 15-yearold Bill was looking for an apprenticeship in his home town of Clydebank. In 1946, he began a five-year piano tuning apprenticeship in the Clydebank branch of Wm Thomson & Sons on Kilbowie Road, just along from the Singer factory and John Brown’s shipyard.
Bill later moved to work with Glasgow firm Paterson, Sons & Co, where he looked after customers right across the west coast and islands of Scotland.
‘It was while working with Paterson that I came to Ardrishaig’, said Bill. ‘At that time I would be tuning more than 20 pianos every week.’
In 1957, he took on former Paterson’s customers and became self-employed as a piano tuner. Two years later Bill married Edinburgh lass Helen and they moved to Chalmers Street, Ardrishaig.
Travelling around with his motorbike and sidecar – not Helen’s favourite mode of transport – Bill was, by this time, a familiar and much-loved character in the west. ‘I have had gallons of tea and loads of chocolate biscuits over the years, and I have to say that so many of my customers have become friends.’
From humble upright pianos in family homes to magnificent Steinway grand pianos in cathedrals and castles, Bill has tuned them all, mostly to A440 standard pitch.
‘Dunvegan Castle on Skye was one place I remember tuning a piano, for the chief of the MacLeods,’ said Bill.
‘On the island of Canna, though, John Lorne Campbell and his wife Margaret Fay Shaw had no fewer than four pianos in Canna House. They were marvellous people,’ Bill recalls.
He reels off a few other famous names and clients – from writer, poet and Carradale resident Naomi Mitchison to best-selling romantic thriller writer Mary Stewart, who had a home on the banks of Loch Awe. All are now gone, but fondly remembered by Bill Gray.
It is with a hint of sadness that Bill, who will celebrate his 85th birthday in October, reveals that this will be the first year since he started his west coast tuning travels that he won’t reach the Argyll islands. He added: ‘I gather there are folk on Mull still looking for me, and Sir Charles MacLean at Strachur House would have none of it when I told him I was to retire. But it’s time to take it a bit easier.’
He has set his official retirement date as June 30, but Bill will not be easing himself into an armchair any time soon. He explained: ‘There are a few outstanding jobs I intend to finish off, and I have agreed to help with the music festival in Campbeltown, but I won’t be taking on any more work beyond that.’
And there is still, of course, the Gray family piano to keep in topnotch condition.
‘This piano was bought for Helen by her father in 1946,’ said Bill, ‘so she was a piano player before I knew anything about tuning pianos.’
The enthusiasm and love that this gentleman has for both the piano and for people is clearly evident. The people – and the various pianos – up and down the western seaboard will certainly miss Bill Gray’s skill, and his gentle good humour.