The man who changed an island

AS WE calm down from the high of ObanLive, it is fitting to pay homage to a man without whose generosity of time and talent, much music and many events in western Scotland, including ObanLive, would not exist.

Recently Gordon Connell was inducted into the Hands Up for Trad Scottish Music Hall of Fame for services to the community.

This honour could not have been delivered to a more deserving recipient.

Gordon has been teaching the accordion on Tiree for omore than 50 years and, in that time, hundreds of people’s lives have been enriched by this.

Over the period, Gordon has never charged a penny for the many years of work he has given.

The fruits of his generosity are easily visible on the Scottish music scene with his pupils being founder members of well-known bands such as Gunna Sound, Trail West, Dun Mòr, Skerryvore and a dubious outfit called Skipinnish.

For such a small island to have produced so many bands is remarkable and it is mainly down to Gordon, though many others have similarly given generously of their time and played an important role in this.

As well as those who have formed bands, there are countless good accordion players who are less well known and who provide huge amounts of pleasure to many with the skills they learned from Gordon.

During my time in school, Gordon was the modern studies and history teacher as well as deputy head.

In these roles he was highly respected, was a strict disciplinarian and was not to be messed with!

One of Gordon’s great attributes, however, was that he never crossed his role in the classroom with his role as accordion tutor.

In the classroom, he was Mr Connell, an informative, strict and totally professional school teacher.

In the accordion lessons (which he conducted during his lunch hour), and out of school, he was Gordon, a warm, enthusiastic mentor who over the years became close friends with his pupils.

His ability to combine these two potentially conflicting roles is a major factor in his success as an accordion teacher.

The ability to play a musical instrument has little to do with talent and is much more about being given the initial opportunity to learn. There are exceptions to this but, for most, without teaching and encouragement, no music would be played.

If not for Gordon, I would not play a note and, along with my fellow Tiree accordion players, we owe him a huge amount for the gift of music he has given us.

Gordon Connell is a shining example of how one man, by consistently giving freely and generously of his time, energy and talent over many years can have a massive positive impact on a community.

Gordon has done this in such a nice, unassuming, non- egotistical, genuinely altruistic and subtle way that for him to be publicly recognised is even more important.

Gordon has shown that one man can indeed change an island.