Jazz singer who scaled the decades

SINGER Eleanor Chalmers, who forged her jazz career in postwar Dundee, has died aged 94.

She sang in the Pelican jazz band in the 1940s and 1950s before forming the Vince and Eleanor duo with her husband, Vince Chalmers.

The pair had met at the Empress ballroom in Dundee before marrying in 1957.

In later life the couple would run V&E Chalmers Guitar Centre, first in King Street and later in Albert Street.

In 1969, Vince and Eleanor had their moment of national fame when they appeared on Opportunity Knocks.

However, Russ Abbot and his comedy showband the Black Abbots ran out winners.

Eleanor was born in Dundee to George Ritchie, who worked in engineering, and his wife Annie, who ran a boarding house in Cowgate.

She was educated at Morgan Academy and from an early age developed a fondness for singing. She was also an accomplished cyclist and speed skater in her youth.

During the war when she was a teenager, Eleanor was known for singing in air raid shelters to keep people’s spirits up.

Throughout her younger life, Eleanor helped out at the family boarding house and continued to do so when she began work at a Westport pawnshop owned by a Mr Chalmers.

Her evenings and weekends were spent singing in clubs, first as a soloist and then with the Pelican jazz band before the formation of Vince and Eleanor.

The couple, who had two children – Vinessa and Eddie – later played with the Astor Combo all over Scotland.

“When we were growing up, my father had a day job and in the evenings both would go entertaining in pubs, clubs, weddings or at old folk’s homes,” their children recalled.

“They travelled all over Tayside, Fife and

Aberdeenshire and did a lot of work at the caravan site at Dunkeld and Birnam.”

During the 1980s, while Vince and Eleanor had a residency at the Hong Kong restaurant in Seagate, they were approached to play at the Queen’s Hotel at a birthday celebration for Sir Reo Stakis.

Later, the hospitality tycoon presented the couple with a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne.

Vince also taught guitar at Larg and Sons music store in Whitehall Street, Dundee. In 1971, Eleanor and Vince opened their own shop and tuition studio in King Street.

During this time, Vince taught guitar in schools around Angus while Eleanor took care of the shop.

In 1977, the business relocated to 9 Albert Street where the couple traded until 2020.