One of Celtic music's best-loved groups, Silly Wizard set the standard for Scottish folk bands in the 1970's & 80's. Their magical sound of accordian, fiddle, great rhythm section coupled with Andy M Stewart's ballad singing guaranteed them a huge following around the world.
Silly Wizard "evolved" in Edinburgh in about 1971 - around a nucleus of Gordon Jones, Bob Thomas and Johnny Cunningham. They didn't play many gigs away from town at first as Johnny was still at school! (although he had been known to be picked up by the band at the school gate to be driven to Sutherland for a gig and be decanted from the van at the school gates next morning!). The band then ran the Triangle Folk Club in Edinburgh on Saturday Nights. The first foreign tour was in 1972 when the three went off to France - a seriously memorable tour - they discovered some wonderful people who remained friends throughout the band's touring years and also discovered that we could indeed play concerts! Soon after this great plans began to grow for a "big" Scots band with two guitars (doubling on other string things - bouzouki, mandolin, banjo etc.), accordian, fiddle and bass.
The band needed a Scots singer so they asked vocalist and tenor banjo player Andy M Stewart to join. Johnny's brother Phil came into the studio (from school) and played some accordian and Alastair Donaldson took over on bass. This produced a set of demos that got the band a deal with Transatlantic's XTRA label and after some re-mixing and extra accordian from Freeland Barbour the album was released as "Silly Wizard" Now a six piece, the band toured for many years throughout Europe.
Around this time Alistair and Freeland left and their obvious replacements were Phil Cunningham (he'd now left school) and Martin Hadden. They arrived just in time to record the second album "Caledonia's Hardy Sons" on Highway Records. With this line-up and the reputation the band had already built up things began to get very busy - lots of festivals, tours throughout Europe. Very soon they started on "So Many Partings" and immediately lost Bob Thomas one of the original Wizards - Bob had married and had been offered a job near his home, so the band lost the old trademark two guitar sound.
They recorded "So Many Partings" as a five piece and at that time began their first forays into America. The result was an already busy touring schedule becoming a frantic one. Before long Silly Wizard could book the Edinburgh Playhouse for a concert once a year during the Edinburgh Festival and fill its 3000 seats. While appreciating this mark of success, the band never forgot how hard it had been to bring 20 or 30 into the Triangle Folk Club in 1972. An example of how much in demand Silly Wizard had become is demonstrated by the fact that one month in particular they were booked to play main stage sets at Winnepeg Folk Festival, Vancouver Folk Festival, Nyon Folk Festival (Switzerland) and Cambridge Folk Festivalon consecutive weekends!
When Johnny Cunningham left the band to settle in America, Dougie MacLean joined for a short time, but generally the band worked as a four piece. However, whenever they played within travelling distance of Johnny he would come to see them and, somehow over a period of time, the old settled five piece band got back down to business.
After 9 albums and around 17 years of touring the band decided to call it a day. Their final album was A Glint of Silver recorded in 1986 and there final gig in NY was in April 1988.
Their musicianship was outstanding and such is their impact that in 2003 many years after calling it a day Silly Wizard still were nominated for a Scots Trad Music Award in the category 'best band'.
Thanks to Harbourtown Records for this information. You can read more about the band at http://www.harbourtownrecords.com/silly_wizard.html. | 
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