Five Hand Reel

Five Hand Reel was a Scottish/English/Irish Celtic rock band of the late 1970s that combined experiences of traditional Scottish and Irish folk music with electric rock arrangements. Members: Dick Gaughan (b. 1948), Bobby Eaglesham (1942–2004), Tom Hickland, Barry Lyons (b. 1950), Dave Tulloch and later Sam Bracken.

Five Hand Reel was formed originally in 1974 from the remnants of UK electric folk band Spencer's Feat: bassist Barry Lyons (ex Mr.Fox & Trees), Tom Hickland on fiddle and keyboards, and drummer Dave Tulloch. Enlisting two Scottish musicians, fiddler Chuck Fleming and singer/guitarist Bobby Eaglesham, they decided to call themselves Five Hand Reel. They started gigging in late 1974, playing their first London show at King's Cross Cinema. However in early 1975, Chuck Fleming, returned to his previous band. His replacement was legendary Scottish singer and guitarist Dick Gaughan, an ex member of The Boys of the Lough. The live debut of the renewed band was at the Half Moon in Putney in summer 1975.

Five Hand Reel signed with Rubber Records in 1976 and recorded their first album, Five Hand Reel, at Impulse Studios in Newcastle on Tyne. It was voted as "Folk Album of the Year" for 1976 by Melody Maker.

The second album, For A' That, was recorded, now in courtesy of RCA Records, in July 1977, at the height of the punk summer of discontent. The opening "Bratach Bana" was one of the first Gaelic songs to be recorded using rock elements. The Irish band Horslips had recorded the same song in Gaelic on their album "Happy To Meet - Sorry to Part", also in a rock arrangement. As Dick Gaughan says in his notes to the album:"It seems odd in these days when it is now perfectly normal to sing Gaelic songs in a contemporary fashion that this was regarded as extremely daring and adventurous in 1977. We've come a long, long way since those days."

Much of Five Hand Reel's live work was on club, college, and Folk festivals of England and Northern Europe. They were very popular in Scandinavia and recorded an album of traditional Danish songs "Ebbe, Dagmar, Svend og Alan" with Danish folk singer and radio presenter Alan Klitgaard. In England they were rather unpopular, though appreciated in the Punk clubs as a live act.

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