Biography – John Findlay
Some Background Information
In the days when practically every home had a piano, I must have been the member of my family who showed most interest in the instrument, for soon I found myself dispatched to a local music teacher to begin lessons. I was 6 years old. I continued to learn classical music until I was seventeen, by which time I had reached Grade 8 in the RSAM curriculum.
However, at that point, my musical career took a sudden change of direction when I obtained a job as resident pianist in the local Waterside Miners Club, providing background music and accompanying singers for ten shillings a night. (They didn’t tend to spoil you in these days)
I gained considerable experience working there, and obviously caught the bug, for in the following year, I joined my first group, called The Chancellors. We were a six-piece band consisting of Two Guitars, Bass, Organ, Saxophone and Drums, and played music by Chuck Berry, Georgie Fame, and the various chart groups at the time. Most of our work was in the small Glasgow city centre Night Clubs, like Bruce’s Cave, and the Pink Panther Club. We even had our own manager! 
Eventually as discothèques gained in popularity, work of this type became harder to find, and we drifted into the general ‘Working Men’s’ club/cabaret scene, which was thriving at that time. This was the early seventies.Over the next few years we were kept busy travelling around the country to play various club and hotel venues, and the British and American military bases throughout Scotland. Some great memories!
I later worked for a season in theatre, before joining Fred Olsen cruise lines on the ship MS Black Watch as a cocktail pianist/organist.
In 1976, I formed a trio called Tangerine, (Keyboards, Drums and Female Vocalist), and we became the resident band at La Costiera Dinner/Dance restaurant in Glasgow city centre. The repertoire was predictably easy-listening dance music, with large helpings of Italian, Latin-American and Sinatra. We remained there for several years, and I like to think that during that time we achieved a fair amount of popularity with many of the customers. This is an excerpt from the Food Spy column of the Glaswegian newspaper at that time.
Although the band personnel gradually changed over the years, as did the venue – Ambassador Restaurant to Piccolo Mondo to Vesuvio to Victoria’s Night Club - Tangerine survived until 1993, with the same trio line-up and style of music.
After a spell working with Cunard Cruises (Sea Goddess 2) in 1994, I briefly returned to my classical roots, undertaking a ‘Bachelor of Music’ degree at Glasgow University with the intention of entering the teaching profession. However, after graduating, I was forced to have a re-think. (A friend suggested I might be too old!). So I decided to abandon that idea, and return to what I enjoy most - playing.