Temple’s past comes through Loudon clear

And for Selkirk-born Loudon Temple, who has run one of the country’s top music agencies for touring artists since setting up the Brookfield-Knights operation 15 years ago, it’s been a welcome visit to the past.

Like many, Loudon’s business ground to a halt when the Covid-19 scare struck in March as live music bit the dust. Tours in the pipeline and all fully scheduled right up into mid-2021 were either cancelled or

postponed.

His main income dried up in an instant and there would be no reward for all of the work he’d already put in.

However, he told The Southern this week: “I’ve never been a fan of negativity ... I decided to write the book as a full-on challenge, and turn adversity on its head.

“In fact, if coronavirus had never happened, this book may never have seen the light of day.”

And, this weekend in Hawick, he’ll launch the book that others had repeatedly urged him to write ... memoirs that recall the days in the 1960s and ’70s when he, himself, took to the stage in several different bands, each of which came close to making it big.

“The Music Goes ’Round And ’Round” gives his father the credit for setting him off on a career in music.

Andy Temple had played in one of the area’s best-known dance bands, The Arcadians, in the years before the Second World War when he saw active service with the KOSB.

Loudon was lead vocalist with The Diamonds, who won the regional heat of the nationwide Macbeat competition to find the best beat group in Scotland in 1965, winning a place in the final at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow where the judging panel included The Beatles’ legendary producer, George Martin. They came fourth in the final, but were the only band to be offered a recording deal when The Hollies manager offered to sign them up.

His next band created such a controversy in the late ’60s that they ended up being banned from appearing in various Borders towns.

Galashiels Town Council even staged a special meeting to discuss whether of not to allow the “psychedelic happening” to go ahead.

His band, The Ceiling Light Machine, made the headlines when the national media picked up on the story.

The book also reflects on his time with Hawick-based band Lordy in the ’70s, as well as recounting his life growing up in Selkirk and Hawick in the early 1950s.

Loudon said: “I never imagined it would be possible to give this damned pandemic credit for anything, but over the years whenever I’ve passed on some of these individual tales from my time on the road with bands, the response was invariably ‘you should write a book’.

“Once the book began to take shape, we invited folks to consider buying one up front, almost as a crowd-funder, to help with design and production costs and that was a tremendous success.

“Right now, people are more nostalgic than ever and looking to happier times for a temporary escape, and hopefully some light relief from what’s happening in the world.

“Many of them made valuable contributions by reminding me about some of the all-important detail from days gone by.

“Everyone likes to look back on their happy memories and I have more than my fair share of those.”

The book, priced at £9.99, will be launched in Hawick this weekend, and Loudon says that although there is no event planned (thanks to Covid-19) he will be around for socially-distanced signing.

It’s on sale in Borders bookshops from Saturday, November 14 and online via the beenandgoneanddoneit.com website – which also features loads of travelogues written by Loudon over the years.