Colin started playing the accordion at the age of 4. At the age of 9, he started playing for a Scottish Country Dance Class in Kirkcaldy and continued to play there for approximately 9 years. This gave him a great grounding for strict tempo playing and allowed him to build a vast repertoire of sets for Scottish Country Dancing. Colin competed at various music festivals across the country including Perth, Auchtermuchty, Kinross and Musselburgh and became all Scotland Junior Champion at Perth Festival in 1982. 

 

Colin joined Grace MacLeaver and the Lochearn Dance Band to play lead accordion at the age of 14.  It was in this band that he performed his first Radio broadcast with the BBC on the ever popular ‘Take the Floor’ series.

 

During that period he also played regularly with George Flemings Scottish Dance Band who catered mainly for Scottish Country Dancing in Scotland, England and abroad.

 

He formed his own band at the age of 17, auditioned for the BBC and recorded his debut band broadcast in 1984. He has appeared annually on this programme and helped in celebrating 25 years of broadcasting in 2009.  The Colin Dewar Scottish Dance Band has also featured on Phil Cunningham’s ‘Scotland’s Music’ television programme on BBC2 in 2007, click on ‘Fun & Games’ then click on the bands video link to view the clip.

Colin recorded his debut solo album in 1980 on the Ayrespin label.  Since then he has recorded a number of band albums for the RSCDS and the popular ongoing ‘Special Requests’ series can be viewed on the shop page, along with books of Colin’s own compositions.