Pages

▼

Tuesday, 9 February 2010

THE BEAVER SISTERS

One person who was at the Rocky Horror Picture Show was Jock Ferguson, resplendent in leopard-skin!
Jock, as I'm sure you all know by now, was a member of The Beaver Sisters, Dundee's answer to The Tubes!
Above, you can get an idea of the kind of humour they had, in this witty mock interview, full of double entendres, twisted word play...and even putting the boot into - or should that be digging the stilettos into - Danny Wilson. Ouch..!!
Quite a few members came & went in the band line-up, but the main core of The Beaver Sisters who had the longest run, were - DREW RAMSAY - PETE SILVERS - JOCK FERGUSON - ANTH BROWN - BARRY GIBSON and STEVE HAMILTON.
The band did tons of gigs locally, with their shows in Foreigners being notoriously riotous affairs.
The above line-up were together for around 5 years, but in total, The Beaver Sisters were on the go nearly 7 years - mid 80's to early 90's.
The interview (all Jocks work) comes from Street Life mag - 1988.
Click image to enlarge.

To get an alternative insight on the band, here is a well written piece about the Beavers live shows - click link - Beaver Sisters live
at

11 comments:

  1. Anonymous9 February 2010 at 04:21

    What ever happened to Pete Silvers ?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Drumbo10 February 2010 at 12:03

    I remember great nights as when the Beavers "took Kirrie by storm"

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous5 March 2010 at 22:32

    pete silvers is now a social worker, my social worker haha. great guy

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous29 September 2010 at 14:31

    I LOVED the Beaver Sisters!!!!!
    Up at the old vic with Richard O'Brien narrating the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
    There was a sparsity of men in Dundee who felt comfortable enough with themselves to appreciate the 'sisters'.
    I remember seeing a few Slaves doing the Time Warp.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hyta Nonsence9 May 2011 at 17:10

    The Beaver Sisters... Now there's a blast from the past, if ever there was one?!
    I'd dearly love to get hold of some of their tracks but no-one outside of Dundee has heard of them! Uh!!!
    If anyone could please let me know if they have a link for me to obtain TBS tracks from, I'd be sooooo grateful.
    Thanks in advance. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jim McKenna22 June 2011 at 10:38

    I was musical (if that's what it could be called!) director for Jock Ferguson & Graham Henderson's spin-off band "Guys As Dolls" between 1987 & 1990..It was GREAT FUN for all concerned at all the gigs we performed during that time.
    I remember a particularly good one at Fat Sams on a Sunday afternoon in October 1988 where we got 6 encores, but then went & played Glasgow Art School a week later where the review was "toneless rubbish"..nae pleasing some folks!..Mind you, the sight of Jock in full "Plenty O'Tool" costume took a bit of getting used to!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous2 February 2012 at 14:57

    At school with Graham and college with Jock I was constantly on awe of their confidence.....nah, call it brass-necked-ness...to appear in all things suspendered, burlesque and rique. Thank God they taught me well - *puts on corset*. My one time fill-in-as-backing for the Beavers was the best education I could ever have recieved in the entertainment business - don't give a s&*t. Thanks guys.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous29 February 2012 at 05:26

    All I remember is The Beaver Sisters were a fun band that far too many took far too seriously. That's all I know...eh apart from the line up. Of all the members named above, Jock Ferguson and Steve Hamilton were the only core members. The rest only came to the fore in the latter years. The photo that appeared in the Evening Telegraph was the real core and shown along with Jock (Vocals) and Steve (Lead Guitar) were Gary O'Connor (Rhythm Guitar, Brian Baillie (Drums), Gary Taylor (Bass Guitar), Donna Krachan & Ruth Ogilvie (Backing Vocals). Fond memmories.

    ReplyDelete
  9. gemini6524 June 2013 at 10:49

    I have found a tape recording of the Beavers if anyone knows how to convert it to a pc and is interested in a copy

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hyta Nonsence28 June 2013 at 11:35

    Hi gemini65! Here's a couple of links if you fancy tackling conversion of your Beaver Sisters tape to CD yourself: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/audio/3417318/how-convert-audio-tapes-cd-or-mp3/ or http://www.wikihow.com/Transfer-Cassette-Tape-to-Computer.
    If this is too complicated for you, there are tape converters available from around £15 or so on eBay and you'll need to usesoftware that comes with the device or even the latest version of Audacity (which is free from http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)to carry out the conversion and to help "smooth out" any hisses etc from the original recording.
    IF you don't want to go through all of this palaver, drop me a PM and I can do the job for you in return for a copy of the tape myself?

    A' ra best,

    Hyta.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous31 March 2014 at 04:05

    A bit of history.. The Beaver Sisters were formed on a cold Saturday day in 1984. A DFC game had been a late call off, leaving three lads at a loss. Retiring to play two touch in the Baxter's Park pavillion they played until boredom. Now truely at their wits end of how to kill an afternoon, Jock suggested forming a band. The Beaver's debut was in the back room of the Tayside Bar in April 84. A Sunday night of local music were the audience gave financial tribute, if they liked you. It was a record evening for both the attendance and tribute. Masterminded by Jock. As always, outrageously brilliant. The rest as they say..

    ReplyDelete