Bobby Workman (Country Blues) on the left


           Joe Boyd, ??, ??, John Colvin 'Golden Gun', ??, ??, ??


More than 25 years ago 'The Longhorn CWC' in Irvine/Ayrshire was the only club in the area and most of the existing clubs in the area today still have some kind of connection somewhere along the line. 

Danny Strachan remembers: ”Approximately September 1980 'The Longhorn CWC' had to move from Irvine to Saltcoats for a little while and it was during that time my now ex-wife Lynda dragged me along to see what it was like and I must say that from the moment I walked through the door I was hooked! Before long I had the shirts, the guns - the lot! This music everyone called  'Country' was just what I liked, but had never heard anyone call it that before then!”
After a few weeks 'The Longhorn' moved back to Irvine and the local people, who had joined the club couldn't get there so easily, so it was decided to open a club of their own. The new club was called 'The Lazy Ace CWC' and the venue was the Commodore Hotel in Ardrossan, but moving to the Westfield Hotel in Saltcoats after a short time.
Everything settled down and everyone enjoyed it that much that a little while later a Committee was put together, consisting of: Danny Strachan as President, Lynda Strachan as Treasurer and Linda Anderson as Secretary. Committee members were: John & Brenda Selvey, Glyn & Mavis Kelly and Willie Anderson and for a short time Jim Strachan. 
The first ever Committee meeting was held in Linda and Willie Anderson’s house!
                                          Linda Anderson

The Committee decided to change the name to 'The Westfield CWC' and John Crozier was the very first doorman!
Some great nights were had, and they were even followed by sessions on the Sunday afternoons, when Brendan Dunne, also known as 'Don Whitman', would lead the way in a Country sing-song – with some ‘refreshments’ taken!
The venue was dressed with loads of posters and record sleeves, which created a real good atmosphere! 
There must be a lot of fond memories of the bands who played for everyone in those days: Country Blues, The Dallas Girls, J.C. & Driftwood, Bakersfield, Jolene & Part 3, Gerry & Country Pride, Legend, the Duke Boys and of course Tommy Truesdale and the Sundowners and many, many more! 
(Can you remember any others?)

  Gerry & Country Pride

Everything was going well - then disaster: The building was in quite a bad state and when the water pipes burst everything was seriously damaged and the building was condemned! Everything was lost as nobody was allowed back into building! Panic stations! Where to now? 
A lot of suggestions were made and in the end the Club decided to move to the Labour Club in Saltcoats. Once again the club's name had to be changed and the 'White Horse CWC' was born. A letter was written to the White Horse Whisky company to ask permission to use their name, which they kindly gave. So in August 1982 everyone moved into their new venue and the club continued to thrive for many years. 
The first doorman at the new venue was James ‘Rocky’ Breckenbridge, these days on the Committee in the Labour Club. He did this until work commitments stopped him, and Nancy Murdoch took over, and did it for many years, not standing any nonsense from anybody. She was only a little person, but she could handle the largest unruly cowboy coming through that door! 
Margaret Haldane took over from her and carried on where Nancy had left off, looking after the door for many years, never taking any nonsense from anybody. 
When her health started to fail and Graham Hamilton, president Gordon Hamilton's son, took over, faithfully doing a great job for a few years until other commitments forced him to give it up. 
A big ‘Thank you’ to everyone of you, it always gave the Committee great peace of mind knowing that the door takings are in safe hands!
Unfortunately Nancy is not with us anymore, but her name keeps coming up every so often which proves that she is still missed and remembered fondly!

A lot of good years followed and some of the characters around at that time will always be in everyone’s mind. A few of them are: Glyn & Mavis, John & Brenda Kelly, Mad Max, Rab Chalmers, Morag Workman, Brenda McIntyre, Sandra & James McNicol, and of course Nancy Murdoch and her daughter Enid and of course Jim & Sadie Brown. 
Anna Gibb, Morag Local and John Colvin still are regulars and members after all these years, having missed very few club nights over the years! Linda & Willie Anderson also still come when work permits! 

The White Horse has always been proud that it was a Country & Western Club, meaning that all the things one would associate with that scene would happen on a club-night: good Country Music, gun-fights, line-dancing and making friends. In those days there even was a Ladies section for the gunfighters, unfortunately a rare thing these days. 
Nancy Murdoch had put up a trophy for the Ladies and the last known champion was Brenda McIntyre......(…unless you remember different!)

Among the gun-marshals over the years was young Darren Kelly (John & Brenda Kelly’s son), and he did a fine job. For many years John Boyce looked after the gun-fighters, creating a great atmosphere of fun, but also taking it all very serious. (Unfortunately ‘Boycey’ died a number of years ago, but we remember the dedication and fun he gave the Club over many years!) 
Chic Richardson took over from him for a couple of years, until a new job forced him to give up Committee work altogether, and John Corbett now has been gun-marshal for a few years, doing a great job, with the help of Deputies, namely Dominic Dunne, Jonathan Bourner and Tom Bennett over the years. We also must thank Jim Graham, the ‘Silver Fox’, for helping out at gunfights.

Band-wise the Club is proud to have had some of the biggest names in their club, including: Brendan Quinn, Carol & Bobby Silver, Sarah Jory, Stu Page Band, Country Dawn, Manson Grant & the Dynamos, Jody Smith from Baton Rouge in America, Vision Country, J.C. & Driftwood, Colorado (now: Geordie Jack & Caledonia), George Allison from Texas, who came with A Band Named Sioux, T.J. McCall Band, Nashville Fever (The Fever these days), Silver, the Mel Hague Band and who can forget the Foster Boys! There was Rhodes County, Gambler, Maggie & Tennessee Express, Tom Lee and the Blue Ridge Band. (Are your memories coming back?) ….and what about Dave McQueen, Ruby Rendall and John F. Stone, what about Stoneybroke, Stars & Stripes and Honest Sam and the Dealers… the list goes on! Some of these bands are still around today, but unfortunately a lot of them have completely broken up and have disappeared or are doing other things, and some unfortunately are no longer with us.

Brigitte Lyell (as she was until her wedding to Danny Strachan in October 1992!) was the founder of the Stagecoach CWC in Irvine, but visited on a regular basis and eventually was persuaded to become a member of the White Horse and then got roped on to the Committee. 
She finally became Secretary in 1992, taking over from John Selvey, who had done the Secretary's job for many years before that. Other Secretaries over the years had been Sarah Jane Thomson, Kay McWilliam, Jean Logan and Rosemary Gordon.
The president at that time was Gordon Hamilton, a position he held for 12 years until his health faded and John Selvey became President in 1996. Gordon was made Hon. President, and he hardly missed a night until his sad death in August 2000.
Danny Strachan, who had been made Honorary President many years before, decided to return that title in order to be able to do some committee work again, and has been treasurer since around 1991.

Then, when the line-dancing craze hit the British Country Music scene, everyone thought it would mean extra people through the door, and to a certain extend it was....for a while! But it also brought the ‘non’ Country people, a lot of times they did not fit the scene and would annoy the ‘old-hands’ by trying to take over and change just too many things, including everyone’s beloved Country Music. Of course this didn’t go down well, not just in our Club, but all over the Country, and a lot of people left, sickened by what they saw and eventually in the year 2000, attendance was down to around 30 people a night...the same was happening to clubs everywhere! 
Up until then the club had been thriving, but night after night the bands couldn’t be paid and the club's money had to be used and it went down fast! Various fund-raising events took place, including a Race-night! Low and behold not a lot of White Horse members came along, but the Labour Club and its members helped raise nearly £600.00. 
The night was run by the then Labour Club manager, Mr. John Steven. Local duo 'Greyhound Express' kindly gave their time for free and one of the band’s members’ (Tom) wife Jeanette even sold a lot of the horses! It was a great night! The committee was very disappointed that the members didn’t support this crucial night and decided, that if the members didn't really show much interest in keeping the club going, they should just call it a day. 
So with a heavy heart it was decided that once the money in the bank was finished – it would be the end of the White Horse CWC!!
The first gig in January 2001 with the 'Dez Walters Band' would be a free night for everyone; and it was in the Committee’s mind that this would probably be the last night for the club, as it would take all the money that was left! American singer/fiddle player John Permenter was in Scotland on a little holiday at the time, and he decided to come along too! Low and behold, the place was jumping, people who hadn’t been to the club for ages, came along and it turned out to be a very special evening! Everybody dug deep and the raffle, stand-up bingo and silver dollar raised enough money to pay the band.
This evening seemed to have 'kick-started' the club again and there have been some very special and busy nights since then. 
A lot of new people have joined the Club and things were doing nicely for a long while! 
Then unfortunately things started to go wrong at the Labour Club, a new manager and committee there gave us a lot of hassle, club nights were cancelled or moved at very short notice, one year even our Christmas dance was cancelled less than a week before the event, unjustified complaints were made, and eventually, after 18 years in the venue, they told us that our bands were ‘too loud’, and they would install a Sound Limiter, which would measure the level of sound. Once this goes over a pre-set limit, it would just switch everything off, with the possibility of causing untold very expensive damage to the band’s equipment. This was not an option and Bands told us that they would not hesitate to sue us, should this happen. 
That was the famous ‘last straw’, and it was decided that after a very uncomfortable 3 years it was time to move. 
Danny Strachan and Iain Dobie went to every possible venue in the area (yes, Iain did the driving….Danny did the ‘testing’!!!), a lot of phone-calls were made, and more and more venues were checked out, until eventually it was decided to move to the Masonic Club, just across the road from the Labour Club. Management and staff were keen to have us there, and we were made very welcome, which was quite a novelty after the years before that. 
The draw-back was, that the Masonic Club is quite a bit smaller than the Labour Club, and unfortunately at the start the venue was not popular with quite a few members, who sadly decided to stay away. 
There just was nowhere else to go, so it was nothing else for it, but to just get on with it. Of course it followed that every club-night the club lost money again, especially when another club opened nearby, who decided to have their nights immediately after ours. 
Eventually things got so bad, that the committee worked out, that if money would continue to go down the same rate, there was apprx. 4 months left in the kitty. Drastic measures were called for, and a letter explaining the situation was sent to all members, which was then followed by a member’s meeting. The club’s situation was discussed fully, and after a lot of talk it was decided that there was no other option, but to put the door-money up, make the club three-weekly during the summer, when a lot of people were away on holiday or to festivals, and generally ask members to support their club more.
…..and guess what...it worked. A year later and the club once again is in a much better position. Attendance picked up, after nearly 3 years people were getting used to the venue, (in fact quite a few have told me that they now like it!) and the club was doing ok. Everyone hoped that things would keep going in that direction, and at the time there was no reason to believe that it wouldn't! 

Alas that hope didn't last long, attendance started to drop again, the Masonic told us there could be no more gunfights, that our club things had to be kept in a damp outhouse and generally things didn't go too well, and once again more and more people stayed away. In desperation and after yet another fruitless search for another more suitable venue, a members meeting was called, and it was held in the Cranberry Moss Community Centre in Kilwinning.....where the committee then would ask the members how they would feel about moving the club to that venue.
The Cranberry Moss is a lovely clean centre, the caretakers were keen for the club to move there, as they felt it would help the community as well.
After a long discussion only 2 minus points came up: one that there was already a weekly club on a saturday in the town. A few members of that club were also members of the White Horse, and attended the meeting, and they felt strongly that it would not hurt the club. (A fact which was confirmed via a phone-call by their president after the decision was taken!)
The other point was the distance from Ardrossan, Saltcoats and Stevenston for the long-standing members to come, a lot of them without cars. This was overcome with the suggestion of running a bus every club-night.
After that the dicision was taken to move the club to Kilwinning, and the first night in the new venue was on October 17th 2008, the band was 'Tequila'.
Since then the club has picked up well, has a lot of new members and visitors and generally is doing very well.

It really is hard to believe that nearly 30 years have passed since it all began, a lot of things have happened, sometimes not easy, but the best thing is that a lot of friendships have been formed, which otherwise would not have been possible! In my mind that is one of the most important things in any Country & Western Club. We all have our own problems, but its these friends who help us through them and that is what makes this scene unique!