Sir Jimmy’s jaunty tunes “better than Rolling Stones”

By Michael MacLeod

SCOTS trad music legend Sir Jimmy Shand was better than the Rolling Stones, according to the Beatles’ official biographer.

The Fab Four’s best-known expert Hunter Davies believes Shand and his band would have been the greatest British act in history if the Beatles had never existed.

While the Stones have sold 68million albums in America alone, the renowned accordion player’s best-selling single – Bluebell Polka – only ever shifted 100,000 copies.

But author Davies, who was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, says he was raised on Shand’s music and says there is no doubt the ex-miner was head and shoulders above Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts.

And he admits that before becoming the Beatles’ biographer he even tried to follow in Shand’s footsteps in a bid to launch a music career.