Dance band with some Maybole musicians. circa. 1920. John Hempkin, James Colquhoun, William Houston, Harry Gibson, Jimmy Cairns. Click here for a larger photo  More musicians on page 9 and 11  Photograph contributed by Bill McCubbin.

Dancing has always been a favourite activity of the townspeople and every opportunity is taken to indulge in it, especially in wintertime. By the end of last century, dance bands consisting of violin, flute, cornet and piano had been formed...  In days gone past balls were held in the "Dancing Room" in the old Tolbooth above the town gaol and many happy nights must have been spent there with the dancers setting and linking to the lilt of the fiddles. When the Town Hall was built it provided a much larger hall for dancing and the nights of the great Balls of the Yeomanry, the Masons, the Bowlers and Quoiters became annual events. Invitations to these balls were eagerly sought after and the dancing classes of Mr. McQuiston, Mr. Galloway and Mr. McCulloch were always well attended by the youth of the town preparing themselves to take their place in the Grand March, which always opened a Ball in the old days before the first World War.

It was necessary to learn the proper steps of the Lancers, the Petronella, the Waltz Cotillion and other favourite dances and most of the older generation have at some time or other attended "Galloway's Class" to be put through their paces and be rapped by his fiddle bow if they got out of step. Those were the days of dancing pumps and white gloves for the gentlemen and long graceful frocks for the ladies and, of course every man had to take a partner. Little dance cards (with pencils on a silk string) were provided and it was a point of honour that each lady's card be filled with the initials of her partners for the whole programme and there were few, if any, wallflowers, as the Master of Ceremonies made sure that the men did not hang around the hall door but did their duty nobly by dancing with the ladies. A gentleman would give his partner the first dance, the supper dance and the last dance and dance with other partners for the rest of the evening, as it was simply not the "done thing" to dance all night with one partner.

The old Town Hall was a festive and happy place when the Yeomanry men led off the Grand March in their dress uniform with bumishers gleaming on their shoulders and everyone eager to be up for every dance until the last waltz at three o'clock in the morning when cups of soup would be served and the gallants would escort their ladies home. After the end of the First World War the returning soldiers held a Ball, which was one of the highlights in the town this century and is still remembered with nostalgia by all who attended it. The days, or rather nights, of the great "Balls" have gone, however, to be replaced with "Saturday Night Hops" where girls go by themselves in many cases, with the hope of finding partners or, if they are unlucky, spend the evening dancing with each other. The older generation may be "squares" in the eyes of youth but the young people of today miss much of the courtesy and pleasure their elders enjoyed.  (From Maybole, Carrick's Capital. Facts, Fiction & Folks by James T. Gray,)