Scallywag (Graham "Gracy" Hand) who was born in Girvan first started playing guitar in 1973 while attending Girvan academy. His first band project was with his neighbors, Tam (guitarist) and Doc Houston (vocals) and collectively were known as the "Dowhill Road Gang". They joined forces with the Hamilton brothers, Colin (drummer) and Phillip (Bassist) and they practiced in the Hamilton farm eventually naming themselves "Sabotage" (because Mr. Hamilton said they scared the cows and sheep with the noise they made), but were off and running as a 5 piece band.

The first gig was finally played in the humble settings of the farm attic bedroom, all the young ladies were invited and the band did a staggering 5 hour set of 2 songs by Status Quo. Eventually the Hamilton brothers (who now have a haulage firm) left the band and were replaced by Jamie Hislop (drums) and Colin Campbell (bass) and the band name was changed to "VHF" (very high frequency). Their repertoire consisted of AC/DC, Deep Purple, Quo, Led Zeplin and Black Sabbath (Ozzy Osbourne). VHF were a popular band on the circuit in the late 70's. Ultimately, the line-up had to change due to a marriage in the band. The change included Alex "Scobie" Scott (bass), Scally's younger Brother Dempster "Dinky" Hand (drums) and Dempster's twin Stuart (lighting and sound engineer). A new line-up had been created and the band Grass Roots was born. They played the circuit for another couple of years and realised they couldn't adapt there style and the band broke-up.

Scally's next venture along with his Brothers was to form a professional outfit which consisted of advertising for a bass player and keyboard player. Quickly they found two new members to form a new band which Scally fronted and were known as Avenue B. There style was mainly high energy e.g. Talking Heads, Simple Minds, Billy Idol, Pink Floyd and Frankie Goes To Hollywood.

Avenue B were a exceptional live act with a professional touring p.a system and a 10k light show with all the trimmings. There talents were soon spotted thus leading them to play gigs all over the UK. They were soon off to the studios to record a demo and were given a half hour spot on radio Clyde which lead to a tour of Germany, Italy and finished off at Palermo in Sicily. The band returned to the UK in 1984 and were major organisers of a local live aid concert in there home town of Girvan. Avenue B were key players at venues in Dumfries & Galloway and Cumbria and their Swan song was a concert in a packed Loreburn Hall in Dumfries in 1985.

They had continued success for another couple of years until eventually they burned themselves out thus the great success of Avenue B was no more, although it is still talked about to this day.

Scally drifted from band to band and had some success with a 3 piece outfit called "3's A Crowd". However, due to the invention of computerised keyboards that was quickly reduced to a duo called "2 Faced" leaving just Scally and big Billy Oliver, who played for 4 years and  had much success along with many good times.

So as it was Scally took the major step of flying solo in 2000 and has never looked back. He finally settled down in the sociable town of Dumfries and is still playing top quality music to satisfy the ears of his magnificent cult following.

Scally would like to take this opportunity to thank his many followers over the past years and looks forward to seeing you all in the not so distant future.

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