Nick Keir, Scottish singer-songwriter (d. 2013)
Nick Keir (14 March 1953 – 2 June 2013) was a Scottish musician from Edinburgh, Scotland, who is best known for his work with The McCalmans. More recently Keir emerged as a singer-songwriter, producing three solo albums and performing as a soloist with The Tolkien Ensemble. Keir regularly played in both Scotland and Denmark at folk festivals and on tours, both with The McCalmans and also at solo gigs.
Keir studied at Stirling University, where he founded Finn MacCuill, a folk-rock band, which for a while expanded into The Finn MacCuill Folkshow, a small touring theatre group, for which he wrote the scripts. In the late 1970s, Keir joined 7:84 Theatre Company Scotland as a writer and musician, and soon after joined The McCalmans Folk Group.Keir later played with Stephen Quigg (a former member of The McCalmans) in a duo as well as being a soloist. Other collaborations included work on The Complete Works of Robert Tannahill and appearing regularly with the Holbaek Ensemble in Denmark in a programme of Scots and Baroque Music. Keir mostly played the acoustic guitar and the penny whistle, although he was proficient in many other instruments.
Keir died of cancer on 2 June 2013 at the age of 60, after being diagnosed the year previously.
1953Mar, 14
Nick Keir
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Events on 1953
- 28Feb
Francis Crick
James Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April's Nature (pub. April 2). - 6Mar
Joseph Stalin
Georgy Malenkov succeeds Joseph Stalin as Premier of the Soviet Union and First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. - 8Apr
Jomo Kenyatta
Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by British Kenya's rulers. - 19Aug
1953 Iranian coup d'état
Cold War: The CIA and MI6 help to overthrow the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh in Iran and reinstate the Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. - 30Oct
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Cold War: U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower formally approves the top secret document National Security Council Paper No. 162/2, which states that the United States' arsenal of nuclear weapons must be maintained and expanded to counter the communist threat.