The Dolphins

Cammy Forbes - lead vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards.
Brian Coyle - lead guitar, harmonica, vocals.
Drew Phillips - keyboards.
George Dunnachie - bass.
Davie Edgar - drums. 81- 83
Harry Denmark - drums. 83 - 84

Sound engineer.- Keith (Ski) Forbes.

After the demise of Underhand Jones in 1981, Cammy Forbes and Brian Coyle set up a new band calling themselves The Dolphins, they would become one of the best young bands in Glasgow renowned for their tight live performances, excellent musicianship and well written songs. Cammy and Brian took all of the experience gained from their Underhand Jones days and poured it into The Dolphins only this time Cammy took on lead vocals full time to front the band. Cammy handled lead vocals, rhythm guitar and piano/keyboards with ease, even slipping in the odd guitar solo or dual guitar solo along with Brian Coyle on lead guitar. The rock steady rhythm section of George Dunnachie (bass) and Davie Edgar (drums) kept the band solid with Drew Phillips commanding the keyboards. The band paid serious attention to their live sound making good use of their P.A. with floor to ceiling speaker stacks either side of the stage for every gig, expertly managed by sound engineer ‘Ski’ (Keith Forbes) who mixed the band's crystal clear and powerful live sound. Harry Denmark took over from Davie Edgar on drums at the end of 1982 and ‘inspired a new phase in writing’ as described by Cammy in Sound Maker magazine from May 1983, referring to a stack of new songs Cammy had just written for the band. A typical Dolphins gig would start with ‘The Baseball furies chase’ (music from the movie The Warriors) as an intro while the band moved into position, they would launch into their outstanding repertoire of material with opening songs like ‘Running’ or ‘Just Another Mother’. They showed great versatility with an impressive range of musical styles from ballads, rock, pop, reggae, instrumentals and every once in a while a ragtime number called ‘Inspiration’ was thrown in for a bit of diversity, they usually finished the gig with a rocker such as ‘Shock Horror’ or ‘Light up the Sky’ add to this a good humoured interaction with the crowd, and you had a Dolphins live performance that was a masterclass on how it should be done for any young up and coming rock star. The Dolphin's popularity was growing and they started to fill venues like The Mayfair in Glasgow, they were regulars at the Kelvingrove rock festivals as well as packing the usual places like The Dial Inn and The Dalriada in Glasgow. They played a blinder of a one off gig in Kelvingrove Bandstand in the summer of 1983 in front of 4000 Dolphins fans playing well into the night, at one point during the gig Cammy looked out over the crowd now only being lit by the stage lights and commented ‘This is like a scene from my favourite film’…..Referring to the movie The Warriors . They finished the gig with the aptly named song ‘Light up the Sky’ under an impressive fireworks display which was the only source of light for the fans to make their way back home through the otherwise pitch black Kelvingrove park. The Kelvingrove concert gave the band their first proper appearance on TV with news reporter Louise Batchelor, during the STV report Cammy got across the point that bands like H2O who had recently had a hit in the charts was good for other bands in and around Glasgow at that time as it highlighted the band scene in Scotland which had often gone unnoticed by major record companies based down south. The Dolphins made another TV appearance on BBC Scotland's Untied Shoelace Show later on that year, playing three new songs on the show, ‘Tonight’, ‘Chelsea Mornings’ and ‘Slow Down’. Cammy’s ‘inner Prog rock’ side seeped out in songs like ‘The Bottom Line’ and ‘Older and Wiser’ with their mid song musical interludes, and a brilliant Instrumental called ‘Song For The Japanese Dolphin’ based on the infamous Dolphin killings in Japan in the 1980s with subtle piano at the beginning (representing the serenity of gliding through the water). explosive mid section bringing in powerful guitar and drums (the chase) then moving back to quiet piano and keyboards punctuated with haunting guitar at the end (the kill). The bands most popular song, a ballad called ‘Stay’ was always excellent live and it had the added dimension of a 12 piece orchestra on the studio version. Surprisingly the band never made a studio recording of one of their most popular songs ‘Best Years of My Youth’ a very emotional song always impeccably performed with intelligent lyrics, a great piano melody and two guitar solos from Brian Coyle with Cammy pushing his voice to the limit at the end. Most other bands around at that time were hard pushed to match the creativity, professionalism and quality of sound of The Dolphins. The band were by now flying high having just signed a publishing deal with Rondor Music and playing to bigger crowds in larger venues while keeping their many fans updated with regular Dolphins Newsletters. Everybody who followed the band were expecting them sign a record contract at any moment and be heading for the studio to record their first album, then out of the blue in 1983 the band split up. Cammy Forbes decided put together a new band called The David Forbes Band effectively going solo. In 1993 original Dolphins members Cammy Forbes, George Dunnachie and Davie Edgar partially reformed The Dolphins for a one off charity gig at ‘Boons Yard’ in Glasgow on equal billing with H2O. In 2012 The band again got back together for a sell out gig at The O2 in Glasgow supporting ‘Then Jerico’ with with most of the crowd turning up to support The Dolphins. Later on in December 2012 the band played their final gig at Ivory Blacks in Glasgow bringing in ex David Forbes Band bass player Scott Ramsey (AKA - Stixx Diamond) on guitar, these performances were rock solid as expected from the band, they still had that crystal clear sound produced again by Ski on the desk, it was as if they had never been away, still having a laugh with the crowd in between songs, at the start of the O2 gig Cammy and George joked about how everyone had aged after 30 years saying “This is like Cocoon!”. For Dolphins fans it was amazing to get a chance to see the band play live again, taking us back in time to the old The Dial Inn days, a reminder that The Dolphins were an exceptional live band, a fine example of what a band should be, they always had time for their fans, always delivered outstanding performances injected with a bit of fun and they wrote memorable, intelligently crafted songs that sounded great from the very first listen and still sound great to this day.

The Dolphins profile was written by Tommy Devlin in 2006 (updated in 2023)