About Us
Splendid Gentlemen didn’t really ever form. More so, it evolved from the fizzling out of an originals band, Vinyl. The 5 piece rock band which included Dee McLaren fronting, brother Scott McLaren on drums, Craig Johnston on bass and two others had been for 2 years playing various places and won several competitions, but didn’t seem to be making any headway.
Getting to a point where they thought, “We’re actually not too bad at this music thing. Maybe we should form a cover band and try make some money. How hard can it be?” So, the 5 piece was stripped down to 3 piece, with Dee taking up the guitar again and Splendid Gentlemen, which was actually a name put forward as a possibility when Vinyl was considering a name change, was formed in the summer of 2010.
After 6 months of rehearsals to build up a bank of songs and find a sound on their own, Splendid Gentlemen played their first gig in The Scotia Bar in February of 2011. After the gig one guy said, “That’s the best band I’ve seen since Aerosmith!” which was agreed was a pretty good start.
In the beginning the goal was just to play anywhere and everywhere that would have them, learning, sometimes the hard way what worked and what didn’t in a set. With a wealth of experience under their belt and being the next hot ticket at many a pub, eventually someone said, “Here, have you ever played a wedding before?”
Never one to back from a challenge the wedding was played, and from that came more wedding bookings. The band over the years adapted to suit the needs of the difference between a wedding and a pub gig, but never lost that ‘band’ mentality. This ‘Band that plays weddings’ rather than a ‘Wedding Band’ model has proved to be extremely popular with many people who didn’t think the cheesy, ‘Wedding Band’ was right for their wedding finding our humble services fit perfectly with that they had dreamed their wedding day could be.
Over the years Splendid Gentlemen has become a well respected name in the Scottish Wedding Band scene and they were finally recognised in 2016 when they were voted Best Evening Entertainer in the first ever annual Confetti Awards. Never one to rest on their laurels, the band used the experience to focus on what can come next to improve our service for future Splendudes and Splendettes to enjoy. Not liking to brag about their achievements, the numerous letters of Thank You’s and Recommendations are proudly displayed on this site from previous clients and friends.
Splendid Gentlemen continues to grow in popularity as their ongoing aim to constantly improve shows to be all worth it.
Dee McLaren
Vocals / Guitar / Management
Older of the two brothers, Dee picked up the guitar at the age of 14 and has been playing in bands ever since. Along with fronting the band, Dee is also the manager, so will most likely be your first point of contact when talking to us.
Owner of two cats, collector of records and rum bottles, occasionally seen with a Cuban Cigar, Dee is a lover of all things 90’s Grunge and alt-rock and spends his time writing his own music or reading any book that will aid him in taking over the world.
Scott McLaren
Drums / Backing vocals
The younger of the two brothers, Scott took up the drums at age 12 and instantly formed a punk band with Dee and a school friend. The two have played in bands together ever since.
Scott lives in East Kilbride with his girlfriend, two step kids and cat. His hobbies include practicing drumming, alongside practicing drumming some more and gaming. It has been noted that if you leave food near Scott he will eat all of your biscuits. All of them.
Michael Hamilton
Bass / Backing Vocals
Michael joined the band as bass player at the end of 2017 to replace Splendid Gentlemen OG Craig Johnstone. Michael is a multi instrumentalists with a Degree in Statistics. After only a few weeks of looking for a job as a musician he saw the advert for SG, applied, auditioned and landed the job.
Michael owns no cats. We deeply pity him for this tragic situation. When not playing in the band Michael writes his own music in any genre you can think of, along with scoring music for computer games and independent films.