Fringe By The Sea: Remembering The McKinlay Sisters, who supported The Beatles and the Rolling Stones

Now the story of The McKinlays, a pair of sisters from Edinburgh, is to be told in a documentary to be screened at Fringe by the Sea in North Berwick.

Jeanette Gallacher, who formed the band with her sister, Sheila, in the early 1960s after taking part in a local talent contest at an Edinburgh nightclub, is to speak on a panel at the festival, ahead of the showing of documentary Since Yesterday on August 10.

The documentary, by co-directors Carla J Easton and Blair Young, who will also speak alongside Ms Gallacher, examines the “untold” story of Scotland’s “missing” girl bands and looks at why they did not enjoy the same level of fame as their male counterparts.

“Guys have power that girls don't in that business, especially back then,” Ms Gallacher said. “We would be knocking on the door of the agency asking for our money and be told ‘oh, the cheques haven’t come in’.

The McKinlay Sisters supported acts including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Gerry and the Pacemakers, but never became household names and struggled to make ends meet as performers.

Ms Gallacher recalls the day she and Sheila were asked to record their songs at a studio in London after winning the contest, following a short tour of Scotland.

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“The very idea of going to London and making a demonstration disc, which was what we were doing, was incredible at age 17,” she said.

“My dad would have signed anything, we didn’t know anything about the business. It wasn’t a good move at all, as the agent was not very caring and we were sent all over the place without any management. For the solo girls on their own, it must have been awful. But at least I had my sister, so we never suffered any actual abuse, but we were not supported.”

The pair soon became popular support acts and played on tours with major bands.

Ms Gallacher remembers finding the members of The Beatles to be ordinary people.

“You take it for granted because when you’re doing it, you don’t see them as these big icons,” she said. “The Beatles were big at this point, but they were just very nice guys. They were just our colleagues, we would chat to them.”

She remembers John Lennon as being “a bit sarcastic”, while Paul McCartney was the most friendly.

“Once, we were in Edinburgh at the ABC, in our dressing rooms and some girls tried to climb up into our dressing rooms because they thought that was where they [The Beatles] were,” she said. “A lot of nonsense went on, it was quite funny.”

Following the release of their fourth single in 1965, the sisters moved to Germany where they toured as The McKinlay Sisters. Jeanette later became one half of a vocal duo called Die Windows, scoring a number one hit in Germany in 1972, before retiring to bring up her family in Edinburgh. Sheila McKinlay died 13 years ago.

“Doing the documentary without her felt strange,” Ms McKinlay said. “It was bittersweet to look back on that time, the special time with my sister.”

Since Yesterday will be screened at 4pm on August 10 at Fringe by the Sea.