By Stephen Vance, Staff
When you’ve spent your early adult years playing drums for bands, with a couple of those bands even reaching the UK charts, you’ve opened for the Rolling Stones, you’ve toured with the likes of Genesis, Supertramp, and Golden Earring, and after moving to Canada you’ve toured with the iconic Irish Rovers, now that you’ve settled in Meaford, Ontario, what’s left to do? Why open a sewing shop of course.
As he shows off his new sewing shop, located in the basement of his home, new Meaford resident Billy Fairley looks back on his career in music with fondness, and he jumps from telling one tale to another as his drumsticks might transition from snare to cymbal. Billy Fairley is not just a drummer though, he’s an expert tailor who honed his craft in those years in Scotland and England when he was making music, and repairing tears in jean jackets of fellow musicians, or tailoring full costumes for stage shows.
Fairley embarked on his dual careers as a drummer and tailor when he was just 16, and now that he’s slowing down, he’s settled into a small town with an atmosphere not unlike the small town of Perthshire where his life adventure began in the early Sixties.
“When I came up here last year, I drove through here in June, and I said to my wife Anne Marie, ‘I love this place’,” Fairley recalls.
He quickly met members of Meaford’s creative community, and then set about establishing his new business, The Sewing House.
During the tour of his shop, Fairley shared some of his personal history.
“I’ve been sewing since I was 16. I started to make handmade shirts in Piccadilly Circus, in London. I was always playing in bands, so I was making stage gear for guys in other bands,” Fairley recalled as he showed off a large collection of costumes he created over the years.
Fairley told The Independent that he’s had a surprising number of customers at his Margaret Street sewing shop, given that he’s only been open for less than a month.
“It’s been busy. We’re doing dresses, jeans, jackets, replace zips (zippers), shorten shorts. We repair all clothing,” explains Fairley.
Fairley would like to see more people using the services of tailors like him, though not for the reasons you might think. While increased business is always welcome, Fairley laments the decline in the tailoring trade, and he places the blame squarely on the modern consumer culture.
“You know what? We’re a throw-away society. People go to the GTA and buy something cheap. In our day, back then everybody wore suits. They had to be pressed, with leather shoes. We don’t dress like that anymore because everything is made offshore so it’s cheap.
While he’s been busy establishing his business in his new home, Fairley is hoping to also become extensively involved in the Meaford and area arts community, and he has already teamed up with a drummer who The Independent featured more than a year ago, Bambalamb, and they have some projects in the works. Fairley is also hoping to start a Celtic band, and said he is also a fan of the blues.
If you’ve been in search of a tailor, but haven’t had any luck, you can contact Fairley at 519-538-4170.
