Mel Gillies: Dream-maker who put Tennent's up front from behind lens

Mel Gillies was born in Gourock and started his photographic career in a Clyde shipyard recording each construction phase, from laying down the keel to the launch, of the great ships that made “Clydebuilt” synonymous with quality. And quality became synonymous with Gillies’ own creativity whether working as a young Fleet Street photographer or in his Bath Street studio in Glasgow with his business partner, Sandy Wills.

He became involved with Tennent’s Lager in the mid-Seventies and his easy-going relaxed style brought out the best in the girls with whom he worked, some of whom had never previously been inside a photographic studio. He had legendary patience, explaining what he was doing as he went along, always letting the girls see what he was trying to achieve visually and encouraging them to be partners in producing the right picture.

As a technical photographer, he was immensely skilled in his use of lenses and lighting but the warmth that he created within his work was more attributable to his own warm personality than it ever was to floodlights and flashbulbs. He genuinely liked people and that came over strongly whether he was photographing a complete novice, or a fashion model who had seen, and done, it all before. Mel Gillies was very much a people person.

He was something of a traditionalist but one who was also highly innovative and that was probably why he and Tennents were such a strong partnership. From his Glasgow base, and background, Mel Gillies understood the importance and significance of the brewing giant’s, and the brand’s, heritage and the need for quality in moving Tennent’s Lager forward. That awareness and sensitivity were evident in the style and attributes of the girls who were selected, and of the images that appeared on millions of beer cans as Tennents continued, and extended, their domination of the Scottish lager market. His pictures were glamorous but never salacious, warm but never torrid; they were pictures of lassies that you could take home easily and, as such, were the perfect match for the Take Home sector of the beer trade.

Tennents also used his photographic skills elsewhere, particularly in some of their award-winning calendars where his creativity was given more latitude. His particular favourite was an action calendar in the late 1980’s featuring June Lake and Mary Nimmo, much of which was shot in the French Alps at Tignes. High in the French Alps in July, Gillies was in his element, teaching two complete novices how to ski, climb and white-water raft and, above all, to have fun while working. It was a far cry from a studio but the end result was always the same – quality pictures that people loved, appreciated, admired and remembered, and no artist can ask for more.

In the visually creative world, Mel Gillies will always be part of Tennents heritage and history. For many young Scots lassies, appearing on a lager can was a dream; to those who made it onto those cans, Mel Gillies was their dream-maker. He was also the dream-maker to a whole generation of Scots who simply enjoyed both the inside and the outside of a Tennent’s Lager can.

Mel Gillies was a man of his time who left an indelible mark on the Scottish beer market - as ever, a mark of the highest quality. Simply Clydebuilt.

Mel (front row, far right) is pictured two years ago at the Tennents marketers reunion.