[3] His father John Duthart was an Ulsterman who worked as a blacksmith, and had played both the bass and snare drums for the 8th Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders during the First World War.
[4][6] Later that year he left Dalzell to focus on playing the drum kit for local big bands.
[8] With both of those bands Duthart won the drumming title at the World Championships, in 1966 and 1967 with Invergordon Distillery, and with Edinburgh Police in 1968.
[4] Duthart met Dr. Fritz Berger from Switzerland, embracing the Basel style of drumming as well as the Swiss-style snare drum notation, utilizing non-mainstream notation of using only one line, with right hand stickings written above and left hand stickings written below that line.
[6] Among his pupils was Jim Kilpatrick, former leading drummer of Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia and sixteen-time winner of the World Solo Drumming Championships, and his son Drew Duthart, the current leading drummer of 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band.