News

THIS IS AN URGENT REQUEST – PLEASE ACTION AT YOUR NEXT BAND PRACTICE

RETURNS ARE REQUIRED ON OR BY THE 1st September 2007

YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE A COMPETING BAND TO PARTICIPATE

This workshop is not for beginners but for those likely to be participating in your Band activities in 2008. To gain the best advantage from this workshop you should encourage ALL your Drum Corps Members to attend. To attain an updated profile of participants that will help out tutors prepare, we need you to complete the attached form and return it with the appropriate fees by the 1st September. The attached form should be completed with as much information as possible. Bands must co-ordinate payments as appropriate, sending one payment to the Branch.

Some details for your information:

The Workshop will cost is £30 per person.
The workshop will be held in Aberdeen – St. Machar Academy.
Saturday the 29th September– 10:00 till 17:00 – Registration and assessment from 09:00
Sunday the 30th – September 10:00 till 15:00 – arrival 09:45 ready for prompt start.
Sunday PM will see a practical Session on Pipes and Drums – Pipe Majors are invited to attend (You may find this useful).

What to take with you:

Sticks and Pads.
Drum
Notebook.

Additional Information:

Snare Tutors – Gordon and Tom Brown of Boghall and Bathgate Pipe Band. Bass/Tenor – Steven McQuillan of Boghall and Bathgate Pipe Band supported by 2 Tutors – 1 Bass specific. Names and profiles will be added to our Web-site soon.

Catering – Packed Lunches (sandwich, crisps, juice, fruit), costing £3.50 will be available (pre-ordered). Tea and coffee will also be provided.

You will recall from discussion and minutes of previous meetings that the Management Committee were anxious to promote the social side of pipe banding within The Branch and had suggested regenerating an annual event at the year end to meet this much sought after demand.

To this end we have been able to fix a date of Saturday 6th October to kick things off when our three Grade 2 Pipe Majors have very kindly agreed to provide a program of short band recitals and/or other forms of musical entertainment. It follows that next year we will be asking for the early evening entertainment to be provided by our other Branch bands.

This year the event will be held in The Ashdale Hall in Westhill where we have the opportunity to run our own bar (low cost!) in aid of Branch funds which in turn will hopefully allow us to keep the ticket price at a modest £7.50 to help cover the cost of food and other form of musical entertainment.

Again the emphasis on the night is one of bonding and enjoyment whilst taking in some of the music that we all enjoy best. We also hope to provide an ideal forum for our members to enjoy themselves over a drink or two whilst getting the chance to “mingle” around the bar area in “dry” conditions.

Can you please give the event wide circulation within you band please. We are aware that as the season draws to a close it is difficult to keep track of your membership as short breaks and holidays often kick in. We would suggest that you nominate somebody from within the Band to actively promote the event and we ourselves will try and have some informal with each and every one of you in the days ahead when our paths cross at the various events.

Tickets are likely to be in short supply if the keen interest in having such a night materialises so an early indication of numbers is required (by 10th September)

Thank you very much for your co-operation. Please support your Branch on this one as we try to put the improvements that you have asked for into motion.

Further details to follow and will be posted on the Branch website soon.

Poor weather has struck again resulting in the cancellation of the Mintlaw Contest at Aden Park due to flooding.

This draws to a close the North of Scotland outdoor season, with only the Turriff and Inverness contests being held.

The next Branch contest is the Indoor Solos, held at St Machar Academy, Aberdeen, on Saturday 3rd November. Hope to see you all there, either "on the boards" or supporting your bandmates!

The Local Inverness Highland Games was held under overcast conditions on Saturday 21st July. Proving a closely fought contest, it was a good warm-up for next week's European Championships at the same venue.

The contest marked the inauguration of the new Dowling Drumming trophy. The splendid trophy was donated by the renowned local drumming tutor and adjudicator Alasdair Dowling. As his wish was for it to be a drumming prize at a local contest, it was fitting that it should be presented at Inverness Games. Alasdair presented the trophy to L/D Sinead Bruce of Bucksburn & District N/J.

The Novice/Juvenile grade had one of the largest entries in local years, with 5 bands entered, including Scots College New Zealand, 47th Culter B.B., Bucksburn & District, Ross & Cromarty P&D School, and Dingwall Juniors who were making their debut. Great to see so many youngsters involved! Both band and drumming prizes went to Bucksburn & District.

Grade 4 was a real Highland battleground, with Badenoch & Strathspey just edging out Northern Constabulary Community to win the grade, with the drumming prize going the other way. Picking up third was Fraserburgh R.B.L.

Dornoch Pipe Band pipped Turriff & District to win the Grade 3 event. Their drum corps also took away the drumming prize. Playing up to Grade 2 Dornoch again took the band prize, while Turriff picked up first place in drumming.

The Drum Major prizes stayed close to home, with Liam Christie (Beauly) and Duncan MacDonald (Northern Constabulary Community) taking 1st and 2nd respectively in the Adult section, while S. MacDonald (also Nothern Constabulary) took the Junior prize.

Well done to all bands and Drum Majors - best of luck for the Major contest next week!

Aberdeen Games is off due to poor conditions underfoot after heavy rain.