Hundreds tune up at The Scottish Bands Contest!
Monday 25th April 2016More than 250 young people aged from nine to 18 from across Scotland competed in The Boys’ Brigade’s 37th Scottish Bands Contest on Saturday 23th April at The Brunton in Musselburgh.
Band of 4th Dunfermline
The day’s top winners were; 1st Largs in the Mini Pipe Novice and Pipe Novice category, 6th/8th Dundee in the Pipe Championship class and 1st Tulliallan in the Open Class Championship.
Callum, a drummer with 1st Largs Company said:
“I have been playing in the band for almost eight years. We have rehearsed a lot ahead of the championships, dedicating to over two and half hours every week. I thought our performance was really good, especially because we have such a young band.”
Scott Findlay, BB leader & bandmaster of the 6th/8th Dundee Company added:
“Many of our recent former members have come together to be founder members of the City of Discovery Pipe band. Many of these former members still support the BB band today as tutors and coaches. In November, we are taking the band to Ypres in Belgium to perform at the historic Menin Gate ceremony.”
Around 500 spectators attended the competition over the course of the day, with bands attending from Companies in Ayrshire, Dundee & Angus, Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, Dunfermline, South Lanarkshire and Edinburgh.
There were ten different categories available, offering participants of all ages and skill levels to showcase their talents.
The bands performed for Councillor Jim Gillies, Depute Provost of East Lothian Council, Major General Mark Strudwick CBE, retired British Army officer and Bill Stevenson, Director for The Boys’ Brigade in Scotland.
After the performances, Bill Stevenson said:
“Once again each band displayed some exceptional skills and we all got the chance to hear some fantastic music. It was a great opportunity to see not only to see young people enjoying themselves, but the audience all entertained.
“Music continues to play an integral part in The Boys’ Brigade, and we can’t thank everyone involved enough for making the event such a special day. It was evident how many very young band members there was this year. This gives us great encouragement for the development of music in The BB.”
A full list of the day’s winners is below:
| Competition | 1st Place | 1st Place Drill, Deportment, Turnout |
| Mini Pipe Novice | 1st Largs | 1st Largs |
| Mini Pipe Open | 1st Troon | 1st Troon |
| Pipe Novice | 1st Largs | 1st Largs |
| Pipe Contest | 6th /8th Dundee | 6th /8th Dundee |
| Open Novice | 10th Leith | |
| Open Contest | 4th Dunfermline | 1st Erskine |
| Pipe Championship | 6th /8th Dundee | 6th /8th Dundee |
| Mallets | 1st Tulliallan | |
| Open Championship | 1st Tulliallan | 1st Tulliallan |
Fantastic day great to see all these young boys and men playing in bands to support their own brigade and they should all be very proud of them self’s.A lot of work goes on behind the scene by their officers and without their encouragement to give up their time to make sure these boys experience different things in life who knows were these boys would be probably hanging around street corners a big Thank you.
Wonderful comments – thank you Margaret!