Farewell to the Old Guard

Today was the annual Remembrance Day performance for the bands here and everywhere, and more than ever it underlined for me the fact that the old veterans of the wars are disappearing. One of the tunes I published in Along the Road was "Farewell to the Old Guard," a tribute of sorts to the parade of veterans that takes place each Remembrance Day. The parade is getting smaller each year, and while it's the natural order of things, it makes the day that much more meaningful for the remaining veterans, and for the new veterans of recent conflict.

The band looked and sounded well, and we had a fair turnout of members from both the City of Regina Pipe Band and the Conservatory of Performing Arts Pipe Band. Following the televised ceremoney at the Brandt Centre, the bands retired to the Legion for tea and a sandwich, and then played a few tunes in each of the rooms at the Legion. As always, the band was appreciated greatly, and gratifying to see people moved by [even] our music.

The day brings back many memories of my Dad, seen here ready for the road during the war, and also my Mom, recently departed, for whom this day was a strange mixture of happy and sad. For many years it was my practice to visit the parents on this day. When my Dad was alive, we'd get his medals out of the closet and polish them, and talk about those things he chose to discuss. After he died, we'd visit Mom, and she greatly missed Dad on this day, and also fondly remembered the many great times they had at the "Armistice Ball" and other events.

Lots to remember on this day, and much to appreciate. Thanks to all the band members for being such a huge part of that over many years.

Be Sure to Thank Your Mother

When my Mom was young, she desperately wanted to play the bagpipes. As a girl in Regina in the 1930s and 40s, there weren't a lot of options. Some of the guys in the local militia band did some teaching, and later on, the Regina Boys' Pipe Band taught students, but no one would teach girls. You could only be a piper if you were male. So, she put it off, and in later years, with family of her own, looked into lessons for her kids. In 1965, a junior pipe band was formed in Regina after having been disbanded at the end of WW2, and I was eight years old.

There was no chance I was going to go to play bagpipes, because I understood that you had to wear a skirt. The band was formed in September 1965, and it took my Mom until December to convince me to give it a try. She told me later she filled my head full of stories of great pipers, and downplayed the whole K-I-L-T thing. A few lessons in, I was hooked, and despite a few bumps over the years, it has been great.

As pipes|drums editor Andrew Berthoff stated so eloquently not that long ago, I owe a lot to piping. He was talking about himself, but it's true for me, too. I met the majority of my longest and best friends through piping. The places I have lived and travelled were most often connected to piping, and of course my wife is a piper, and my kids are all involved. My Mom's persistence, and then years of encouragement and support, played a key role in whatever enjoyment and success I've had.

In more recent years, she enjoyed our daughter's piping and our son's drumming, and was often a fixture at Burn's Suppers, ceilidhs, Highland Games and band concerts. If she could be there, she was. This interest and support extended to her grandson Alex, himself a fine piper, and long-time member of the band. He used her house to practice, and in fact he and I have both been known to sneak over to Mom's for a late-night tune when kids are in bed.

Of course, as a mother, she was equally passionate about all the things her kids did: piano, violin, Highland dancing, piping and much more...but piping, and all it brought to us both, was something we shared, along with the same birthday. Over the years, she commanded many performances: for relatives, friends, St. Andrew's parties, Burns, fundraising, school and more.

The one gig I didn't really want was the one that I'd been told about since I began piping, and the one I did recently. Mom died September 29, and as she requested, she had "Lord Lovat's Lament" in the church [Helen Fraser before marriage] and "The Flowers of the Forest" at graveside.

The past couple of weeks the regular teaching at band and private lessons has reminded me that there are lots of mothers, fathers, and others out there doing those same things for their kids. They shoulder a lot of things in the day, and show up with their kids to ignite or feed that passion for music. If you're one of the parents, thanks for all you do. If you're one of the kids, find a way to say "thanks" for the tremendous gift you've been given.

A Post-Season Bonus!

This week the band received a nice post-season bonus from the Pipers and Pipe Band Society of Ontario when we found out that they have adjusted the final prize list from the Montreal Highland Games. On the day, the PPBSO disqualified the Glengarry Pipe Band after they performed because an official thought that bands had to have two tenor drummers [that rule had already been changed]. After the fact, Glengarry's points were counted back into the mix, but they forgot to adjust all the points. Glengarry's 2nd and 3rd in piping [behind our two 1sts] pushed a couple of bands down, giving us 2nd prize overall, rather than 3rd.

The final result was:

1. Fredericton Society of Saint Andrew Pipe Band [Best Drum Corps]
2. City of Regina Pipe Band [Best Pipe Section]
3. St. Andrew's Society of Winnipeg Pipe Band
4. Glengarry Pipe Band
5. St. Thomas Episcopal Alumni Pipe Band
6. Niagara Regional Police Pipe Band

Judges -
Piping1: Colin MacLellan
Piping2: James Troy
Drumming: Harvey Dawson
Ensemble: Reay MacKay

Special thanks to former CRPB member Gregor Burton for being on top of the numbers, and pointing out the error. Thanks to the PPBSO for making the adjustment. And thanks to the band members for making a great season possible.

Thanks for a Great Season
Just back from Calgary and Canmore Highland Games, and the end of a very good season for the band. The full results for the weekend are available in the usual place and what you'll see is that we split the two contests with our friends in The Rocky Mountain Pipe Band, with them winning the MSR on Saturday on "ensemble preference" and us winning the medley event Sunday. We had 5/8 firsts, and two wins for the drum corps over the weekend. It was a nice way to finish the season.

This was the band's first time competing in Alberta since 2005, and we had lots of people make a point to thank us for coming, which was nice. It was great to be there, and good to see the Alberta scene so vibrant. Whoever arranged the weather did a brilliant job.

The CRPB played in the Canmore beer tent in the evening, and then we stayed to the not-so-bitter end to hear The Searsons, who have been a feature of a few post-Montreal parties at Hurley's Pub in Montreal.

The band has come a tremendous distance this season, and in the beer tent I was asked by one of our World Champion friends what we had done to make such a difference to the sound of the band in the past year.

The answer is fairly simple: we worked very hard, and tried to improve every aspect of the band, starting with each individual instrument. Band members committed to more practices than ever before, and more contests/performances than in recent years. We tried hard to organize schedules long in advance, and we sought assistance from acknowledged experts.

It was the contributions of the members: time, energy, money; and their unrelenting dedication to improvement that made the difference. Congratulations to you all on a great season. Enjoy your week off. ; )

A Week to Remember
This past week the City of Regina Pipe Band travelled to ON and QC for the Glengarry Highland Games at Maxville, ON and the Montreal Highland Games. We have been there many times in the past, and most recently last year. Despite bringing up the rear of both contests last year--soundly whooped by every other band there--it was a success of sorts. We avoided the bullet of extinction, and [barely] learned enough music to put us back at playing in Grade 2, if not really competing.

If you've been reading this, or following the results elsewhere this season, you'll be aware that we seem to have been making some strides, and all of this the result of a lot of hard work by members. Since June, the band has been meeting three times a week as often as possible, and we have worked on every element in our control.

So, it was with some excitement that we practiced in Cornwall, and Friday night we had perhaps the smoothest, best runs we've had in some time. On Saturday at Maxville, all that seemed to disappear on the field, as we had tonal and other issues in both sets, and finished 8th/9th in a 9-band contest. Some of it was player error, and in the MSR, it was clearly P-M error. I was so disturbed/disappointed at the medley, that I didn't keep a close enough eye on the time for the MSR, and we ended up being too late to really get the sound as nailed down as we needed.

We still heard lots of positive noises from people: "The band sounded great marching up to play," "200% improvement over last year" etc., but it was all very disheartening given what we'd experienced Friday at practice.

So, we set off for Montreal Games on a rainy day, and about noon it was bucketing down even worse that last year. Add to this that the PPBSO called a pipe majors' meeting at 1:00pm to announce that there might not be prize of travel money b/c the games was broke, and we took the decision that we might not play in the rain. Last year, we ruined 10 sheepskin bags playing in miserable conditions, and so we sat on the bus and talked about a) going back to the hotel and then downtown, b) just playing our tunes in the beer tent and then going home early without competing and c) maybe having a beer and a sandwich in the tent, see if the rain cleared off, and postponing any decision until we had to decide.

We elected option c. We took our instruments to the beer tent, stacked them on tables and had a beer and a Montreal smoked meat sandwich. In the time, the sun came out, and 30 minutes before our play time, we went out to the track, tuned up, and competed. It turned out to be a good performance: still not our best, but a solid, rich sound and a good MSR.

When we heard that massed bands were going to be postponed for 30 minutes, we decided to play in the beer tent after all, and played our medley and a couple of other selections to huge applause, and for a string of free beer tickets!

At the end of the day, we were 3rd in the Grade 2 event, and Best Pipe Section in Grade 2 with two firsts in piping. Not bad, given that we almost didn't play.

This was perhaps the best prize the band has ever had outside the prairies, except for maybe a third at Maxville one year. We have never clearly won the piping in a big Grade 2 contest. This was clear.

There is still a lot to do, and we are looking at ways to improve on what we are doing in all sections, but the piping wins in Montreal were a nice benchmark of the progress that has been made since early 2007, when the band seemed to almost disappear. The progress is due to the outstanding determination of the band members to be a Grade 2 band, and to do what it takes to get there.

Coming Up for Air
The last couple of weeks have been tremendously busy with preparation for Maxville, and also the annual SOUND ADVICE summer school, which took place last week. We had a great group of instructors and students working and playing hard at the University of Regina, which was a fantastic location and environment for the school. Excellent accommodations, good food, great teaching facilities, all on a modern and beautiful university campus. It was great to see and hear the progress students have made in a year, and also to meet new students. As well, local pipe bands [Fraser, Wa Wa Shrine] took up the offer to have a band workshop at the school, so it was great to involve some more local faces in the school.

Thanks to the CRPB and Conservatory band members and parents, who once again were the stiff underside to the school, holding it up with their volunteer work taking tickets, getting water, driving, airport runs and a hundred other details. Couldn't have done it without you.

Paying for the Bus, and Learning Along the Road

Part of the job of getting the band to competitions is raising the cash to get there, and paying for accommodations and ground transportation while there. Without a full-on sponsor, the band relies a lot on event fundraising, member inputs, and performances. Our Maxville/Montreal trek involves five nights of hotels, a bus from the airport to Cornwall, buses to the Games, and transport from Maxville to Montreal. Not cheap.

This past weekend, we took a parade job in Moosomin and it was a great day. Up at six a.m. for the 2+ hour drive, arriving in time to meet other band members from Estevan, Brandon and [surprise!] Winnipeg, tune for about 20 minutes, and then go on the parade. Not the most fun kind of piping, but greatly appreciated in the town. For many Saskatchewan pipers, this is the main activity.

When we got back to the starting point after the parade, one of the organizers was there with a cooler full of ice cold beer and pop. Now THAT was a treat! We later played for about 30 minutes for a group of people assembled to hear us in the town memorial park, dedicated to the memory of local veterans.

Once re-tuned, the band started with a couple of 3/4 marches, the first being Major Gavin Stoddart's brilliant tune On the Road to Passchendaele. When we were all done, and having lunch provided for us by the local sandwich shop, one of the local guys came to point out that next to the spot we played was the grave of Passchendaele veteran and hero George Harry Mullin VC MM (August 15, 1892 - April 5, 1963). Altogether a fitting way to start, and well noted by the locals, who are very proud of his memory.

It's not easy putting together the money for a trip to Maxville, and sending a mini band to Moosomin is one way to make ends meet. At the end of the day, it turned out to be a day that was worth the effort. We had laughs as a band, got some practice in, had some fun playing old marching tunes in the parade, entertained quite a few people, made some cash for the Maxville trip, and learned something about a Victoria Cross winner of long ago.

Not a bad day out for any band.