Thanks for the Memories: New Westminister Police Pipe Band
[UPDATE, October 9: Well, today I'm told that the band is not folding, but is taking a year off, and rumours of it's death were premature. So, please note that we can look forward to the NWPPB at some time in the future, and in the meantime, I think everything else I said holds true.]

 This morning's news on email and Facebook was that The New Westminister Police Pipe Band had decided to cease operations. This was not a real surprise, because we had heard for a couple of years that P-M Angus MacPherson was in transition to retiring from work, moving away from the Lower Mainland, and there was some uncertainty about the band's future.

New Westminister—and "Maple Ridge" before them—have been a solid fixture on the scene for many years, and P-M Angus has persevered through some thin years at times, to consistently produce a musical and great-sounding band. The photo above, taken in 2011, captures the joy of New West members and friends following their two-day sweep of the North American Championships in Maxville and the Montreal Highland Games. Of course, the band had also experienced success in Scotland, having won prizes at various Games, including the World's.

It's sad to see such a consistently good band stop the music, but also easy to understand why these things happen. Without the dogged determination and skills of Angus and a few key members, it might have ended years back. So here's a health to Angus MacPherson, and sincere thanks from our band for your years of hard work to build and maintain an excellent pipe band in one of the most competitive scenes in the world. You have given so much to the piping scene in British Columbia, and your musical and organizational impact will be felt for some time to come.

The City of Regina Pipe Band had a few connections with the band. Former members of the CRPB, including Bryde Whelan, Morgan Brady, Aaron Malcolm, Ann Gray, Ian Aastrom and Cam Dodson all were stalwart members of the band, and many others were piping friends and former bandmates from Barb's and my days in British Columbia. To the members of NWPPB: thanks for your music and fellowship at venues across North America and Scotland. We look forward to meeting you all in new situations.

Maxville/Montreal - The End of a Great Season

This weekend the band competed at the North American Pipe Band Championships in Maxville, and then at the Montreal Highland Games the next day. There were quite a few highlights, and it was a great week with the band in Ontario and Quebec.

The good news is that the band finished into the prizes at Maxville, being 5th overall and including two 3rds in piping in the medley. The good AND bad news was that our Maxville performances in no way represented our best performances. Good in that we still made the prizes on relatively weak performances, and bad in that we did not meet out own expectations for the weekend.

The positive news out of this is that the band is developing in the right direction. We had plenty of feedback about that from judges, spectators and fellow competitors, and we are eagerly looking forward to next season. Part of the equation is how many new players we incorporated in the season, and the inability to prepare as a complete team as much as we would like/need.

Among the positive aspects of the Maxville games were solo results logged by CRPB soloists in the Grade 1 solos. All four CRPB players took prizes in one of the three Grade 1 heats. Eilidh MacDonald won the piobaireachd and marches, and was 3rd in 6/8 marches, narrowly missing the overall prize. Raphael Mercier won the strathspey/reel in his section, and was 3rd in piobaireachd. Eva Rennie was third in her piobaireach heat, and Alex Rasmussen took 4th and 5th in marches and strathspey and reels in his heat. Sadly, both Alex and Raphael missed events due to erratic scheduling of events at the same time. The band is extremely proud of the efforts of the soloists, and the results they obtained.

At Montreal Games, the band was able to pull together an excellent medley performance, and on the strength of it's 2nd place in ensemble, finished ahead of former CRPB member Gord Perry's Fredericton Society of St. Andrews Pipe Band. This was a very good performance for the band, and a well-deserved result. We followed this with a prolonged and happy celebration in the Montreal beer tent, visiting friends from across the continent, hearing and playing tunes, and also celebrating the success of friends in the New Westminster Police Pipe Band from British Columbia, who were deserving winners at both Maxville and Montreal. The NWPPB includes former CRPB members: Bryde Whelan, Aaron Malcolm, Cam Dodson [our first L-D in fall 1992], and Ann Gray, and many other friends.

So ends another season, and a great one for the band. We pulled together a whole new competition repertoire, incorporated a number of new members, made some very smooth changes in leadership and roles, continued to develop our events and programs, supported a number of worthwhile local and national events, and managed to have a lot of memorable times playing the music we love with friends we cherish.

Can't wait for the start of band in September.