Brass Band Performance and Auckland Marathon

Clan Celtica at the Cloud Queens Birthday 2019

Spannish Eyes Video (Facebook)

Glenfiddich 50 Year Old Whisky Tasting performance

Last night was an exclusive whisky tasting evening at the Bluestone Bar in Auckland.  There were 30 people (invite only) that participated in tasting, costing about $2000 each.

The tasting started from the Glenfiddich 15 year old, and had 5 whiskies ending on the 50 Year Old.  The 50 yo came in a leather bound box and had silver trim.  The event had 2 bottles out of a batch of about 160.  It was the second batch of 50 years of untouched whisky in the barrel.

The Keeper of the Quaich who attended mentioned that the barrels were 100 years old at the time they were filled.

The evening went well, the haggis was running late, so we didn't have much to do in the end. We played 1 set and then left.

Massey Graduation Parades (16th, 17th, and 18th April 2019)

The week before Easter the band did the Massey Graduation Parades in Takapuna.  This consists of 2 parades a day, one in the morning and one in the evening, then a set on stage while the graduates are seated.

I did 2 of the 3 days (Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th).  As Kerry was away for all of them, I had the opportunity to lead the band for the day on Wednesday.  The below links has us playing in the Bruce Mason Centre however you cannot see us most of the time.

http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/student-life/graduation/auckland/ceremony/april-graduation/april-graduation.cfm

Here are some photos from the Massey Facebook page

ANZAC Day 2019

Yet another early morning, setting my alarm for 3am.  Out of the house around 4am and off to the Glynn's to carpool for the day.

Although the street was pretty busy due to the vehicle cordons around the museum, we were able to find a carpark.  A noticeable absence was our Pipe major Tim.  As it turned out he had Shingles and was not able to make any performances for the day.

The Dawn service at The Museum went as normal, we played on the Cenotaph before the services entered.  There were noticeably less people this year than previous.  The below video has a quick shot of us during the service.

   

As for every year, after the service we were invited for breakfast at the Museum.  We got to meet the Major Phil Goff, who was key in letting us play on the Cenotaph while a lot of the other services were being cancelled.

The band then did the Newmarket Parade which was not cancelled.  This was because the service is organised by the Newmarket Business Association not the council and run as it usually does. The service was ok, similar to every year where Ngati Whatua open the service, the local MP and Minister say something, wreaths are laid, then the national anthems for New Zealand and Australia are sung before the service is closed.

We had to quickly move off to Henderson as this service started at 11am, half an hour earlier than usual. This was inside as the street march part was cancelled. We were late into the RSA, and stood at the back of the service.  We then played for 20 minutes in a semi-circle ending on the organisers favourite tune, The Gael.

Highland Cathedral played at the Clan Cameron Gathering 2019

Just in case you missed it on Facebook. Video has been uploaded to Youtube as well

New Zealand Pipeband Nationals 2019 - Dunedun

[UPDATED]The Pipeband Nationals was pretty good for our band however the comments on the judges sheets did not really show the improvements we had made from last year.

In saying this some of the comments were valid and will be something that the grade 4 band will need to work on over the next year or 2. We did come third in the street march which means we are doing something right.

Below are links to our performances, however they are part of 2 Youtube videos, clicking the links should start the video at our performance, however you can move them around however you like to watch the rest.

Video Links

Just a note that I have updated the video links to start at the correct performance times.  These are MSR - 1 hour 10 minutes in and the Medley 3 hours 42 minutes in for the day 1 video. Street march 17 minutes in and Mace Flourishing 8 hours 15 minutes into the day 2 video.

Alternatively watch the whole video in YouTube using these links

Day 1 - Friday 29 Mar 2019

Day 2 - Saturday 30 Mar 2019

MSR

The first competition on Friday morning.

Medley

The second competition on Friday 11:30. 

Street March

Street march first thing Saturday morning.  A bit cold during warmup but sunny throughout the rest of the bands providing a good sound.

Mace Flourishing

We are a bit worn out here, as it is one of the last things of the competition and the temperature started to drop a we bit.

Other things to note, most of the pipers and drummers joined the grade 1 bands during their warm up, this produced a massive circle which at one point hit critical mass, and the sound leveled out to one tone.

If you watch 'Scotland the Brave' in the massed bands, the entire group stopped together.  This is unheard of at massed bands, usually get one or more bands continue in a repeat or several trailing drones.  I think the crowd witnessed something that has never been witnessed before, although most of them would not have been the wiser for it.  The video has an echo, which sort of ruins it, but the echo finish is clean if you listen for it.

All and all a good competition, definitely felt better coming off this one then any other. 

Another cold night performance for Clan Celtica

I probably should have posted this earlier but I haven't had any time where I can sit down to write events for this blog.  A couple of weeks ago Clan Celtica had another performance at MOTAT, Aucklands Museum of Transport and Technology.  This was for a strange event called WTF and had strange exhibits.

Clan Celtica had a roaming performance starting at 9pm and going for about 45 minutes.  It was cold, there was a chilling breeze that ran through the night.  Frankie had a bad cold, and was coughing and having a bit trouble, but it did not harm the performance.

It was also a night were we had two pipers.  At this stage there were no harmonies, I let Michel lead, and I would play for volume. It went really well considering the temperature.

We also had a stage performance starting at 10:30pm running for half an hour.

Here is a short video on facebook from the night. https://www.facebook.com/clanceltica/videos/867542786783500/

Scottish Clans Association AGM and dinner

I have been attending the Scottish Clans Association (Auckland District) monthly committee meetings for about 4 months as a representative for Clan Cameron.  In doing so, I have been active in one of the latest initiatives, the scholarship, I have also discussed with some of the committee members the state of getting young people involved with Scottish culture.

I have effectively put my head up and have been noticed and at the recent AGM I was elected vice president.  I am not sure what this is going to mean moving forward, I don't really want the responsibility of something like this. I already have the Clan Cameron presidency coming up next year so I need to make sure that I am on track for that.

In saying this, there maybe a lot of overlap between the two organisations and it could be beneficial to be in both.  I was thinking about maybe checking out the RNZPBA Auckland centre for similar reasons, so maybe me being here is not a bad idea.  I will give it some thought and observe how the committee interacts with each other over the next year and see where this may take me.

On top of the AGM last weekend I performed the piping duties for annual dinner which was straight after.  This was a lot of fun, not as intense as I thought it was going to be. I had a small piece at the start of the night to get everyone to sit down at the tables, I had come up with a 5 minute piece but was cut short early as it was not all needed.

I then had to pipe the guests to the main table, a short piece with not to much hassle.

The Haggis was a bit late, and I had the piping duties for this.  Malcolm Campbell was running the show for this, he gave the ode and showed the ropes to us who had not done it before.  Christine Binns, the associations represenitive for clan Matheson, was right behind me in charge of carrying the Haggis. 

I was informed that I needed to snake around, so I had already worked out my route, however, when executing my circuit, I came across a sort of roadblock where a woman facing the table didn't see me right behind her while I was trying to get round her.  I pushed through, it was a bit rough however the rest of the party made it upto the front without any issue. Apart from that it seemed to go pretty well.

Final responsibility was to pipe out the main table at the end of the night. All in all a great night, I got to see some Clan Cameron members as well as some other people who I will probably need to keep in my circles moving forward.

 

Tartan Day 2018 Sunday 24th June

Another tiring day starting 9:30 am for the initial practice then getting ready for the main performance at 1 pm.

The practice the week before - When the Piper Plays

Hector The Hero

Photo by Neil Cameron. Possible candidate for the next clan news letter.

Queens Birthday

Queens birthday weekend, especially Saturday was very busy.  It was Ardbeg day, and I had to get to Sam Sneads House of Whisky to get the latest Ardbeg day release.

The release is called Grooves, due to the grooves made in the sides of the barrels to get more surface area contact with the spirit.  Although the whisky has a dark colour, it is actually quite light, enough so that my mother enjoyed it.  I will review this in another blog post.

After that it was down to the cloud for a play out with City of Auckland Pipeband at the Cloud between 12pm and 1pm.  The weather held off and we were able to play outside.

We were then able to make it back to Sam Sneads House of Whisky to get some lunch (Haggis), were I was requested to play some tunes.  Having recently tuned pipes I went through a couple of sets, which went down quite well with the other shoppers in the store.  Sam put up a video on his facebook page which seems to have had quite a lot of people view it.

Day off Sunday, but it was back down to the cloud for another performance,  this was inside due to the bad weather, which did not seem to improve until the next day.

Clan Celtica also played after the band, where I was introduced to the band as the possible new piper.  This went down pretty well, I have until September to get ready for.  This is when Michel returns from his 2 month holiday, hopefully with some harmonies.

Weekend Gig

I had a gig with some of the City of Auckland players on Saturday night.  It consisted of playing outside while guests arrived, then playing a few tunes inside, and then playing tag team jigs for a Strip the Willow dance

ANZAC Day 25th April 2018

This years ANZAC day was quite busy, waking at 3am to get ready, out the door at 4am, practice meet by 4:30, then the first performance at the dawn service at 5:15am at the Auckland Museum with City Of Auckland Pipeband. This was broadcast on Maori TV live.  The band played for about half an hour while the people gathered before the dawn service, then we played the servicemen out at the end of the service.  We were also invited into the museum for breakfast before the next service.

The next performance was the Newmarket Service Parade at 9am.  This started from Teed Street and went up Broadway past the cinema and swimming pool.  The road was only half closed and lead by a police car.

Once that was finished the next parade was for the Henderson Service starting at 11:30.  The service was in front of the RSA, and at the end we were invited in for another performance before lunch.

Lunch finished and we left the RSA about 3pm. I had an hour nap before changing kilts and getting ready for the last performance, for 6pm at the Elizabeth Knox Retirement Home.  This was a small performance playing Amazing Grace and the National Anthem with Jane Murray.  As a bonus we played a few extra marches before marching out ourselves.  

The day was very long and tiring but, all in good spirit.  I was able to wear my Grandfathers compulsory military training medal and got a lot of playing in.

Pipeband Results for City Of Sails Grade 4

With the nationals in the past and all the recent competition and practice over it is time to reflect on the last month or so.

Our placing at the Nationals was 8th overall out of 12 in the grade.  There are some good points with this and some not so good points.  Although we would have liked to have ended up higher in the rankings, the band did achieve some very specific goals that were put out.  The main one is not letting the medley run away and loose control.

Last year, we came last in the medley which pulled our good Set performance down, this time we didn't and both our set and medley was at least consistent.

This goes to show that the competition was fierce this year and we cannot take any team for granted, I am sure they are all in the same position we are.  Therefore it is important for the band to make sure they are getting to their next goals, and to make sure they are on top of all their performances if they want to achieve success.

With the Nationals, Mum and Dad came up to play with us as the Blenheim and Districts Pipeband was not playing. Here are some other photos from the weekend, hopefully more to come as I find them.

Waipu Games Performance

This is the Open Bass competition at the Waipu Highland Games 2018, requires the base player to do a March, Strathspey, and Reel, with an accompanying Piper and Side drummer.  Third place performance

The Camerons Day Out at the Waipu Highland Games

Great day at Waipu, we visited the Cameron tent when we got to the grounds, and Dad decided to do the morning march through the town centre (@ 9:30) while Mum and I warmed up for the first drumming events.

Mums first event was at 9:30 which was the 2/4 march, there were only 2 competitors so the next event, 4/4 march was soon after.

I competed in the 2/4 march before Dads competition on the open bass.  The open required an MSR (March, Strathspey, and Reel), so we played 79th Farewell to Gibraltar, Dorrator Bridge, and the Sound of Sleet.

Mum won both her events and if she had competed in the 6/8 march event she would have won the most points overall for D grade.

Dad got 3rd in the open bass

Warming up for the massed bands for the opening ceremony.  Usual massed band tunes, Green Hills of Tyrol, When the Battles O'er, Scotland the Brave, the Barron Rocks of Aden, Flower of Scotland, and some strathspeys for the dancers, Orange and Blue and Tail Toddle.

Here are some video links;

Northern-advocate article

performance videos to come!!!