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.
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.
[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
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.
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.
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.
The Taiaha is nearly done, I was able to use a spokeshave to get the shaft down by quite a bit. Time is of the essence as the receiver of this will be leaving the Monday after the Nationals 11th of March. That gives me 2 more Tuesday carving nights (one which I might not make), and maybe a Sunday or two.
The Oranga School Cultural Performance happened a few weeks ago, this is the only image I can get, it is low quality and I have tried to increase the pixel rate and image quality, but this is the best I can get it.
This week was a busy one for piping. I decided to do all the AUT Graduation Parades, 4 overall from Tuesday to Friday. I took half days off each day for this but it was still tiring over the days.
I walked to the train station each morning in my kilt and took the train into town to meet up with everyone else, and got a lift home at the end of each parade. Below are some photos that Auckland University of Technology have posted on their Facebook page that have the band in it. These photos are take over the course of the 4 parades.
