Helensburgh: Debt Free

Last year was a mission to get a lift to Helensburgh so this year I took my car, I was in my guise as Band Photographer and whisky taster. It was the anniversary of me stupidly saying I owed Big Gordy a pint.

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short note ~ long weekend

Friday the 14th had us scooting across county lines to play at the Stewarton Bonnet Guild Parade, Friday is the fancy dress component of the whole week long multi event gala and the brooding clouds and wind chill weren’t stopping anyones fun.

Drones over Ardrossan

The watching of weather apps on phones becomes compulsive on the run up to a Highland Games and the forecast for Sunday the wet^th of June wasn’t looking good but as the week drove on the expected gloom stayed in England. There was a lot of searching for capes and general resignation of damp to follow.

Gracious in defeat

Lilias Day is our annual blooding of the newbies when we introduce our newest and shiniest players to the village, however I’m getting ahead of myself and I’ll rewind a few days to set the stage.

British Spirits

With this being a local event we don’t arrive in a bus all eager and enthusiastic, we arrive in dribs and drabs, cars parked hither and yon and instruments jammed into bummed lifts. We weren’t playing until 4pm as there were no qualifiers, this has two effects;
          1.  Long lie, saunter in, relax
          2. The party band kept on a short leash until after the march past.

the times they are a changin

Gourock once again stuck up two fingers to the rain clouds and chill winds of yore. For years Gourock Highland games was a byword for cold, dreich and soggy, we now have players who have never known anything but sunburn and blue skies.

Brief Encounter

One of the things I enjoyed of late was playing my friend John off the hill on his last Munro. I’d promised to play him to the summit about 5 years ago but my debauched lifestyle and close personal relationship with pies ruled that out as an option.

Spring has sprung

With nothing pipe bandy happening until late March and a hankering for a bit of a social interaction that didn’t involve me remembering musical phrases the announcement that your man Stuart Liddell was playing a solo gig in Kilbarchan hit the spot.

Winter Statement

That’s us well into February and although we have given ourselves a mountain to climb in learning 30 odd tunes for Music Show Scotland and perfecting the new MAP set we can still be seen out and about at shows, concerts, gigs, Burns suppers and well mostly Burns suppers. James the Hat and I would like to have a Pipe Band Burns supper some year because three in three weeks isn’t enough.

Hello 2019

It’s customary to do a review of the past 12 months and a wee bit of scrying about the coming year. A grim tale of torment and disappointment I hear you call yet for all the friction we picked up a load of trophies  and some recognition for the hard work being done.