Well, the band’s longtime drum major Russ Hamilton got a chance to walk to the head of the field and bring back a big silver trophy at the Ulster pipe band championships.
However, it was a bit of a Miss Congeniality-Thanks For Coming Out! deal. The big cup was for Marching and Deportment — which is pretty funny if you’ve ever seen Hamilton’s rag-tag mob on the field.
The band played well, but got their butts handed to them, finishing 5th in a 6 band field.
In simple terms, the bands over here are REALLY good – with a rich, bright pipe sound Peter is still working his kids towards. Most of the bands at this level are filled with Grade 1 level players too busy with job and family commitments to play at that quasi-professional level. While many of the kids in the band have played their way into Grade 1 solos back home, only a small handful of the musicians in our mob have even stepped on the field with a Grade 1 group.
They have the natural skills to get as good as these guys within a year or two, but only through maturing both mentally and physically. We also had to remind our collective selves that these kids were in Grade 4 just three summers back.
Still, a great experience overall – with the band bested by Culleybackey and three other Ulster bands that were just as good. Any of the four could win win the Worlds on Saturday, and certainly two or three of them will be in the prizes.
It is rare for an overseas band to pass through Ulster on the way to Scotland and the Worlds , so Hamilton Police PB drew a big crowd wherever it went on the park. At one point, in the final tuning area, there were scores of people encircling the band, having a listen and scrutinizing the unfamiliar competition.
The crowd was also five or six deep around the competition area.
The band got the chance to lead off the massed bands ceremonies and, with the College of Piping from PEI, highlighted and thanked by various people for making the trip to Ulster.
Just about everyone headed into the festival marquee — we call these things beer tents — after massed bands and just as the weather finally went south. It started raining and quickly turned into a steady downpour.
The famed Tanahill Weavers — the Scottish equivalent to the Chieftains — played in the tent, as did a trio of pipers from Dublin’s St. Laurence O’Toole. They were followed on, and pretty much upstaged, by three pipers from Field Marshall Montgomery, who roared through several tunes, including many of the bits from the band’s B52 medley.
Amazing stuff and a great topper to a long day.
Sunday is a chance to finally relax and look around. Unfortunately, the rain that started Saturday evening is still coming down, and it’s not looking good for our day off.
