It was most definately the day for the Irish with the St.Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band from Dublin (aka SLOT) coming first in the top grade, grade 1. They had to play a traditional set of tunes known as the March Strathspey and Reel "the MSR" which has been the benchmark of differentiating between bands for over 70 years. There were four judges who judge this element of the competition and they are the Drumming Judge, the Ensemble Judge and two Piping Judges and all 4 judges gave SLOT first place. The second element was the Medley which is a selection of tunes of any time signature and not limited to March, Strathspey and Reel. Jigs; Hornpipes; "Round Reels" (not pointed/without dots and cuts); Waltzes; Slow Airs and often creative cadences work their way into these Medley compostions. Medleys have been around only since the 70s and offer other variation of the wider family of rhythm. In this element, SLOT gained another two firsts in both Drumming and Ensemble which pushed them through well ahead of second place getters Field Marshal Montgomery. Third were last 2 years winners the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band from Vancouver and fourth were the Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia from Scotland. Here are the full results for grade one:
1st St Laurence O'Toole (Eire)
2nd Field Marshal Montgomery (NI)
3rd Simon Fraser University (Can)
4th Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia (Scot)
5th The House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead (Scot)
6th Scottish Power (Scot)
7th Strathclyde Police (Scot)
8th Fife Constabulary (Scot)
9th Inverary and District (Scot)
10th The 78th Fraser Highlanders (Can)
11th Robert Wiseman Dairies Vale of Atholl (Scot)
12th Dowco Triumph Street (Can)
13th Cullybackey (NI)
14th Auckland and District (NZ)
Again it was an amazing day of music with over 240 bands participating in 8 grades from 9am until the grand finale "The Massed Bands" at 6pm. Be sure not to miss your opportunity to see this fantastic event for yourself in 2011. Full results can be found on the RSPBA website here:
Drumming Legend Bobby Rea Passes away on the eve of the World Pipe Band Championships
The eve of the World Pipe Band Championships saw the passing of one of our great drummers from yesteryear, the inspiriational Bobby Rea of Northern Ireland. Bobby was "A Drumming God" who spent all his life developing not only thousands of drummers but the artform itself. Bar after bar, drummer after drummer, rudiment after rudiment all went through a change when in contact with the great man for Bobby always looked for ways to push the envelope in every direction. He was truly a master of Pipe Band Drumming.
I had the fortune to meet the great man on many occasions and spent weeks with him either at workshops in Germany or visiting him at his home town in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. Any time you were with him, he always made you feel important while simultaneously giving you a drumming tip on how you could improve your playing. "That's it Son" he'd say, "you've got it" when playing through his material, you really felt like a champion and a totally empowered player. I always try to emulate his message to all my students after having received his blessing, it was so uplifting.
Bobby has taught many of the great players of today including leading drummers of no less than 5 grade 1 bands being Paul Turner of Robert Wiseman Dairies Vale of Atholl Pipe Band (Scotland); Eric Ward L/D Strathclyde Police (Scotland); Keith Orr L/D Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band (Northern Ireland); Steven McWhirter of L/D Inverary and District (Scotland); James Laughlin of Canterbury Caledonian Society (New Zealand).
He won the World Solo Drumming Championship twice and many prizes in Ireland and Scotland, too many to mention in this short account. A few friends have sent in their memories:
Conor McNally of the St Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band: Never forgot my very first competition with St Josephs against the mighty Ravara corp and he introduced himself to me,he told me to relax kid, take it easy and enjoy the moment in the ring. A true legend and gent. You will be sadly missed Bobby me auld flower.
Brian Niven Pipe Sergeant of Victoria Police: Sad to hear the news. Had a practice chanter / drum pad play with him many years ago. Still the most" musical" drummer I have ever played with. RIP Bobby Rea.
John Moneagle, Leading Drummer: One of the Saddest days My great friend and Mentor Bobby Rea passed away tonight he will be sadly missed and fondly remembered God bless Bobby
It was a very sad World Pipe Band Championships this time to hear our friend, teacher and mentor Bobby Rea passing away. Bobby the legend will be remembered for his massive enthusiasm and ability to encourage drummers of any level to be their best. He was never in it for only himself, if you weren't part of the equation, he wasn't interested in doing it. A real team leader and taught practically 1/2 the drumming world. RIP Bobby, you'll be sadly missed. Our condolances go to Jeanette, Deborah and Steven.
Bobby Rea 1937-2010
R.I.P.
Very sad this hour to hear of our friend Bobby Rea passing away. Bobby the legend will be remembered for his massive enthusiasm and ability to encourage drummers of any level to be their best. He was never in it for only himself, if you weren't part of the equation, he wasn't interested in doing it, a real team leade...r and taught practically 1/2 the drumming world. RIP Bobby, you'll be sadly missed.....
Written by Dean Hall
Tuesday, 08 June 2010 23:33
The Major Season "kicks off" in Scotland
A little background information on the RSPBA and the "5 Majors". The most central of the world associations is called the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association and it is based in Glasgow, Scotland. They run a great number of contests throughout the calendar year and have 5 major contests affectionately known as "the majors" and at the last major competition, the winners of the league of all 5 majors are crowned Champions of Champions. The 5 majors are The Scottish Championships, The British Championships, The European Championships, The World Championships and The Cowal Championships and it is at Cowal every year that the Champions of Champions are announced. The RSPBA have an excellent and very current website where you can search on the results of all contests and the champions tables. It is even updated as the results are being read out direct from the contest field. The website can be found here: http://www.rspba.org/html/results.php
The winners of each grade of this years Scottish Championships held last week in Dumbarton, Scotland were:
Novice Juvenile Grade Winner of Best Band prize and winning the Best Corps of Drums prize was George Watsons College
Grade 4B (the first entry grade in the open age grades) Winner of Best Band and Best Corps of Drums prizes was Upper Crossgare
Grade 4A Winner of Best Band and Best Corps of Drums prizes was Bally Boley
Juvenile Grade Winner of the Best Band prize was Dollar Academy and Best Corps of Drums prize was George Watsons College
Grade 3B Winner of the Best Band prize was Quinn Memorial and Best Corps of Drums prize was Manor Cunningham
Grade 3A Winner of Best Band and Best Corps of Drums prizes was Deeside Caledonia
Grade 2 Winner of the Best Band prize was Grampian Police and Best Corps of Drums prize was Buchan
Grade 1 (the highest level grade) Winner of the Best Band prize was Field Marshal Montgomery and Best Corps of Drums prize was The House of Edgar Shotts and Dykehead
The next Major Championship event, which is the British Championships, will take place at Annan on Saturday the 26th of June, 2010. So if you live in the UK, perhaps you can make it down to see and hear the great drumming that will be on offer there, otherwise check out the results once it's done.
Written by Dean Hall
Wednesday, 07 April 2010 23:48
Australian Championships 2010
The past weekend saw the Australian Pipe Band Championships run up in Queensland's beautiful Sunshine Coast. It was a hot few days that brought together men, women, boys and girls of all ages into the one collective musical challenge. The "Aussie" Championships are held every 2 years in a different Australian state each time, this time it was Queensland's turn. So the results were:
Place Juvenile Grade (that's under 18's) 1 Scotch College Melbourne - Best Drum Corps Prize Juvenile 2 The Scots College Sydney 3 Scots School Bathust 4 Scots PGC College Warwick QLD 5 Knox Grammar (Sydney)
Grade 4 (the entry grade) 1 LCC Southern Cross No 2 2 Gold Coast Tweed 3 Canberra Burns Club No 2 4 University of Ballarat No 2 - Best Drum Corps Prize Grade 4 5 Qld Highlanders No 2 6 Sunshine Coast Caledonian
Grade 3 (the second level) 1 Manawatu Development - Equal Best Drum Corps Prize Grade 3 2 LCC Southern Cross No1 - Equal Best Drum Corps Prize Grade 3 3 Wynnum Services Club 4 City of Brisbane No1 5 Scotch College Melbourne 6 Ipswich Thistle
Grade 2 1 Hawthorn City 2 City of Adelaide 3 Moorabbin 4 Canberra Burns Club No 1 5 St Andrew's Brisbane 6 University of Ballarat No 1 - Best Drum Corps Prize Grade 2
Grade 1 (the highest grade) 1 The Pipeband Club - Best Drum Corps Prize Grade 1 2 Australia Highlanders 3 Qld Highlanders No 1 4 City of Blacktown No 1
Anyone that came, had a great day and were probably whistling a few new tunes afterwards!
Written by Dean Hall
Friday, 23 October 2009 14:00
World Solo Drumming Results 2009
Again reigning champion Barry Wilson has taken the big prize to make a "hat trick". 3 years in a row is an outstanding achievement. A great performance by all competitors was enjoyed by a "full house" audience. As always, Gus has done us all a great service in providing a video of each of the performers. Click here to see the players: www.gusweb.org Thanks Gus!
The placings for the Adult final were:
1st Barry Wilson - Leading Drummer for Scottish Power 2nd Steven McWhirter - Leading Drummer for Inveraray and District - DrummingMad Instructor 3rd Gordon J Brown - Leading Drummer for Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia 4th Blair Brown - Simon Fraser University 5th Stephen Creighton - Leading Drummer for St. Laurence O' Toole 6th J Reid Maxwell - Leading Drummer for Simon Fraser University 7th Eric Ward - Leading Drummer for Strathclyde Police 8th Gordon Lee - Simon Fraser University 9th William Glenholmes - Cullybackey 10th Gavin Noade - Field Marshal Montgomery 11th Aaron McCarten - Field Marshal Montgomery
Full details including all juvenile grades and qualifying heats can be found on the RSPBA Website here www.rspba.org and go to results/world solo drumming 2009.
If you missed this years event, you should make sure you keep posted on next years championships and get yourself there, it is a fabulous day of drumming (and piping ;-) Stay tuned to drummingmad.net for 2010 dates.
