Booking list

A reminder of the bookings remaining this year:

June
26th: Bennecourt trip (France)

July
18th: Kelso Civic Week

August
2nd: Civic Week Opening Ceremony
3rd: Norham Ride
6th: Flodden Day
7th: Torchlight
8th: Fancy Dress, Beating Retreat

30th
Massed Bands, Floors Castle

November
8th: Remembrance Day

Peebles Beltane Festival

The past weekend was a busy one for the band with the Peebles Beltane Parade on Saturday and Hawick Highland Games on Sunday.

The Beltane fancy dress parade has been an annual fixture in the band's roster for any number of years and, 'incidents' with fire extinguishers apart, has always been a quiet and reflective event. More about the Beltane here: http://www.returntotheridings.co.uk/peebles.html

Check out the band playing up the High Street of Peebles: the camera-person seems very focused on the Drum Major! The drummers are clear winners of the Dress & Deportment award.

Jim Clark Rally

This years rally ran from 22-24 May. The Band was asked to play in Duns for the finale of the event and were more than happy to do so. Info about the rally here: http://www.jimclarkrally.com/

Trip to Brymbo - the truth at last!

This report of the trip to Wales from Ian Cockburn;

I hope you all enjoyed Coldstream Pipe Band’s first trip to Wales last Weekend.
The concert performance on Saturday night was excellent. All that practicing on Monday nights certainly paid off. This should also set us up for the rest of the year.
Ged took a video of the concert and lots of photos so we will try to arrange a showing of the video and photos sometime in the future. This will probably be after the trip to France so we can cover both trips on the same night.
For those of you who couldn’t make it to Wales this is a brief summary of what went on.
The band played on Saturday afternoon in Wrexham along with the French band from that came to Coldstream, the Corps of drums and the Welsh choir. The Mayor of Wrexham was present at this event. James presented a bottle of Whisky to the Mayor on behalf of the Pipe Band.
The main event of the weekend was the concert in Brymbo. The Pipe Band opened the concert and were followed by the Corps of drums, the French band and the Welsh choir. The grand finale featured all of the acts together.
The concert was certainly the highlight of the weekend but the most bizarre event was when the Pipe Major (along with a couple of Welsh guys) was declared to be A Knight of the Brotherhood of the Maroilles cheese. Four officials from the Brotherhood had made the trip from France to bestow this great honour upon the Pipe Major (who shall now be known as Sir Cheesy). Sir Cheesy was presented with a certificate and a medal (which he wore for the rest of the weekend).
Someone left a cushion behind when we got off the bus. The cushion is in the Besom (having a pint!!!) and can be collected there.

After the trip we received this message from Alwena Hughes:

Hi James

Hope you all arrived home fairly sober but I very much doubt it,

We would like to thank you once again for the part you all played in helping to make the weekend

so brilliant , it was even better than we had even imagined.

Also would you pass on our thanks to the Guards for the part they played, we hope that the choir will be able

to meet again for another performance some time again.

Keep in touch

Best Wishes
Alwena

Parade in Wrexham

Wrexham is a small village near Brymbo. It is a quiet place, with welcoming pubs and hostelries that cater to all tastes!

Evening Concert in Brymbo

The evening concert in Brymbo was a great success. Lots of hard work on practice nights paid off with the band giving a performance that was a real crowd pleaser. The whole night was entertaining and diverse; the Brymbo male voice choir were on great form, the Brigade of Guards Corps of Drums were rousing and our French guests also entertaining.

Welsh Tour to Brymbo

We were delighted to be invited to Brymbo by the local Male Voice Choir, who we met at the 2008 Thierache cheese festival. The trip took place over the May Bank Holiday. Lots of fun was had and good sounds created.

Cockburnspath Gala Day

The band played at Cockburnspath on 13th June for the village's Gala Day. Rain stopped play mid-afternoon, but a good band was playing well when the rain held off.

Armistice Parade 2006

Photos at last of last years Armistice Parade. Quite a few new band members out that day, see entry in November 2006.

A good picture of the band leading the parade, complete with glimpse of the Meenister. The picture of our destination, the town memorial, taken last month.

The parade of ex-servicemen and women gets smaller each year, which is quite natural as time moves on, but, the event has an enduring quality.