Normally a quiet month after returning from a Summer Break, this year August was different. With Cheltenham and Brass in the Park to prepare for, the Band had several engagements and fund raising events over the month. We had engagements on 20th, Loanhead Street Fayre and at Sainsburys and on the 28th August with the annual Songs of Praise at Liberton Kirk.
On the Fund Raising side we were bag packing at Sainsburys Straiton on the 20th, held a race night at Loanhead Miners’ on 26th and the Loanhead Cheltenham Gold C**p Raffle held on Sunday 28th courtesy of Lily the pony in her field near Falkirk.
All this plus our twice weekly rehearsals made it a busy time.
September 2011
This was an extremely busy month for the senior band. We had twice weekly rehearsals supplemented with extra sectional rehearsals on Tuesdays and one full Sunday and one full Tuesday rehearsal. If this was not enough we has a fund raising concert plus two contests.
September opened with a concert in Loanhead Ex-Serviceman’s Club and a full audience was entertained to a full varied programme given by the Band, Loanhead Youth Band and Dalkeith & Monktonhall Colliery Band.
As mentioned our usual bi-weekly rehearsals at the band hall were supplemented on Tuesday s with sectionals and we also had an extra two full rehearsals on Sunday 17th and the Croft Suite and Tuesday 24th in the ex-serviceman’s club.
The first contest was Brass in the Park at Newtongrange on the 10th. The pieces chosen, Harlequin March and Dear Lord & Father of Mankind (Repton) gained us 11th place overall and second on the day in the 4th Section.
The Nationals on the 24th was the first visit to them by the Band for 19 years. The weekend began at 9.3o a.m. on Friday 23rd with loading up the coach for the long trip down the M74, M6 and M5 to our overnight stop at Gloucester’s Premier Inn. This was followed on the Saturday with a short rehearsal in St. Catharine’s Church before the short drive to the Centaur Centre at Cheltenham Racecourse, the venue for the contest. The band gained an early draw, No 2 out of 19 bands in the 4th Section from all over the United Kingdom and Isle of Man. Our performance of R Vaughan Williams King Henry V Overture was to gain us 10th place.
This result means that we are the 10th best 4th Section Band in the U.K. and this was gained at the 100th Championship of Great Britain.
Following the results we returned to Gloucester to the Premier Inn before retracing our steps back home up the motorway.
October, November 2011
October and November were quiet months on the engagement front. Our only event was our Annual Concert, held on Friday November 18th in Loanhead Church where the audience was entertained by all three Loanhead Bands. The only other notable event was the East of Scotland area Solo Championships where we were represented with Leighton & Lloyd Griffin, Samuel Denton and Willie Dalgetty, who all did very well.
The remainder of our time was spent rehearsing for the Scottish Challenge Shield Contest to be held in The Bonnar Hall, Dundee on the 3rd December.
Our Junior Bands performed very well and Scottish Youth Championships at the Concert Hall in Perth, both gaining Gold Awards on the 26th and 27th November.
