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Society's Pipe Band celebrates 100 years |
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Society's Pipe Band celebrates 100 years
CANTERBURY CALEDONIAN SOCIETY HIGHLAND PIPE BAND CENTENNIAL CELEBRATIONS (1902-2002)
At 1.00am on a December Sunday morning in the Canterbury Caledonian Society Hall, the stayers were 'unwinding' after a most successful weekend in celebrating the centenary of the Canterbury "Cale". It was then that the worthy editor of this Magazine asked me if I would pen a few lines about the Celebrations. Who am I to refuse, especially after continuously trying to fight off that 'Famous' Highland moor bird all weekend. A reviewer would be making continuous notes and here am I armed only with only the programmes of the Dinner and Concert plus many happy memories.
The Dinner
Friday evening, and the pre-dinner 'session' set the pace for the weekend. There was a lot of noise, or should I say: "Mouth Music"; laughter; reunions; trying to recognise fellow band members from many years ago; the lot! It had everything.
The two MC's for the evening: ex- D/M Gordon Steele, and ex-L/D, Richard Smith, were well matched and added to the smoothness of the proceedings. Richard, as Chairman of the Pipe Band, welcomed everyone and this was followed by Willie Hunter reciting an appropriate poem: "Donald McTavish" in his usual Galashiels style. We then had the toasts, interspersed with musical items and dinner. All-in-all, it was an extremely well-balanced programme.
The first toast: "To Former Band Members" was ably proposed by D/M Gavin Manson. Neville Burney, a long-time member of the band and former P/M suitably replied. Gordon Steele gave: "The Selkirk Grace" and it was dinner time. Someone with a vivid imagination concocted the titles of the various dishes. For the main course: Howtowdie, Finnan Haddy, Steak Balmoral and Kincardineshire Vegetables. Desert included: Strathbogie Mist, Cranachan, Scotch Trifle and Eccelfechan Tart. The meal was well presented in buffet style and there was plenty for everyone.
The Mayor of Christchurch gave a brief and witty address, including reference to the 'Eccelfechan Tart' and wondered on which street corner she could be found. This was followed by an item on the Small Pipes by Barry Shaw and Lester Clarke. These well-known ex-pipe bandsmen have been around for a long time and excel on these instruments.
Following desert, the Centennial Cake was cut and this was performed by the two Patrons of the organisation: Mrs Joan Gilmore, Patron of the Society and Mr Peter Stevens, Patron of the Pipe Band.
Mr Jim Fraser, President of the Society then introduced the Guest Speaker, P/M Inspector Nat Russell, Victoria Police Pipe Band. Inspector Russell, well known as 'Nat' and a regular visitor to New Zealand, gave a very well-balanced and thought-provoking address referring to the past, the present and the future with particular reference to the Caledonian Society Pipe Band. At the conclusion of his address, Nat proposed the toast: "The Band" and it was warmly received. It was pleasing to everyone to make the acquaintance of Nat's wife, Sonia, who was present at the dinner. This is Sonia's first visit to New Zealand accompanied by their daughter, Amber, and I am sure that they will be back.
Unfortunately, I have one criticism of the evening and I should mention it here. It was the poor quality of the sound system. This should not have happened and it went on for the whole evening. The problem was further heightened by the fact that Nat has a soft Irish accent and much of his address was lost because of the sound quality. There was an awareness of the problem as the sound system was switched off during musical items.
The toast to the Band was acknowledged by P/M of the band, Elizabeth Drury. In such a large, august gathering, she handled the task with maturity. Elizabeth was to show her musical talent at the concert.
Richard Hawke, ex P/M of the band, then showed his skills on the bagpipes. Richard played an appropriate selection of music played on an excellent pipe. This item, followed by President Richard Smith's 'official' closure were fitting conclusions to an extremely successful evening.
The Saturday Get-togetherThis was a very informal affair with present and ex-bandspeople coming and going. There was great interest in the photographs, of which there were many. In addition to the framed photos there were massive albums of photos laid out on tables. Someone had been busy. There was some informal musical entertainment. We were treated to a piping and drumming performance by the Stevens family - unfortunately Father/Grandfather Peter didn't take part. Chris, ex P/M, with one son, Michael, on pipes and another son, Scott, on drum, showed the musical talent in that family.
If the editor has space, I wish to give one anecdote which typified the weekend. An ex-piper came down from Auckland for the festivities and I recognised him immediately. I greeted him: "Hello Merv!" Merv looked at me in puzzlement and said that he didn't recognise me. I took off my specs. "Yes?" No!" "My accent?" "No!" Then I said: "You should know me as I was best man at your wedding 50 years ago". Then Merv knew me. There is more. I said that Neville Burney was his groomsman. "Is Neville here?", asks Merv. "He is standing behind you", says I. Merv turned round. "Where?" "Do you see that fellow with the white hair?". "Yes", says Merv. "Well, that is Neville". Another reunion.
From California, U.S.A. came Tony Clark-Stewart, fondly remembered as Tony Clark. When the Scots Guards Pipe and Military Bands visited New Zealand many years ago, Tony followed them back to the UK and 'signed on'. In good U.S.A. style, Tony was wearing his medals to the dinner: the B.E.M. awarded for service in Northern Ireland; and the M.B.E. for Services to the Highland Community in California.
President Jim Fraser was quietly moving around. Jim was also Chairman of the organising committee of about 12 members and he had it well organised as, all weekend, I never saw Jim asking anyone to do anything. Good leadership and delegation. There is always a good secretary behind the scene and Jim selected wisely in Mrs Maureen Reynish.
The Concert: "Cale & Friends"The concert programme, held in the James Hay Theatre, had something for everyone. Eight hundred seats were sold out of a total of the nine hundred seats available. Great promotion and salesmanship.
Our two worthy MC's of the previous evening were "at it again" and kept up an entertaining repertoir. Naturally, the proceedings were launched by the Society's 'top' band. I say 'top' band because the Society showed its depth when the 'Top' band was replaced on stage by the Society's Grade 3 band and then their Grade 4 band. Interestingly, here is another one of these family situations as Elizabeth Drury leads the Grade 1 band and her mother, Nancy, leads the Grade 4 band. Nancy was a long-time member of the Christchurch Ladies' PB and then the Cale Royal Stewart PB. Elizabeth began her piping career with the Cale Ladies. There are more family associations with the Cale which are too numerous to mention.
The strength of the Cale was further enhanced by the introduction of their very talented Scottish Country Dance team who performed two dances to the accompaniment of the Grade 4 band.
The concert continued with four past P/M's and the present P/M performing individually. First on was Neville Burney who, I thought, had retired but Neville proved me wrong with an excellent performance to set the 'tone' for the others who were, (in order), Richard Hawke, Chris Stevens, Nick Eagle, and finally Elizabeth Drury. I don't think they were brave enough to play together.
The Cale Drum Corps showed its stuff with a Drum Fanfare which was well executed. I noted the appearance of Scott Mitchell back in the ranks.
Rua gave some renditions of their style of folk music. Unfortunately, their leaders, "Two Jimmies", were absent on tour of the North Island and this created an imbalance in the performance, especially the overpowering volume of the two guitarists relative to the vocalist. Rua recruited a member of the New Zealand Army Band on the tenor horn but again he was drowned out by the guitars. As a finale, some of the pipers came on and enhanced the item.
To round off Part 1 of the concert, the Grade 1 band played a Competition Medley and the Society again took the opportunity of introducing another arm of its collective talent: The Highland Dancing Team. The team of four danced on during an appropriate part of the Medley and gave a skillful performance of a foursome reel. There was also a solo dancer on hand to dance a hornpipe.
Part 2 commenced with the band playing tunes composed by Chris Stevens and David Wilmott and again the Highland Dancers were in action.
A novelty Piping Suite was performed by four pipers, tenor drummer, bass drummer and side drummer on a purposely flat side drum. The music was introduced by two pipers, followed individually by the other members . It was most effective and full of surprises.
Richard Hawke compositions were featured in the next bracket by the band which played tunes from their 1989 NZ Championships repertoir. Nothing changes in the traditional sense.
We were now getting into some 'heavy' stuff with members of the Victoria Police Pipe band. Three pipers and a sound technician came over from Melbourne to perform at the concert. Why was a sound technician coming to participate in a piping performance, I ask? I soon found out and, with all due respect to the pipers, they couldn't have done without him. The performance was 'out of this world' as a spectacle as well as the pipers' magic fingers. The group performed "The Hellbound Train" with many amendments to the original CD of the Ballymena Concert. The Cale pipers were not to be left out of it and they came on-stage to accompany the Victoria Police boys with some very impressive 'backing' of the basic melody. The comperes recognised the contribution of the Band's leader, P/M Inspector Nat Russell, but I felt that it would have been a nice gesture if they had mentioned that Nat and his family were present in the audience.
The best was certainly being left until last and I say that with no disrespect to earlier performances. The New Zealand Army Band, fresh from its sojourn at the Edinburgh Tattoo, showed what professional musicians do. The band started off with renditions of some well-known numbers from earlier eras and built up to more modern songs. They then mixed it with Rua and the Pipe Band with such anticipated songs as Highland Cathedral and Amazing Grace.
The conclusion must have been an anti-climax for some of those who left on the drop of the curtain. I always felt that there was to be more. There was a long pause before the curtain was drawn up and by the time the band started to play, the theatre was half empty, or, if you are an optimist, it was half full. They missed out on some lively music including what has become a recognised number with the Cale: "The Clumsy Lover".
All was not lost for the early leavers, however. As the 800 members of the audience were already packed shoulder to shoulder into the Caledonian Hall for supper the band marched into the hall - yes - playing "The Clumsy Lover". This was a fitting finale from the band as a "Thank You" for the support they had received all weekend. The acclamation said it all.
Alex Thomson
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