Marching On.

The continuing struggle to maintain and devolop the Community Band set me to thinking about my former area of residence... the west of Scotland. There is a part of the world with no shortage of community bands of one sort or another, although not all of them are to everyones taste. As I mentioned on the blog last year you have the pipe bands which are usually uncontroversial, but you also have the marching bands, mainly the flute, accordion and drum bands associated with the Orange Order and carrying such names as 'Brigton True Blues' or 'The Loyal Sons Of King William'. At this time of the year, in Glasgow and the surrounding counties, on a saturday or sunday morning you will find them, dressed in a variety of colourful uniforms, gathering in some back street prior to marching off to one of the local gatherings that culminate in the huge''Orange Walk' that goes through the centre of Glasgow on the first saturday in july. Then the city centre echoes to the thunder of the Lambeg Drums and the shrill wistle of the flutes as the bands blast out the orange repotoire invariably containing the Orange anthem 'The Sash My Father Wore'. The bands and lodges are often accompanied by huge gangs of young people from arreas like Dennistoun or parts of Lanarkshire or Ayrshire, drunk on Buckfast, draped in union jacks and screaming abuse at anything deemed catholic, Irish or anyone they consider less then white.

On the other side of the religious divide, smaller but still active, we have the Republican flute bands usualy named after a deceased member of the IRA, one of the best known being the 'Volunteer Sean McIlvena Republican Flute Band'. Before the IRA ceasefire these bands were usually restricted in parading to certyain defined areas but have in recent years seem to be more accepted. One of the strangest incidents involving a RFB that I can remember was on the huge demonstration in Glasgow in 1988 to mark the 70th birthday of Nelson Mandela when ' The Rising Pheonix RFB' from Edinburgh turned up to take part. Because of the controversial nature of the band the events organisers band them from taking part in the procession with their instruments and they marched at the back in correct formation whistling their repotoire.

So other parts of these islands dont have the same problems that we do in forming community bands. Whether we would be wanting some of the bands that they have elsewhere may be open to question but we could certainly do with some of their enthusiasm and perhaps they could spare us a flute player or a couple of Lambegs for Street Market.