Two days before the first pipe band championship of 2016 at Paisley, one of the world’s top bands, Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia, have announced a new sponsorship deal. Car firm Peoples Ford will sponsor the band for at least one year with an option for a further term.
The sponsorship, announced by Peoples chairman Brian Gilda, continues a link with the band stretching back more than 30 years when it performed at the opening of the first Peoples Ford dealership in Bathgate.
Brian said: ‘I’m delighted to be continuing my support for one of the country’s best pipe bands. ‘
The new deal will see the band continue to be known as the Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia Pipe Band with the Peoples logo featuring on the bass drum and the bags of the pipes.
Pipe Major Ross Harvey said: ‘The renewal of our sponsorship with Peoples Ford is a huge help towards the significant costs of running an organisation of our size. Bags, reeds, drum heads, uniforms, hall lets and transport are all some of the costs we face on an annual basis.
‘We teach over 80 young people in West Lothian which is of mutual benefit to both the organisation and the local community. Our teaching programme allows us to grow and nurture our own talent and keep up the supply of quality players into the Grade 1 band. Our kids are left with skills that will serve them well throughout their professional and personal lives including teamwork, dedication, discipline and lifelong friendships.
‘We have three bands competing this season, Grade One, Juvenile and Novice Juvenile A. The continued support of Peoples Ford allows us get on with our teaching and preparations for the competition season. We sincerely appreciate our partnership and the support we get from Peoples Ford and hope that this will continue into the future.’
In 2003 Brian Gilda commissioned the band to compose and record ‘Centennial: The Peoples Anthem’ as a gift for Bill Ford, the executive chairman of the Ford Motor Company, for the firm’s 100th anniversary. The band has also recorded its own ‘Salute to Brian P Gilda’ to mark his long-standing support.
Brian said: ‘I get lots of sponsorship requests but the reality is I can only participate in a selected few. This sponsorship is a thank you to not only to Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia, a superb and proud band at all levels, but to my many friends and customers in West Lothian. The sponsorship for Peoples Ford Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia Pipe Band is one of several sponsorships Peoples will make this year as part of its social responsibility policy.’
The picture up top shows some of the Boghall youngsters who will benefit from People Ford’s generous sponsorship of the band. Check out a video of the announcement:
An archive of piobaireachd manuscripts has been completed by the group of individuals behind the Alt Pibroch Club website.
The site’s founder, Dr J David Hester, has sent this: ‘Barnaby Brown and I, together with Keith Sanger, Allan MacDonald and the late Roderick Cannon, have achieved a major milestone in pibroch history: Images of all known musical notations of pibroch from before 1841 are online, under one roof, comprehensively cross-indexed.
‘There has never been a time, ever, in the entire history of the music art form, when anyone from anywhere can access everything that exists of the primary source material of pibroch. Never.
‘Every pibroch player should review these scores. They will often find sometimes simpler pibroch structures, sometimes new variations, certainly different movements (light grips, redundant-a taorluaths and crunluaths, half-throws), forgotten movements, differing styles of cadences, differing styles of expression and phrasing.
‘The Piobaireachd Society Collection very dutifully collates and footnotes all these things, but Campbell of Kilberry was tasked with the difficult job presenting his findings in ways limited by the media technology (and academic zeitgeist) of his day.
‘Now, instead of trying to piece together a setting from the footnotes, pibroch performers can play from the settings directly. Much as they do at the MacDonald Quaich.These are exciting times. And for the first time ever, everyone can learn directly from our earliest artists and caretakers off the art.
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