Halifax Boys’ Brigade, Girls’ Brigade Band Represent Yorkshire

17 members of the Halifax Boys’ Brigade and Girls Brigade Band along with 30 other members from Hull and Market Weighton represented Yorkshire this weekend in the Boys’ Brigades 125 Tattoo celebrating 125 years of Boys’ Brigade.

It’s been a mammoth weekend for the members of Halifax BBGB Band starting at 7:00 on Friday night with a 5 hour coach journey to Glasgow, a short night’s sleep before a full day of rehearsals to conclude the day with performing in a Massed band with well over 500 musicians at the Boys’ Brigades 125 Anniversary Tattoo at Breahead Arena in Glasgow. It’s also interesting to note that the sister organisation of the BB – the Girls Brigade was founded ten years after Boys’ Brigade and it was great that both organisations were performing side by side.

The Tattoo featured members of the Boys’ Brigade and Girls Brigade not from just the UK but from all over the world – some had travelled all the way from Hong Kong!! The Band would like to congratulate their members for their outstanding commitment towards the trip. They were all told the amount of hard work that would be needed before they even set off to Glasgow, rehearsing long hours to get the music to a high standard, but the members all rose to the occasion.

Not only did they work all Saturday they woke up at 7:00 Sunday morning and made the long journey straight back to Halifax ready to lead the St Georges Parade as they have done for many years. Bandmaster Allan Hainsworth said ‘The Band have lead the parade for a number of years now and it would be wrong to turn around and say no, but it would have also have been wrong to not offer this great opportunity for the kids so luckily we’ve managed to do both’.

It’s been a great experience for everybody, not just the young people involved, but for the Officers who too have put in lots of hard work to get things organised behind the scenes. With out people who are willing to give up their free time there would be no BB or no GB and that would be a shame. Thankfully there are a great number of people through out not only the country but the world that give their time freely and ask for nothing in return.

The next challenge the band has in front of them is to have its 2009 show titles ‘Thank You for the Music’ ready for the 7th June. Though when you think that the band learned 17 pieces of music in a month, 10 minutes of music should be nothing…