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NEWS Ballylesson Old Boys parade report and video clipsUpdated 09 February 2010 05:21:22 PM by Simon. Last Saturday night the band travelled to Dunmurray for the Annual parade of Ballylesson Old Boys.Again I had hoped that the good weather from the day would carry over until we had paraded. Arriving early I got the chance to watch a few bands take off from the starting point. It was the first time I got to see Benagh's new uniform on parade and must admit that it looks better than I expected with the whole band together. It looks to have given the band a big lift as well. Another uniform that I had yet to see up close even though it has been out for a while now was Ulster Grenadiers Carrickfergus. I was never sure how the white would look on a whole band, but again once I got the chance to see it up close I was thought it looked very well. My only reservation would be trying to keep it clean! I got to watch them play a tune at the starting point and thought their drumming was very clean and suited the fluting style. After near an hour of waiting, our own bus arrived. Unfortunately by this time the rain had started which was just our luck considering I had stood for over an hour while it was dry! Just as we were ready to move off, one of our drums bust which meant a frantic search to try and borrow one from another band. Luckily enough a member of Downshire was on hand to lend us their's for the night. Although the numbers were down slightly, we still had a good turnout with 6 in the colour party, 2 drum majors, 14 drummers, 2 bass drummers and 28 flutes. I had feared that not being out for a week since Benagh week might've meant that we lost some momentum and although I felt that the fluting wasn't as strong as previous parades, the band as a whole was happy with the performance. Our new tune "Sylvia's Mother" got another practice on the quieter part of the parade and I thought that it went well apart from a few mistakes. Coming into the finish we played Air Force Blue and then to everyone's surprise, the bandmaster called Sylvia's Mother as our final tune. I've always thought that the best way to practice a tune is out on the road in front of the crowds and was confident that we were ready to play it. Again a few mistakes here and there but overall I thought it went well and will hopefully get more of an airing in the coming weeks. Before I headed back to the car I watched Portadown Defenders coming into finish. I was very impressed with their tight performance at our own concert and I thought the same again on Saturday night. They were playing a new tune "Fourstep Battalion" which has a great finish where the drummers play lightly and then build it up for the final line. I think that they can only get stronger as the year progresses. It was another good night for ourselves on the trophy front with us picking up Junior Drum Major, Drum Corps and Blood & Thunder. The other results I heard were Clogher winning Colour Party and Pride of Ballinran winning the majority of the Melody awards and Best Overall. This weekend the band has three parades, with Skeogh in Dromore on Friday night and Sons of Ulsterm Shankill and Craigavon Protestant Boys in Lurgan on Saturday night. Below are some videos from the parade.
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