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Kinallen FB Report

Updated 09 February 2010 05:20:12 PM by Simon.

Friday 29th May saw Kinallen hold their annual parade in Dromore.

This parade is always been well supported with a good array of bands from the Blood & Thunder, Melody and Accordion genres and this year was exactly the same.

When arriving in the Square I had expected there to be a bigger crowd out to watch the parade than there was, maybe with the excellent night’s weather some people decided to stay in the garden rather than head to Dromore. However there was still a large crowd lining the Square and other parts of the parade route.

Before I met up with the rest of the band I got to see a few bands coming through the Square. Ballynahinch Protestant Boys bass drum was sounding immense as they passed me. Their drum corps and flutes were also sounding sharp, I heard the next day that they had got third Blood & Thunder which was well deserved.

Other bands whose bass drums were sounding well included Lambeg Orange & Blue and Aghalee Young Volunteers. Even after they had passed me you could still hear the bass drum from a few hundred yards away.

One thing that I did notice at the start of the parade was the number of Accordion bands who were out supporting the parade which was good to see. William Johnston Memorial from Ballykilbeg, Co. Down are a band who I hadn’t seen much of until this year and they have been to quite a few parades in the past few weeks that we’ve been at. Legananny Accordion were also out with a large turnout of accordions similar to the previous week in Banbridge for the Corbet.

At around 9.30 it was time for us to move off. It was another good turnout from the band with 7 in the colour party, 2 drum majors, 16 drummers, 2 bass drummers and 33 flutes out. Like Clough the previous week, I decided to move to the back row of drummers so that I was more central to the whole band. Again I thought that it helped as I could hear the flutes and bass drum better in single time which helped steady the pace.

There was also some good feedback from the flutes nearer the back of the band that it helped them as well during single time, so we agreed that it would become a more permanent arrangement for nights when we have a bigger band out.

Coming into the Square we played Silver Hill then Royal Flush, with Royal Flush in particular sounding well with the fluting power complementing the drummers.

On the quieter part of the route we got the chance to go over one of our new tunes which we’ve been learning as well as some older tunes. We played Davy Sprocket down the narrow street before coming onto the Square which I thought was excellent, with the narrow street and high buildings making the sound of the band echo as were we playing.

The bass drum was also rocking from start to finish, especially in the Square and this was picked up on by the judges as we won the Bass Drum trophy.

After finishing on Rathfriland Town, I talked to a few other members and we all thought that it was another good night for the band pace wise as well as volume and the balance between all three main sections.

Although I didn’t get to hear the results as they were called out, I was told afterwards that we picked up Bass Drum and Style and Appearance. Results from the other categories included Clogher winning Colour Party, East Belfast winning Marching & Discipline, Kilcluney picking up Lead Drummer and Drum Corps and Drumderg taking home Blood & Thunder.