Day 72
Leith Community Concert Band
The Leith Community Concert Band was founded in 1986 by the Director of Music, Fred Frayling-Kelly, (Fred) his assistant, Bill Blackwood and some friends. It was established as a concert and marching Band with the aim of serving its home town and the surrounding area. There were 5 players with Fred at the first rehearsal and about 4 weeks later 20 players gave the band’s first ever concert as part of Portobello’s “Fringe at the Seaside”
A number of players joined over the next few months – some recruiting themselves and some being encouraged(!) by Fred and other members. A summer of Gala Days and its first Leith Festival Pageant took the Band into 1987, another highlight being the Norwegian Constitution Day Parade, which became an annual event for the band.
1988 gave the Band a huge boost, with ten weekend engagements at the Glasgow Garden Festival. This involved doing a parade and 4 concerts on each of the ten days! The following year saw the Band appearing in the Edinburgh Festival Cavalcade for the first time. It became another of the Band’s annual gigs.
1990 was another busy year, and plans were being made for a visit to Hochsauerland in 1991 as a fifth birthday “treat”. Prior to the trip the Band made a BBC Overseas Service broadcast with the Choir of St. Margaret’s School for Girls in connection with the “Green Pennants Award” Commonwealth scheme.
In Germany LCCB gave 23 marching and concert performances in 8 days, featuring the Marching Band, Concert Band, a Big Band, a Bavarian Band and the Ceilidh Band. The tour was a great success, and gave the Band a taste for travel. On its return the Band was asked to launch the “Keep Our Scottish Battalions” Campaign. One memorable Sunday morning saw the Pipes and Drums of Heriot’s and Watson’s plus LCCB leading the Parade from St. Andrew’s House to Waverley Station to dispatch a Petition to London, the first and probably only occasion when LCCB paraded with 5 Generals bearing a banner marching behind them. This was a stirring and moving occasion.
A few months later the Band was invited to take part in the Armistice ceremonies at the Menin Gate in Ypres, the first visit by a Scottish civilian Band. We just had time to change into uniform and play over a couple of tunes before marching through roadworks and reduced lighting to the Menin Gate. However, our appearance was warmly welcomed with applause and our playing before the Last Post Ceremony proper was well received. The band attended this ceremony many times over the years.
The Band’s year ended with the Euro Summit, which found LCCB the lone military style band among a large number of Pipes and Drums taking part in the KOSB Campaign’s protest Rally in the Gardens. We were interested in the response of the Veterans present. We had been aware that as we hit the gravel of St.Cuthbert’s the noise of marching feet seemed disproportionate to the smallish Band. When the Fred halted the Band and turned round to conduct to the end of the march he saw the answer: around 200 veterans had literally voted with their feet and opted to follow LCCB’s rendition of “Colonel Bogey.”
Led by Fred’s tireless work, the band built up an extensive list of engagements, and many volumes of music! We played for one off events, such as parties and anniversaries, but gala day marches in many parts of Edinburgh and the Lothians, Christmas lighting up ceremonies and accompanying carol singing were amongst our main engagements.
The highlight of our summer for many years was leading the parade at the Leith Gala, then playing at the Links and later in the week, being involved with the Festival Service and Concert.
One of our last foreign trips was to the First Ypres Military Tattoo in September 2014.
Sadly, Fred died in 2015. The band continued to play under the leadership of Tommy Carr, attending marches and events as before, but in 2017 we took the decision to close down. There are so many good memories of Drum Major Bill Mein leading the band and Fred Frayling-Kelly to enjoy.
A huge thanks to Bill Blackwood for providing the text and images for today’s post.
Please do comment below with any memories you have of seeing or playing with the Leith Community Concert Band!