The mid to late 1970’s was a heyday for Highland Games in Ontario. Every town seemed to have had a Highland Games that included a juried competition with prize money for first, second and third place bands.
I competed all across Ontario and into Michigan with the Toronto Scots and later with a couple of other bands. The skill level was extremely high, in fact Canadian bands of this era placed well at competitions in Scotland with one even becoming World Champion.
Quite a few of the “treasures” I have to write about are related to participating in these competitions. The one I’ve included here is a picture of the Toronto Scottish Competition band. I’m next to the lead drummer with the red sash.
Playing with a military band had one very key benefit – we didn’t need to fund uniforms and equipment.
We didn’t get paid for wearing the uniform – competitions were a voluntary thing. We did need to to adhere to military levels of dress and deportment though. I like to think that any wear and tear on the equipment was money well spent as we played the role of ambassadors at competitions all over Ontario and parts of the US.
Juried competitions always involved prize monies and paid travel expenses to compensate for travel costs. We were all compensated for travel costs but the professional sponsored bands typically split any prize moneys won.
This gave us an amazing source of entertainment funds which fueled many a good party.
Camping, Fireside concerts, Caleigh’s (Google it) and general craziness were the norm. The parties were legendary as were the excesses.
I honestly think that some of us were lucky to escape intact. Oh the stories I have. Believe it or not we even had groupies that followed the bands. As to hook-ups and other like relationships- well it was the 70’s lets leave it at that.
Speaking of stories, you now have some more context, so on to the good stuff. As I said earlier, from this point on it gets kind of random.
Enjoy