There was plenty of great brass band entertainment to be enjoyed by logging into the West of Scotland Brass Band Association Virtual Entertainment Contest on the weekend.

The innovative initiative saw six contenders really reflect the ethos of the competition — one which wanted to show that bands in the region were not only keeping themselves busy, but were also determined to have a good time in doing so.

Worldwide attractions

It also attracted viewers from across the globe, with over 5,000 hits achieved as people sat back and enjoyed the contributions of Coalburn Silver, Irvine & Dreghorn, Johnstone, Kingdom Brass, Newmilns & Galston and eventual winners, Kinneil, each playing their own choice of a march and a film/TV theme.

The contest, which is still available on the SBBA YouTube channel, opened and closed with performances of 'Singing in the Rain' and 'All that Jazz' by 15 members of a specially-formed West of Scotland Virtual Band.

Steve McGarrett

Kinneil's winning programme saw then open with classic William Rimmer march 'The Cossack' followed by an upbeat rendition of the famous theme tune to the 1970 American television series 'Hawaii 5-0'.

That also featured a special guest appearance from well known Scottish export and former conductor and player Allan Ramsay, who played the musical part of the great Steve 'Book him Dano' McGarrett — riffing on the back of his Ford Mustang in sunny Florida!

Delighted

Organiser Lesley Crumlish was delighted with the success of the event and told the Scottish Brass Band Association website. "Achieving an audience of over 830 views on YouTube and 4,400 on Facebook was really pleasing. It was certainly far more people than we could ever have achieved with an actual live event in the Walker Hall in Troon!"

She added: "We had viewers from all over the world telling us who their favourite bands were and how much they had enjoyed the whole show, but the overall winner was the contest itself and the fact that we had bands that were willing to put in an enormous amount of effort in making the event such a great success.

My thanks to everyone who participated and helped to keep the spirit of the contest alive until next year."

the overall winner was the contest itself and the fact that we had bands that were willing to put in an enormous amount of effort in making the event such a great successLesley Crumlish, WSBBA

Clear winner

In the end Kinneil were the clear winners of the contest with the audience vote, ahead of runner-up Kingdom Brass with Irvine & Dreghorn in third.

Speaking about the enjoyment that they had in supporting the event, Kinneil spokesperson Davie Frame told 4BR: "That was what it was all about.

The West of Scotland Brass Band Association has been very supportive of its member bands during this difficult time and should be congratulated for putting on this initiative.

This was all about having some fun and entertaining a wider audience — and it was so good to see all the bands having a great time doing it."

Special guest

As for that special guest appearance?

Davie laughed: "If you are going to play a piece like 'Hawaii 5-0'then it's a bit difficult given the weather we have in Scotland at this time of the year.

I've known Allan for many years of course so it came as no surprise that he said he would to be a part — although I think he knew we would all be a bit jealous that he was able to play his part without having to wear the usual thermal underwear we have to on outside band jobs at this time of the year!"

Enjoy again

You can still enjoy the performances at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ByXxVLiOQ8