The Joan Price Memorial Concert Saturday 7th September

Joan Price had a long and illustrious career in brass banding, beginning at the tender age of 11 years old when she first picked up trombone at Kilmarnock Academy. Her untimely death in January 2017, as she travelled home from a band rehearsal, left all who knew her devastated and heart broken. In September 2017, the Joan Price Memorial Concert was organised as a one-off event to pay tribute to Joan and raise money for Brake, the road safety charity. The evening was a huge success and before the audience had even begun to leave the auditorium, there were calls for the event to be repeated.

Now in its third year, the popular concert features three Ayrshire-based brass bands with whom Joan was involved over her years as a player – Dunaskin Doon Band, Irvine and Dreghorn Brass Band and Kilmarnock Concert Brass – who will provide a wonderful evening of music and entertainment, with every penny raised going to charity.

Irvine and Troon Cancer Care have been nominated as this year’s beneficiary of any proceeds raised from this year’s concert. This small charity offers support to those facing the problems of cancer by providing a patient transport service and information about locally available services. A team of volunteer drivers use their own vehicles to transport patients to hospitals and clinics in Glasgow, Clydebank, Edinburgh and throughout Ayrshire. Patients are collected at their homes, accompanied to their appointment and returned home after treatment. This service is especially useful for patients who feel unwell, those living in rural areas, the elderly and parents taking their children for treatments. Last year the charity, which gets no NHS or government help, transported 1822 patients to appointments, with those journeys adding up to an incredible 86,000 miles!

A spokeswoman for Dunaskin Doon Band said “We are honoured to continue to organise and run this event in collaboration with the Price family and our local banding friends. Joan was a warm, generous and caring person with a heart of gold. It feels like a very fitting legacy to Joan – an annual musical extravaganza raising money for small, Ayrshire-based charities. We are delighted to have raised just shy of £6000 so far in her name - money that is being spent right here, in the community that Joan loved, lived and worked. We would love to be able to present Irvine and Troon Cancer Care with a generous cheque this year, so it would be fantastic to see lots of support from the wider banding community”

Finishing touches are being put to the upcoming Joan Price Memorial Concert, which is being held in Kyle Academy, Overmills Road, Ayr on Saturday 7th September. Doors open at 6.30pm with baton down at 7pm sharp.

Tickets are priced £8/£6 (under 12s, over 65s) and are available now by contacting any band member directly, emailing secretary@ddband.co.uk, texting 07884 008040 or purchasing at the door on the night