Connecting during the Corona crisis – Mactaggart Scott Loanhead Band

In our continuing series on how Scottish bands are staying connected during the Coronavirus pandemic, it’s the turn of Mactaggart Scott Loanhead Band to be featured:

Brass bands have had a long history in Loanhead, and the surrounding Midlothian district. Before the First World War, the local band was the Polton Mills Band, a highly successful group of musicians who won the Scottish Championship title in 1904. However, the band disbanded, probably during the 1914-18 War.

Sometime thereafter, the Loanhead Ex-Service and Burgh Band was formed. This time the Second World War intervened and the instruments were stowed away under the platform in Loanhead Town Hall.

It was in 1943 that a concert party from the local engineering works, MacTaggart Scott & Company, were rehearsing in the town hall when they came across the stored instruments and approached the town council with a view to forming a ‘works band’. The present band was born and known for many years as MacTaggart Scott Works Band.

Even now, we rehearse in our own band hall within the Mactaggart factory and are actively involved in the social and cultural activities in Loanhead.

We have a thriving youth section in Loanhead Brass Roots which was formed in 2001 under the direction of Alan Fernie. This fantastic organisation has expanded over the years to include a Youth Band, Roots Band and Beginners Group, winning numerous awards at all levels in the Scottish Youth Championships and elsewhere.

For further information about the Band see our Facebook page, or our Website www.loanheadbrass.org.uk

• Let us know about your band. Tell us about some of your successes, when you were founded, where and when you rehearse (when things are back to normal), and how your members are coping during the Coronavirus emergency situation.

Just send a couple of photos and a short write-up to Nigel Martin at sbbapr@gmail.com

•• Cover photograph by courtesy of Lee Live: Photographer