'Lost for words': Band blown away by response after playing outside Buckingham Palace gates
The vice-chairman of Pride of Lagan Valley Flute Band says band members are still “lost for words” after playing outside the gates of Buckingham Palace in London.
The band were on parade, accompanied by Fivemiletown Mitchelburne Club Apprentice Boys, at the Lord Carson Memorial Parade in London on Saturday.
Representing Pride of Lagan Valley Flute Band were a six-person colour party, one drum major, 14 drummers, four bass drummers, one cymbal player and 22 fluters.
Aaron Sills, who is vice-chairman of Pride of Lagan Valley, says members were stopped for photographs, as well as being asked questions about the band and the occasion by people from all over the world.
“We are all lost for words after the weekend and it’ll take a few days to get over it,” he told the News Letter.
"The whole parade went so well and the crowds we played in front of and the support we received both in London and online has been mindblowing.
"Our net following on our Facebook account has risen 400% and one of our videos playing ‘Killaloe’ outside Buckingham Palace has over 110,000 views.
"When we were playing ‘Killaloe’ I was shaking with the amount of people who were watching. We were spoken to by people from the likes of Barbados, Canada, America, Poland and Germany...worldwide really and they really wanted to know about us and the parade.
"It was a pleasure for the band to be a part of something like this and we haven't had time to process it all, to be honest.”
Attending a parade of this magnitude doesn’t happen by chance and Aaron opened up on the logistics of it all.
He explained: “We’ve been invited for the last six or seven years but we now have a new committee voted in and decided to attend.
"Transporting our equipment like drums is a logistical nightmare but thankfully we were able to avail of funding through the Northern Ireland Arts Council and The National Lottery, which put that burden off our shoulders.
"Everything went to plan and there were no hiccups at all and a big credit must go to the London Somme Association.
"Most of us flew over but we had three members travel on the boat to bring over equipment and uniforms in the van, so it was a total team effort.”