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In the beginning Bob Martin era Tom Brown Evolution New Leaders Keeping It There Pipe Band Factory |
September 1973 saw the band appear at their debut contest where they won the grade 4 event. It is worth noting that the band had to obtain permission from the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association to compete in civilian dress that day due to lack of uniforms. Despite the lack of any competition experience the band managed to win the Grade 4 contest on that very first outing - a sign of things to come perhaps? The following season the band won the grade 4 Champion of Champions title and were subsequently upgraded to grade 3. Owing to the influx of youngsters during the winter of 1976-77 it was decided to form a Novice Juvenile band. For both bands that 1977 season was extremely successful with the senior band gaining promotion to grade 2 and the Novice band winning the Champion of Champions title in their first year and with it promotion to the Juvenile grade. Incidentally, the average age of the senior band that year with the exception of four players was 13! At the end of that season Bob Martin invited Tom Brown, a drummer with the famous Shotts & Dykehead pipe band, to take full control of the drum corps after supplying the band with talented young drummers for a number of years. As we are now aware, this started a famed drumming legacy soon to become known throughout the pipe band world. 1978 and 1979 saw the band became grade 2 Champion of Champions in both years, finally seeing the band promoted to the Grade 1 for the 1980 season, only 8 years since the band‘s inception. On promotion to grade one the band made an immediate impact, achieving 4th place at the World Championships that year and also 2nd place at the European Championships at Shotts. Success continued for the band during these early years in Grade 1, winning the British in 1982 and also finishing runners-up to Strathclyde police at the World Championship in Glenrothes, missing the top prize by only ½ point. Boghall‘s most successful year in those early days came in 1986 when they won both the Scottish at Stranraer and the British at Birmingham, finishing runners-up in the Champion of Champions table by two points to Strathclyde. |