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In the early months of 1975 under the guidance of Jimmy
McCarroll, some lads from Galgorm and the surrounding area decided to
start a flute band.
As with most ideas of this sort, finance would be the main obstacle, so
they set about raising the money by various different methods.
On the 18th and 26th of July, door to door collections were taken up. Also
during that month someone thought of a novel way of making money. A jar of
sweets was purchased at the huge outlay of ninety pence. This was taken
door to door and funds were raised by people paying to guess at the number
of sweets in the jar. The result of these efforts was a grand total of
forty-three pounds and ninety-two pence. This was the start of the new
bands uniform and instrument fund.
By September the band had sufficient funds to buy their first instruments,
these were four side drums, bass drum and thirty flutes at a total cost of
£335.15, barely the price of one side drum at today prices.
A uniform of black trousers, white shirts, red tie and blue jumpers was to
be the first worn by the band. In those days of course the trousers had to
be worn just below the knee and D.M. boots were standard issue. In April
"76", 36 Balmoral hats were bought to complement the above and in June of
that year they held their dedication parade. Little did these founder
members realise that they had just started what would become one of the
best known bands in N. lreland and Scotland, "Pride of the Maine Flute
Band".
Things changed fast in the early days. Parts of the uniforms were added
and removed. At first the actual vocal noise of the band was more
distinguishable than
the actual instruments sounds, but as with the uniforms this changed
quickly and the emphasis was turned more towards the musical qualifies
that could be achieved. Don't get me wrong, volume and noise both remained
very important, the main difference being that the fluters saved more of
their breath for playing rather than shouting.
In 1977 a major change in uniform took place which has left its influence
on the band right up to the present day. The basic black trousers and blue
jumpers were discarded to take on a more individual look. Blue trousers
were made to order in a colour shade picked by the members themselves. Sky
Blue shirts and ties were acquired to match the trousers The following
year a crest was designed and added to the shirt. Those in band circles
will know that this is the colour and basis of what they have worn right
up until the present day.
The band at it's offset was really the only band of it's kind in the
Ballymena Area. It was therefore well supported by the local youth.
Membership was never allowed to go above sixty as this seemed like a
manageable number and for this reason there usually was a waiting list to
join.
The problem of too many members does not exist today, as there is a number
of outfits recruiting from the same area as P.O.T.M. In fact several flute
bands in Ballymena and the surrounding district have come and gone since
the band has formed, probably for this same reason.
At the beginning of the marching season the band changed their uniform
again. As has already been said the colour remained the same but jackets
and hats were added. The band was the first to take this step and it
certainly changed their image significantly.
Through the years the band attended many parades throughout Ulster and
Scotland, the total must be getting near the region of 1 500 since the
bands formation. They have paraded in all the big occasions since 1976,
Derry Day, Black Saturday, Scarva Sham Fight, The Tercentenary Parade, The
Mini Twelfth, and of course The Twelfth of July Celebrations. They have a
long standing contract with Galgorm and Galgorm Parks Telford Memorial
1109 Black Preceptory for the last Saturday in August Parade. Up until a
few years ago the band paraded in the Belfast Demonstration with the
Beersbridge Road Bible and Crown Defenders L.O.L. 891. The band has never
paraded with a local lodge on the 12th due to the fact that when they
started off the local district thought that they had a bad image and would
spoil their parade. I think now that they have seen what a big mistake
they have made but it would take an awful lot of persuasion to bring them
back. It was
 in
Belfast in 1989 that the band had one of its biggest competition successes
when they were judged to be "Best Overall Band" on parade and in 1983 the
band had yet another success when they were judged to be the 'Best
Traditional Band " in the parade. In 1997 the band decided to move from
the Belfast district to Portadown. There they took up a contract with
Erin's Royal Standard L.O.L. 20. In their first year there they took part
in the parade in Armagh. Unfortunately due to the Government bowing down
to Republicans the men of Portadown District were prevented from returning
from the annual Drumcree church service by the traditional route. The
district made the decision to stay on the hill instead of going to the
parade in Lurgan. This meant that we were not required on the 12th. To
show our support we spent the day at Drumcree as we have done many times
since. From 1980 the band travelled to Glasgow for the Scottish "Orange
Walk" demonstration here they had along term affiliation with Kinning Park
Purple Heroes L.O.L 353. Although many a good weekend was spent there and
the Glasgow walk has an atmosphere all of its own in 1994 the band decided
after a lot of thought and debate often heated that it was time to move
on. They moved up to the east-coast and took up a contract with East Fife
Protestant Defenders L.O.L. 240 where they remain to this day.
The instruments used by the band over the years have changed greatly the
flute section have moved from one key Millar Browne flutes, to the three
piece five key version and nowadays they use a six key Millar Wicke copy
of the old Crown AZ. The drummers likewise have changed from Clansman to
Premier to the most up to date Andante percussion instruments. The whole
band scene has changed so much over the years that most of these changes
had to be made to keep ahead of Bands that started up as "Kick The Pope
"bands have moved forward and are a lot more involved in the competition
scene. Nearly every parade today is a competition and in this area the
band has had its fair share of success. The most memorable of these being
thirteen first prizes in one day. The present members, like most of the
past although keen enough for success in competition terms see enjoyment
and self satisfaction in their own playing ability and furthering Ulster’s
cause as their prime aim. They strive to please the public ear rather than
simply to impress the judges.
One long serving member of the band was asked “How many members did he
think had been through the ranks of the band since its formation?” He got
greyer by the minute as he thought of the answer. The figure is well into
its hundreds with a number of present members being holders of a tankard
for ten years unbroken service. He said the crack had been good, and that
he had seen a lot of the country. You have to remember that twenty five
years ago the only way to get outside your home town on a regular basis
was to join a band. Something that has changed now and I think has
affected bands on a whole. He had been in a great variety of places and
had done an even bigger variety of thing's. The membership today, although
a lot smaller is still of the same high standard as ever. It would be easy
enough to put men on the road who were not ready, just to have a large
band that looks well. We pride ourselves on every man knowing the tunes
before he does a parade.
Around 1990 the band felt that a new uniform was required because of our
original blue, it was some what difficult to make any dramatic change so
for the first time black was introduced. To many this would not seem like
a major step but to the band it was the first step towards a more dramatic
change. This came in 1994 with new younger members joining and other bands
coming up with different styles. The older members knew in order to stay
ahead they would have to accept change. The first was the tunic, the band
had always worn shirts and ties but this was becoming a thing of the past
so a button up tunic was introduced. A lot of bands at the time had moved
to tartan trousers, some of which looked very well, others were a bit hard
on the eyes. As usual we wanted something a bit different, so we found a
tartan that we liked and had it dyed our blue. This is now called the
"Pride of the Maine” tartan and is exclusive to the band. Hats were a
problem too, we had tried every hat under the sun and were never able to
get anything we were entirely happy with. No other flute band in recent
years had worn the Glenngarry, which was more akin to accordion bands.
Usually in black, these were dyed our colour and completed the uniform. We
had to take a lot of stick about these, but this was more to the fact that
nobody else had the innovation to try something new and different.
Some of the new members will be experiencing their first annual parade,
something they won’t forget. It has been estimated that up to 15,000
people have lined the streets of Ballymena to watch it. There has been up
to 90 bands attending with regular attendance of Scottish outfits and on a
few occasions a band from the South. The parade has always been well run
and trouble free and is one of the most popular parades in the country for
participants and spectators alike. This I might add is with the exception
of 1997 when the R.U.C used the excuse of the legitimate protest at
Harryville chapel to swamp the town with police and D.M.S.U units. This
led to the intimidation of bands and spectators in ways such as having
Land Rovers at the front and back of the parade. Videoing bands leaving
the starting point and a totally unnecessary police presence in the town.
This caused a very bad atmosphere of which eventually erupted into
violence. This of coarse was just what the D.M.S.U. thugs wanted and they
went about their usual business of " Prod Bashing ". Anyone who thinks
these people are on the side of Protestantism should wake up and smell the
roses.
On that night, innocent men, women and children were
batoned, had plastic bullets fired at them and Land Rovers driven at speed
into the crowds. No regard was given to age or gender everyone was a
target. Two young girls were set upon by them in the darkness of the
playing fields, windows on some of the buses were smashed by them and
bandsmen batoned as they tried to get on their buses some had to jump on
to other buses to escape. Our local M. P. and a number of the committee
made complaints, and an investigation was launched, which of course the
RUC investigated themselves. The result of which was that the RUC were
totally justified in their actions, where's the justice in that. The
policing was reduced to a normal level next year and ‘surprise surprise’
there was no trouble.
The band hopes to support the cause Protestantism and would like to wish
all bands all over the province courage and strength to do this now and in
the future. |
