Helensburgh & District Highland Association

                                  Monthly Dance Friday 26th May            

 

Friday, 26^th May was a gloriously sunny day. It was also the start of the May Bank Holiday weekend. The combination of the two, unfortunately proved to be disastrous for the attendance at the May dance. Only forty five members and three non-members turned up to hear the music of the Ewan Galloway Scottish Dance Band, held, as usual, in the Osprey room of the Vintage Inn Commodore Hotel. Nevertheless, it proved to be a real treat, as the band of Kyle Innes, (drums), Bill Ewan (keyboard) and leader Ewan Galloway (accordion), showed that they are one of the best bands in the country dance scene. All three are Fifers from the Glenrothes / Auchtermuchty area, which area is a stonghold of Scottish music.

 

 

President John Johnston opened proceedings by welcoming all the dancers and introducing the above mentioned various members of the band. The first half passed very quickly, as usual, and was followed by tea, coffee, biscuits and the drawing of the raffle, which raised the fair sum of £150.

 

 

 

After the interval, the business of the Annual General meeting was carried out, where a new committee was duly elected. The constitution of the committee will be printed on the the 2017/18 Syllabus cards. It was also decided that the annual membership fees will remain at £5.00. The fees are now due and should be paid within the next two months.

 

Due to the business of the AGM, the second half of the dance started slightly later than scheduled and finished with a vote of thanks to everyone who had contributed to make the evening a success. 

 

The next function will be a dance on 30^th June, when the band will be the  

  Liam Stewart Scottish Dance Band Trio. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

              Monthly Function Friday 28th April 2017            

Charity Presentations to Good Causes

 

  

 Helensburgh & District Highland Association organises Ceilidh Dance Functions on the last Friday of the month throughout the year.

The association contributes profits made to local good causes on an annual basis and this year the four recipients were:

Befrienders Association, Helensburgh: £300

Parklands School, Helensburgh: £400

Burnside Family Children’s Unit, Balloch, £400

East African Famine Appeal (via the Red Cross): £300

The cheques were presented to representatives from the Good Causes at our function held on the 28th April 2017, 

within The Osprey Suite of the Commodore Vintage Inn, Helensburgh.

The Highland Association has recently celebrated its 110th Anniversary and continues to promote a spirit of welcome and friendship, originally bringing together Folk from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, but in modern times extending a warm welcome to all.

A donation of profits made, (which can regularly be as much as £2000) has been made annually for many years now, and is generally aimed at local good causes.  

For anyone interested, information about the Association, including future functions, etc

can be found on our website here.......

    

 

The April dance, held in the Osprey room of the Vintage Inn Commodore  Hotel, unfortunately coincided with the Bank Holiday weekend and resulted in a very poor attendance of forty five members and nine non-members. Nevertheless, the evening was very enjoyable and the dancers had lots of room to strut their stuff, to the music of the Ross MacPherson Scottish Dance Band. 

 

President John Johnstone opened proceedings by welcoming all the dancers  and introducing the various members of the band. The first half passed very quickly, as usual, and was followed by tea, coffee, biscuits and the drawing of the raffle, which raised the remarkable sum of £189.

 

The main business of the evening was the presentation of donations to the various local beneficiaries, as shown above..

May we point out that the donation to the Famine Appeal is a one-off.  The committee felt that the humanitarian situation in East Africa  was so drastic that  they could not simply stand by and spectate.

 

The second half of the dance started slightly later than scheduled but was but was every bit as enjoyable as the first half. The evening finished with votes of thanks to everyone who had in any way helped to make the evening a success.

 

The next function will be a Dance and Annual General Meeting on 26^th May, when the band will be the Ewan Galloway Scottish Dance Band. 

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        MARCH  2017  DANCE

110^th Anniversary  Celebration. 

 

      March 31^st 2017 was a very special evening for the Helensburgh and District Highland Association.  Eighty three members and guests gathered together in the Osprey Room of the Commodore Hotel  to celebrate the 110^th anniversary of the founding of the Association. It proved to be a most enjoyable affair, due in no small measure, to the wonderful music of the Lomond Ceilidh Dance  Band. 

 

 Dance Band. Accordionist maestro, Allan Small, led the Shetland fiddler Gemma Donald and drummer Kyle Innes, through a varied selection of slow, fast and “ off the wall” tunes. They introduced an alternative version of most first round tunes, i.e. a faster or continental version  of the tunes during the second round of dancing. It made a waltz a bit tricky but was hugely enjoyable. They've been invited back !!!!!!

 

       The interval arrived all too soon. During this break, guests were treated to a generous 

 portion of birthday cake and tea or coffee ( and all ‘FREE’). The raffle ( which raised   £228),  was also drawn at this point.

 

       The second half was a “repeat treat” and passed very quickly.  It should be noted that  the evening  was enriched by the presence of 22 non-members all of whom were experienced dancers and keen to be on the floor.  A big “thank you “ to all of them !!.  The evening was then closed by President John Johnstone who thanked everyone who  had contributed to the success of the evening.

 

        The next function will be a dance on Friday 28^th April when the band will be the Ron McPherson Scottish Dance band.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Next Month......... 

DANCE PROGRAMME - Friday 28^th April 2017

Tonight's band   -  Ross McPherson S.D.B.

 

WELCOME  by President John Johnston

 

Gay Gordon

Lomond Waltz

Canadian Barn Dance

Posties Jig

New Killarney Waltz

Break away Blues

White Heather Foxtrot

Petronella

St. Bernard's Waltz

Edinburgh Mixture 

 

Interval  &  RAFFLE

Charity Presentations

Tea & Coffee available  £1

 

Gay Gordon Two Step

Saunter Together

Quick Step

Duke of Perth

Square Tango

Britannia Two Step

Ruby Waltz

 Shifting Bobbins

Waltz Catherine

Pride of Erin Waltz

Last Waltz

Auld Lang Syne 

 

Extras if time permits; Silver Wedding Waltz, Edinburgh Mixture

Ceilidh Dance Friday 24th February 2017 

 

On a rather wintry evening, the first Ceilidh of 2017 took place in the Osprey suite of the Commodore hotel. A rather poor attendance of sixty nine dancers ignored the weather and enjoyed an evening which surpassed expectations.

 

The evening opened with a stirring pipe selection by Bruce Shearlaw. Bruce informed us that this was his first piping evening since last year. It was certainly worth the wait. Bruce was followed by two popular dances where the music was provided by the ever popular Stuart McKeown.

 

Next up were the Deans Sisters, Emma and Rachel, who royally entertained the dancers with a lovely selection of Gaelic songs. The sisters are well known in Gaelic circles as they are gold medal Mod singers. They certainly demonstrated why and showed their versatility by performing their solo and duet songs beautifully.

 

More dances and songs made up the first part of the evening and the interval arrived on schedule. The raffle was drawn during this interval and the impressive total £207 was raised. The money of course, will be distributed to charity soon.

 

The second half of the evening followed the format of the first half with Bruce, Emma, Rachel and Stuart once again performing brilliantly. The evening passed all too quickly and it was soon time for President John Johnstone to round off the evening with votes of thanks to all who had contributed to the success of the years first Ceilidh.

 

The next event will be our monthly dance, on Friday 31st March at 8.00 pm, when the band will be the talented Lomond Ceilidh Band.

 

Guidheam slainte ghnath bhl mar ribh  ..... Let me wish health always to be with you.

 

(Please excuse the lateness of this report. It was due to the ill health of the author...... He should have got his flu jag!!!!)