Centennial Celebrations

 

Country & Variety Music

 

The Hāwera Country & Variety Music Club has been fostering live country and variety music for over 30 years. Open to all, the club meets twice a month at the Highland Pipe Band Hall, giving anyone who comes along the chance to sing with a live band or simply listen and enjoy the music. “We get around 70 or more people most nights. Anyone can take the mic and there’s a real variety—from pure country to rock’n’roll, to harp music and even poetry and monologues. At $5 for members and $7 for non-members it’s a pretty cheap night,” said Terry Fell, Musical Director. “It’s like a walk-up concert. People put their names on the board to sing. They give us the chord charts for their songs, and the live band accompanies them. We even run to backing vocals if they want.”

Bass Drummer

Alistair Parry (JP) is the Bands President and our Bass Drummer.  He has to be strong as he carries the largest band instrument.  With his playing he must keep steady time to maintain the tunes correct rhythm.  His playing is the the tunes heart beat that gives it stability and we have come to rely on his rock-solid internal tempo clock.

Reid Maxwell

The Hawera Highland Pipe Band were very fortunate to have Reid Maxwell visit for an evening tutoring session with our drummers.  Reid is the Lead Drummer with the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band in British Columbia, Canada and is one of today's most decorated drummers.

Tuning The Pipes

Robbie and Len put a lot of effort into the band sounding just right and making sure that band member to have their pipes in good working order 

ANZAC Parades

You have to tough to attend ANZA dawn parades to Taranaki.  It is always very cold at that time of the year and pitch black when we meet to tune up outside of the old Hawera Post Office 

Christmas Parades

Christmas is a busy time for pipe bands.  The Hawera Pipe Bands always join forces with Eltham and Stratford Bands to lead the Christmas parades through all of the main towns in South Taranaki. Here we are at Patea