SFU gets ready for Glasgow show

Ticket sales are reportedly strong and another sell-out is anticipated for this year’s Pre-World’s Concert in Glasgow, featuring the six-time World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band.

“Nous Sommes Prets” will be the first major concert for Pipe-Major Alan Bevan, who took over the top-spot after the 2013 season, replacing the iconic Pipe-Major Terry Lee, who had led the band since 1980. The title of the concert is the French motto of Clan Fraser, meaning “we are ready.”

“The band has been working very hard over the past two years to put together a great concert,” Bevan said. “We’ll be featuring some vintage SFU material, some fresh twists on classic tunes, as well as some new and exciting music. While the sets we are playing will feature innovative and interesting arrangements, in developing them we have taken considerable care to start with great tunes that the band loves to play. We think the result will be a night of great music played with passion.”

The concert will mark the band’s first return to the Glasgow show since its sold-out 2009 “Affirmation” show.

The Pre-World’s Concert is thought by many to auger well for the performing band when it competes two days later at the World Championships. Bands can benefit, at least in the minds of others, by creating extra buzz from a successful show before a packed hall. Those that have outright won the title following the concert include Field Marshal Montgomery (2002, 2007) and St. Laurence O’Toole (2010). The pre-world’s concert tradition started in 1987 when the 78th Fraser Highlanders performed in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, and then went on the capture the title.

“We’re also working very hard for the Worlds, and we feel the band is peaking at just the right time,” Bevan added.

The SFU “Nous Sommes Prets” concert will be staged on Wednesday, August 12th, at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and tickets are available from the venue’s online box office.

The Glasgow concert has been promoted annually by the Grade 2 Glasgow Skye Association Pipe Band since the 1990s.

SFU is hoping to return to the World’s prize-list after finishing seventh in 2014, the first time in 19 years that the band did not feature in the top-six.

“Nous sommes prets” was also the title of an album that the band released in 1985. More than any other Grade 1 band, SFU has performed at major venues around the world, including the Carnegie Hall in New York; Australia’s Sydney Opera House; and the Lincoln Centre, also in New York.