All of Ayrshire’s top brass will be out for Joan
The massed brass bands of Ayrshire are coming together for a third time to keep the memory of a special lady alive.
And proceeds from the 2019 Joan Price Memorial Concert this Saturday ( September 7) will go this year to Irvine and Troon Cancer Care.
The concert features Dunaskin Doon Band; Irvine and Dreghorn Brass Band and Kilmarnock Concert Brass – who will provide an evening of music and entertainment, with every penny raised going to charity.
Irvine & Troon Cancer Care is a voluntary organisation which offers support to those facing the problems of cancer by providing a patient transport service and information.
The charity provides a team of volunteer drivers who use their own vehicles to transport patients to hospitals and clinics in Glasgow, Clydebank and Edinburgh.
Patients are collected at their homes, accompanied to their appointment and returned home after treatment. Last year the charity transported 1822 patients over 86,000 miles!
Troon woman Joan Price had a long and illustrious career in brass banding, beginning aged 11 when she first picked up trombone at Kilmarnock Academy.
She was killed by boy racers on the A77 near Holmston in January 2017, as she travelled home from a Dunaskin band rehearsal.
In September 2017, the Joan Price Memorial Concert was organised as a one- off event to pay tribute to Joan and raise some money for Brake, the road safety charity. The evening was a huge success and before the audience had even begun to leave the auditorium, there were calls for the event to be repeated.
Dunaskin Doon secretary Fiona Waddington said: “We are honoured to continue to organise and run this event in collaboration with the Price family and our banding friends at Kilmarnock Concert Brass and Irvine and Dreghorn Brass Band. Joan was a warm, generous and caring person with a heart of gold. It feels like a very fitting legacy to Joan – an annual musical extravaganza raising money for small, Ayrshire- based charities.
“We are delighted to have raised just shy of £ 6000 so far in her name - money that is being spent right here, in the community where Joan lived and worked.”
Ricardo Varani from the Forum Café in Kilmarnock is donating ice cream for the interval.
JJL Groundworks in Dalrymple, McTaggart’s Builders in Dalmellington, Corsehill Dental Care in Stewarton, and Hamilton Tarmac in Kilmarnock all back the event through programme advertising. The show is at Kyle Academy in Overmills Road in Ayr - poignantly the nearest school to the spot Joan was killed. Doors open at 6.30pm, with baton down at 7pm shapr. Tickets are priced at just £ 8 and £ 6 for the young and old. They are available from secretary@ ddband. co. uk, texting 07884 008040 or at the door on the night.