Scottish SA Music Camp

West Linton Music Camps

I was, I guess, rather late on the uptake for participating in music camps, but that didn't stop me from having some great times there.

My first (and last as a 'pupil') music camp was in 1970 and it is fair to say that I didn't really know what to expect. It was certainly very different from the previous music camp I had been at - the Glasgow Schools' 2nd Orchestra in Rothesay. Instead of makeshift "bedrooms" in a school the SA camp was in barrack-like wooden dormitories - which at the time seemed to be extremely large, but on reflection were probably not that big!!

I did have the advantage of knowing the "bandmaster" for the week quite well - it was my Dad! The "A" band was pretty equally split between cornet players and the rest. It include a number of guys from Southport who remain among my 'friends' to this day. Indeed a large number of friendships can be dated to music camps - both SA and Glasgow Schools.

I did have the advantage of knowing the "bandmaster" for the week quite well - it was my Dad! The "A" band was pretty equally split between cornet players and the rest. It include a number of guys from Southport who remain among my 'friends' to this day. Indeed a large number of friendships can be dated to music camps - both SA and Glasgow Schools.

My memories of the first camp are a bit sketchy - I do remember that I had to be treated as a "special case" though. Part of each morning was devoted to music theory and there were a number of different standards of classes that could be taken. For most people you went to Theory I in your first year at camp - Theory II in your second and so on. As I had completed my Music O Level I had already studied everything that was 'normally' done at camp. So - my 'class' for the week was scoring. My "task" (and my test) was to arrange the Camp Song (Gates of the Morning) for the performance at the final festival.

I thought that it was a 'reasonable' attempt and it was duly performed. The only 'amendment' to my score was the addition of a couple of notes at the end for the Bass player. It was both amusing and ever so slightly smugness-inducing that everything went well - apart from the additional notes which the bass player completely messed up!!!

At the end of the festival there was the announcement about who had one "top boy" and "top girl" at the camp - I was a bit surprised to find that I won the "top boy" award. In retrospect the weighting given to the theory aspect will certainly have helped.

In the following three (?) years I returned as an "orderly" - they are called "sergeants" at some camps - basically we were a group of folks who had grown out of the age range for music camp and who were 'called back' to assist the staff. Goodness only knows what current rules on "safe and sound" would have made of the way in which those camps were staffed!! Having said that, I am unaware of anything happening that could be deemed "inappropriate".

This was used as an example of someone who has a fixation about a particular "gospel shot" (for those who don't know what that is in the early army people would shout out a verse or phrase from the Bible - hence a "gospel shot". In our openair we had someone who - repeatedly - used "and the lot fell upon Jonah" at the most inappropriate moments (like immediately after praying for Molly lying in her bed of sickness.... and the lot fell upon Jonah!!!) (you had to be there)

Quite apart from the "fun" aspect - music camps back then - as they are now - are very helpful in the development of young people. A week of intensive practice - musical and spiritual - and getting to know others "of a like mind" was never long enough. As I alluded to above many friends have persisted from that time and the folks from around Glasgow that I met at music camp were very much the basis for the group of friends that I socialised with for much of my later years in Glasgow.