After 2012's renaissance, 2013 was a year of consolidation, which saw the previous year's promise turn into sweet reality, with the Band carrying out a whole range of engagements, from birthday parties to weddings, from civic receptions to parades, from garden parties to processions.

And as we write these lines, the band is preparing its 65th anniversary reunion dance, on 8th November, at the Forum Hall, Wythenshawe, the venue which saw many of the band's annual reunion dances during the seventies and eighties. The dance - a sell-out event! - will be attended by several hundred family members and faithful friends who have stood by the Band through thick and thin over the decades.

In July 2014, after a busy schedule throughout the first half of the year, Pipe Major Bill Lisgo will be taking the Band on its international travels once again, with a short trip over the water to the land of our fathers, to play in a folklore festival in County Donegal. What destination could be more fitting for our first overseas venture of the 21st Century?