Northern Lights Steel Orchestra

DIAMOND JUBILEE

Little Bird — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 20:26:10 +0000

We are in Dunchurch doing a performance/workshop in honour of the Queens Diamond Jubilee. 60 years on the throne! Can you believe it?!? It’s not necessarily a job I would want, but I happen to like what I get to do. There is probably 150 people here and as soon as this set is done we are going to do a workshop to teach the adventurous courageous few a song. Don’t you wish you were here to try it?

HAPPENING NOW!

Little Bird — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 22:58:57 +0000

If your not here you should be. We are playing for the Art in the Park series at the town docks in Huntsville. Last year it was pouring rain and the event got cancelled. This year the weather is perfect. See for yourself.

GRAVENHURST

Little Bird — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:38:41 +0000

Technology has not been my friend of late. First it was the Internet going out, then not being able to get the blog to work. But as you can tell all is fixed.

We had a super busy weekend. A minor/major hiccup caused us to go down to Gravenhurst on Friday to set-up the tent a day before. Good thing they could get the street closed overnight! It threw everybody for a loop since we found out Thursday evening. (All that meticulous planning out the window!) But as expected the guys were ROCKSTARS! They pulled off the extra work without a grumble and it paid off. The next day was AWESOME! The response from everyone in Gravenhurst was amazing; it varied from dumbfounded looks to enthusiastic cheering and dancing. I have a feeling that 95% of the crowd had never seen us before.

PS. The clouds look pretty ominous in the one picture, but it was actually a really nice day.

NO KEARNEY

Little Bird — Tue, 31 Jul 2012 14:42:27 +0000

Ok, so the title kind of says it all. The performance at the Kearney Regatta is cancelled. It really has been a weird summer without Belleville, and now no Dwight or Kearney. This is the kind of response I have gotten from some of you guys about the Dwight Firefest being cancelled.

“Holy Cow! Big Whoop about the fireworks – don’t they realize you are the main attraction?”

So I take it you guys think they should have us perform and forget the fireworks, huh?

MESSAGE RECEIVED – ALL THE LATEST DETAILS

Little Bird — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 17:24:06 +0000

So the complaints about my recent lack of blogging were starting to add up. So I will attempt to give you all the latest details.

It seems like we have been crazy busy this last week. We have had 4 events in 5 days this past week. On Wednesday we were in Sundridge doing a workshop for Almaguin Highlands Community Living and the community kids. We had quite a turn out and the day was perfect. Thursday we had rehearsal and on Friday we were in Bracebridge playing at James St. Place for a Diabetes Association fundraiser BBQ. Saturday we were in the Band Shell at River Mill park in Huntsville. The Band Shell is a movable tent shell. It makes for great sound but it was really hot due to the lack of breeze in it and then on Sunday we were in Emsdale at the Fern Glen Lily Festival. It’s really nice to have rehearsal off tonight. We could use the break.

This crazy hot dry weather has been great in terms of the fact that we don’t have to worry about being rained out of a performance but it is tough playing in the heat. You have to drink or should I say chug water. Think about it even if we are in the shade we are dancing for up to 3 hours on some days. You have to keep hydrated.

As I said the dry has been a benefit to us in some ways but it also means some bad news too. We just found out this morning that the Dwight Lake of Bays FireFest is being cancelled due to the extreme fire restriction that the district of Muskoka is under. We are all very disappointed about this latest news. I understand the risk of fire is too big, but we are really going to miss this event! So far they tell us Kearney is still on but it might be cancelled for the same reasons too. I will keep you posted as I found out more.

GEARING UP

Little Bird — Mon, 28 May 2012 14:48:10 +0000

The last couple of weeks have been busy for us. Not only are we gearing up for summer, we also have been doing a few school workshops. We spent the best part of the other week in Burk’s Falls, teaching the entire school. It was quite involved but well worth it. We ended up teaching 13 classes of 17 students each and then at the end of the whole thing some of the kids got to perform the song they had learned for the school at an assembly.

This week we have a small group at a wedding and next week is our first full orchestra performance of the summer. It is in Newmarket (we have never performed in Newmarket before) for Dundee Investors. It is going to be a little different from normal because it is a private event. Usually when we do private events they are small groups, so this is going to be interesting. Our first performance that is public is going to be on June 16th at the Parry Sound Dragon Boat Festival. Hope to see you there.

RUMOR HAS IT

Little Bird — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:09:00 +0000

Hi everybody. Rumor has it that we are going to have a pretty busy summer. I’m wondering where we are going to be. We did hear that we will not be in Belleville for Canada Day this year, something about MP Daryl Kramp spending the day in other parts of his riding. Which, since it’s him and his party that brings us down to Belleville that means no Belleville for us. I wonder what their celebration will be like without us? If you go to the Belleville Canada Day celebration let me know what it is like and what people say. I wonder where we will end up this Canada Day.

I also heard that we are going to be doing a school workshop in North Bay at the beginning of next month. So it looks like the summer is starting even if the weather is not summer weather yet.

A SAD FAREWELL

Little Bird — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:29:16 +0000

They just told us, at rehearsal Saturday night, that the Baysville Antique & Classic Boat Show will be no more. You might have realized that we didn’t perform there last summer and that was because they didn’t have the event due to road construction in the area. Well, apparently the way they redid the highway and bridge make it no longer safe for pedestrian crossing at the old spot. That combined with the rising costs of everything means they will no longer be having the event.

I’ll miss it. The location made it a really nice day and the crowds were always fabulous. We would set-up in a nice grassy green park which was great and apparently the geese thought so too, because I remember the first couple of years walking along and finding little “surprises”. Definitely won’t miss that!

Anyway, THANK YOU to all the people who have worked hard to pull off the event for so many years and to all the great fans who came to see us! We will miss you, but maybe we will see you at another performance.

I will leave you with some pictures from the past years in Baysville and if you have any I would love to see them. You can email them to info@nlso.ca.

A SAD FAREWELL

Little Bird — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:29:16 +0000

I will leave you with some pictures from the past years in Baysville and if you have any I would love to see them. You can email them to info@nlso.ca.

SNOW, RAIN, SNOW, SUN

Little Bird — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:45:51 +0000

The weather has been absolutely crazy. In the span of a week we have had 2 blizzards, below freezing (well below), rain and today it is clear and sunny. As a matter of fact rehearsal was canceled on Monday due to the weather. The rain was starting to freeze and it was just not good conditions to travel in. I don’t mind winter, I actually would like it if we ever got consistent weather. Although it is kind of nice to know we are on the back end of it. Which means performances are near. OK, maybe not just around the corner but 4 months give or take. Usually we start in the middle of May. I don’t know when the first one will be this summer, but I am looking forward to it.