UK Cadet Force Band tour the Rock

The UK Cadet Force Bands toured the Rock this week in a bid to set up a Gibraltar Cadets Corps of Drums.

The Gibraltar Cadets had only three days of preparation before performing at Piazza in front of the Governor, Lt Gen Edward Davis, Mayor Kaiane Aldorino Lopez, and former mayors.

The visit was part of an initiative to encourage local cadets to learn music. This week six local cadets have learnt to play the drums and bugles and after a short practice the UK and local cadets set up their bands in different areas in Gibraltar including Casemates Square and St Michaels Cave.

“What we are doing is working with the Gibraltar cadets to set up a Corps of Drums,” said National Training Officer for Army Cadet Force UK Lt Col Mike Neville.

“We hope to make this an annual event to work with the Gibraltar cadets and we will work with them in the UK as well. It is also wonderful for our senior cadets to have the opportunity to come here.”

The cadets who are drawn from the bands of the 1st Battalion Northern Ireland (Irish Guards) and Oxfordshire (The Rifles) ACF are all between the ages of 12 and 18, and were keen to be able to pass on their passion for military music to their Gibraltarian counterparts.

They were joined by the Corps of Drums from Clwyd and Gwynedd (Royal Welsh) who are fresh from parading at the National Armed Forces day in Llandudno last weekend.

“The Gibraltar cadets have had very good tuition from the adult instructors and it some cases it has been cadet teaching cadet,” Mayor Dominic Collado of the Royal Gibraltar Regiment.

“The plan is for us come September to promote this further and try to encourage other cadets from Gibraltar to pick up other instruments and learn them so they can form a Corps of Drums. It is now up to us to arrange a suitable programme for them to continue training rather than lose all the momentum they have been caught up in this week.”

Pic by Johnny Bugeja