“Winning the best drum corps award is no small feat,” drummer Reid Maxwell told On the Coast guest Belle Puri on Tuesday. “It was a really humbling, terribly humbling experience for me.” Northern Ireland’s Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band took the grand prize for best pipe band this year. The SFU Pipe Band has won the World Championship six times. They have performed in world-renowned concert halls such as Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and Lincoln Center. Lead drummer Reid Maxwell and the drum corps of the SFU Pipe Band. (Submitted by SFU Pipe Band) Maxwell, originally from Scotland, has been with the band for nearly 30 years and has won the drum corps title six times, five of which were with SFU. However, he is the only one who was there the last time he won the entire group in 2009.
The league’s commentators noted his ability during Saturday’s performance, saying, “the poise and the confidence and the delivery of the rollers and what Reid delivered at the back to back up that performance was first class.” “I had one of those euphoric moments, let’s say, on Saturday when everything is going so well,” Maxwell said. “It’s this incredible feeling.” The band was forced to practice in isolation during the first months of the pandemic — not easy for a crew of 46. “A lot of zoom,” laughed Maxwell. The drum corps during one of their final training sessions before heading to Scotland. (Submitted by SFU Pipe Band) However, once the restrictions were eased, the drummers were able to regroup easily because they could remain masked while playing. Pipers didn’t have that luxury. Four weeks after the drummers started practicing together, the pipers managed to do the same and finally prepare to win it all. “I think being incredibly organized and rehearsed really well, which I think we really were, made a huge difference in how we were able to do at the end of the day,” Maxwell said. “It’s still a little surreal to win again. I’m not exactly a spring chicken anymore. It’s just unbelievable.” The drum corps from SFU’s Pipe Band after winning the top prize at the World Pipe Band Championships in Scotland on August 13, 2022. (Submitted by SFU Pipe Band) Robert MacNeil, president of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band Society, says Maxwell is an “exemplary leader” and credits him with guiding the drum corps to the point where they have earned this title. “There are so many young women and men in the corps who have worked so hard and have now realized a life-fulfilling goal. It’s moments like these that are so moving to witness firsthand.”

Drummer falls ill, backup is called

The win didn’t come without a little drama. The band’s bass drummer contracted COVID-19 and was forced into self-isolation days before the competition. Ali North, a backup drummer who practiced with the band in case something happened, was called into action. “I kind of look back on it now and think how easily we were able to do that,” Maxwell said. “Amazing of her. She probably didn’t have enough time to think about things, and that’s why she did so amazingly.”