All hands on deck for band

Kirsty Macnicol
The Southland Times
June 09, 2001

IT will be all hands on deck when the City of Invercargill Caledonian Pipe Band's Pipin ' Hot makes its debut in Canada next week.
The cast of 27 and eight supporters left this morning, arriving in Victoria on Wednesday (NZ time) after a brief stay in Los Angeles.
The show will be performed two days later.
Set designer and crew leader Peter Thwaites said everyone including those supporters who had paid their own way, would be put to work on the day of the show.
"They think they're going to have a holiday _ they're not." Fortunately
everyone was happy to pitch in.
The crew will get access to the theatre at 9am. Every spare pair of hands will be needed to erect the set, lighting plans and sound, familiarise the cast with the theatre, perform a full dress rehearsal before the show that night. As soon as the show is finished the whole set will have to be packed up again before anyone can go to bed.
Time also had to be set aside for a Canadian dance troupe to rehearse with the band, Mr Thwaites said.
It was impossible to transport the sailing ship set designed for the
seven-show season in Invercargill last month so a new, sleeker model is needed.
Mr Thwaites, with the help of volunteers, has recreated the set, replacing wooden planks with 64m of calico that has been cut, sewn, hemmed and painted. Folded up it can easily fit into a suitcase.
Dance Southland has also helped out by allowing use of its rooms for the set construction.
On arrival in Victoria, lightweight framing would be built and the fabric
stretched on to it.
Already, about 20 hours' labour has gone into the project. Another 24 hours by at least five people would be needed in Canada in the precious few days before the show began next Friday, Mr Thwaites said.
In the lead-up to the show the band will also perform at various
promotional events. It will take part in a four-day international Bandfest immediately after Pipin ' Hot.
On June 19, the group moves on to Halifax on Canada's east coast for the Nova Scotia International Tattoo where it will perform to about 10,000 people for 10 consecutive nights.