The Chicago Stock Yard Kilty Band (one of the oldest
continuous pipe bands in the United States of America) was
formed in 1921 by brothers Robert and James Sim. The Sim
brothers came from a piping family in Aberdeen,
Scotland where their father made bagpipes. Both served in
World War I (Bob with the 4th Battalion, Gordon Highlanders and
Jim, who enlisted at 13, with the Royal Engineers Pipe Band and
later with the 51st Highland Division).
After coming to Chicago, Bob joined the Canadian Kilties
Pipe Band, which has since gone out of existence. In 1921
Bob decided to form his own pipe band and after obtaining
uniforms from ex-servicemen of the British Legion he and his
brother organized the British Legion Pipe Band.
In
1925 the Chicago Stockyard American Legion Post #333 was
organized and was looking for a musical unit. The band
became affiliated with the Stockyard Post in 1926 and changed
its name to the Chicago Stock Yard Kilty Band.
Forth of July Parades The Stockyard Kilty Band will be parading all over the Chicagoland area this weekend for Independence Day.
We'll be starting in Evergreen Park this Thursday and ending in Beecher on Saturday. Check the schedule for places and times and make sure to get out and celebrate!
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
Chicago Results The Stockyards competed at the Chicago Highland Games this past weekend taking third overall. The Stockyards Drum Corp took Best Drum Corp for the day under the leadership of Dave McKee Jr.
Competition season will be dying down for a bit…but the Independence Day parades are right around the corner…check the schedule section for more info.
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Congratulations! SYKB would like to congratulate Chris Babyar who just won the Stockyards Crosstown Bleacher Bum Raffle - nabbing himself two bleacher seats to both a Sox's at Wrigley Field game and a Cubs at the Cell game! We'd also like to thank everyone who bought tickets for the raffle...you are the ones who keep this band going.
...and going we are. SYKB will be heading to the Oak Brook Polo Grounds this Saturday, June 20th to compete in the Chicago Highland Games so come on out and support the Southside's finest ;-) band.
On a side note...pictures from Alma are now up on our Flickr which you can get to by clicking on link in this sentence or on the Flickr logo in the portal on the right. A big thanks to John Quinn for snapping these shots.
If you have any pics you would like to get up on the site, feel free to drop Joe a line!
In other news...our upcoming parades are now in the schedule section. Exact times to follow!
Friday, June 12, 2009
…we carry on. The Stockyard Kilty Band made a strong showing in last week’s Milwaukee competition – despite the hellish weather – taking second in both pipes and drums and second overall.
To celebrate, we thought we’d do a parade…so come see us tomorrow Saturday, June 13th at the Oak Lawn Pet Parade. The parade steps off from 99th and 54th Ave at 10:00 am.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Thru the fire and the flames... The 2009 competition continues with SYKB having competed recently in the Springfield and Alma Highland Games. We took 4th place overall in Springfield with our midsection nabbing Best Bass Corp. In Alma we placed 4th for Quick March and 7th for Medley Medley.
With two band competitions under our belts we'll be marching right into the Milwaukee Highland Games this weekend on Saturday, June 6th...and we'll even manage to fit in the Oak Lawn Pet Parade on Saturday, June 13th.
We'll have more pics and updates soon!
Monday, April 6, 2009
2009 Competition Begins! The Stockyards started off competition season with a strong showing, taking second in both the Medley and Quick March Medley events on April 4th at Mini-Bands
With Mini-bands out of the way, competition season is officially underway. Our upcoming competition dates are listed on the schedule page. Springfield (which is back after a one-year hiatus) will be next up on May 16th, 2009.
You may have also noticed our new menu to the right. Check us out on Facebook, MySpace, and a 140 characters at a time on Twitter. Also check out sexy pics and videos of the band in action on YouTube and our Flickr site.
See ya' at Springfield!
Thursday, March 19, 2009 St. Patrick's 2009 :: We will miss thee The 2009 St. Patrick's Day Parade Season is now at an end. We played six parades, countless public houses around the Chicagoland area and managed to put down a few Budweisers to boot. Thanks to everyone who came and supported SYKB from the frigid Tinley Park parade to the beautiful Southside Irish Parade.
So what's next for SYKB? We're rolling right into the 2009 Competition Season. Dates will be posted shortly.
In the meantime, why don't you head on over to our Flickr page and check out some of the shots from the parades. You might even see yourself.
Again, a heart-felt thanks to all those who came out and saw us during the last two weeks of parades in the Chicagoland Area. Our third and final week of parades approaches with the Downtown Chicago Irish Parade on Saturday, March 14th and the infamous Southside Irish Parade - which SYKB leads off – on Sunday, March 15th. The Southtown has written an article about it which can be found here.
Come on out and finish the St. Patrick’s Parade season right - by seeing the two biggest events Chicago has to offer!
Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
Parade Season Week 2
Thanks to everyone who came out and braved the below-freezing temperatures to see us play at last week’s Tinley Park Irish Parade! We’re now rolling into week two of the St. Patrick’s Day Season. SYKB will be marching in both the Lemont and St Charles parades this Saturday, March 7th finishing up the weekend in Plainfield on Sunday, March 8th. If you’re in the area, come and see us play and enjoy a break from the freezing weather.
You can find details for these parades on our schedule page.
Friday, February 27th, 2009
Parade Season Begins!
The Stockyard Kilty Band will be kicking off its 2009 St Patrick’s Day Parade Season starting this Sunday, March 1st, with the 10th Annual Irish Parade thru historic downtown Tinley Park. The parade steps off at 2:00pm from the Central Middle School on 181st & Oak Park Avenue.
You can find a flyer for the event here and our entire parade line-up on our schedule page.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Condolences
The band would like to extend
condolences on the loss of several
friends of the band in the past few
days.
The first is the mother of Piper
John Barrett, Cecelia
Barrett who passed away over the
weekend and was laid to rest on 21
January 2009.
The second is
Cecilia Heil,
who is the sister of Dave McKee Sr.,
aunt of Dave Jr., Dan, Matt and Luke
McKee and mother of
former Drum Sgt Artie Heil.
Ceclia was a avid support of the
band and a host to our South Side
after parade festivities.
Cecilia will be waked at at
Brady/Gill from 3- 9 on Friday
January 23rd with Funeral Services
at St. Barnabus on Saturday January
24th at 10 a.m.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
87th Annual Tartan Ball
Thank you to all of our family,
friends and groupies for coming out
to celebrate with the band at our
87th Annual Tartan Ball. A
hearty thank you to
Marianne McKibbin for
organizing another successful party
and to Dave McKee Jr. for his
role as master of ceremonies.
Congratulations to all the band
members for a job well done, but
most importantly to our newest group
of tenor drummers who made their
wonder working debut!!!
See some photos from the party
here.
Friday,
July 25, 2008
Hairbangers Ball
Hairbangers Ball (www.hairbangersball.com)
and the Stockyard Kilty Band (www.sykb.com)
rock out to ACDC's "It's a Long Way
to the Top". Pipers: Mike Gribbon,
Doug Dow, and Matt Mckee.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Chicago Games
Congratulations to Mike Gribbon on bringing home
a 1st place in Grade 1 solo piping at the 2008
Chicago Highland Games! The band took the
field and ranked 4th out of 12 bands. See
some wonderful photos from the games
here.
A YouTube video of the performance can be seen
below.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Winning isn't everything...
The
band survived another year in Alma competing,
partying and performing. Though we didn't
bring home the gold, silver or bronze -- we did
bring back some fond memories and are geared up
for the LaGrange pet parade and Milwaukee
competition. See you on the road or see
some pictures from Alma
here.
Monday, April 7, 2008
and the winner is...
Well
done to the boys and girls of the Stockyard
Kilty band at this past weekends MWPBA
mini-bands contest. The band placed
first in Medley and third is QMM.
The drummers of course took top score in both
events... Photos from the event can be
seen on our FLICKR account
here.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
SYKB on -- MySpace
Thanks to Joseph Kerzich, John Quinn and all
others who have provided pictures and content
for the band's brand new MySpace page. Be
sure to check out our MySpace account @
http://www.myspace.com/sykb as we continue
to add friends, multimedia and more. Check
out the logo to the right >>
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Digital Documentation
The
band has created a new SYKB account on
flickr.com/photos/sykb/
to share all of our pictures. With the help of
Joe Kerzich and Gavin Quinn, they split the
yearly fee to upgrade it for unlimited downloads
instead of our previous free 100 mb a month. If
you would like to to request the username so you
can upload photosemail
chicagostockyardkiltyband@comcast.net
and we assist. This will help us to
continue to digitally document the 85+ years of
SYKB history and to help display all of
our pictures to our family, friends, and the
World!
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Band, Stand Easy...
Thank you to all the members of the Yards for
their hard work and diligence during a very
long, cold and exhaustive St. Patrick's Day
season. The band rounded out the Paddy
Parades with the Downtown Chicago parade on
Saturday, Match 15th. The annual after
party was held at Union Park - check out
some photos of the hoopla
here.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
At Rest
The band would like to extend our condolences to
bass drummer Tom Costello - on the loss of his
father. You and your family are in our
thoughts and prayers Tom.
Francis M.
Costello, age 83, Ret. C.P.D., Army Vet. WWII, beloved
husband of the late Marian D., nee Zwarycz; loving father of
Marybeth Kennedy, Kathleen, Kevin and Thomas, C.P.D. (Karen)
Costello; dear brother of Eleanor (William, Ret. C.P.D.)
Murphy, the late William (Betty) and the late Robert
(Shirley) Costello; fond brother-in-law of Irene (Edward)
Judd, Michael (Esther) Zwarycz, Gerry Zwarycz,
W. Richard
(the late Margaret) Janiczek, the late Jane M. (the late
Frank) Nagel, the late Sophie (the late Stanley) Sandusky
and the late Josephine Zwarycz; proud grandpa of Patrick
(Leigh) Kennedy, Thomas Jr. and Mary Clare Costello; fond
uncle and great-uncle of many nieces and nephews; will be
missed by many, especially Buddy and Gus.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Is it over yet?!
Four down...one to go - St. Patrick's Day
Parades that is. THANKS AGAIN to all the
band members for their participation in three
parades this past weekend. The band split
up on Saturday to tackle two parades - St.
Charles and Lemont. On Sunday the band
joined together to once again lead the 30th
Annual South Side Irish St. Patrick's Day
parade. Some photos from the South Side
parade can be seen
here. One parade left...
Fore archived news and more information please visit our "news"
section
here
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Who took
these photos?
Most of
the photos contained within this website are moments
captured by Jane Hasty. Jane is no stranger to
the pipe band community; her husband Tim has played
with the likes of Black 47, the Dropkick Murphy's as
well as the Chicago Emerald Society Pipe Band.
Check out Jane's Scrapbook
here.
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