Chicago Stock Yard Kilty Band :: bagpiping redefined

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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.


Read more about the SyKb history
through the years here.

 


 

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

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.

...and also check us out on Facebook and MySpace!

Thursday, March 12, 2009
Parade Season Week 3

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.

The band will also be performing both days at Navy Pier (times can be found on their St Patrick’s Day Celebration page.)

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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