MEMBERS of Ballinamallard Accordion Band are delighted to be back out parading this summer as they celebrate the 60th anniversary of the band's formation.

The band was founded in Ballinamallard in 1961 by Victor Nixon with the assistance of William Phair, a brother of the local Orange Lodge.

The Nixon family are still very much involved in the band, with Victor's sons holding leadership roles. Kenny Nixon is the current band master and his brother Gordon is assistant band master.

"I remember my father telling a story that he bought the small button key accordions at £13 and then he moved on to the bigger button key, which was known as a Honer Corsa, and they paid £26 for them, that's back at the start," said Kenny, noting that a button key accordion would cost around £2,000 today.

"There's some jump there," he laughed.

When the band first started, they had around 16 members.

"It went on to multiply then," said Kenny, commenting that the band currently has a very healthy membership,

"Number wise, I say we have the biggest band at the minute that we've had over the years. People have a good interest in it.

"We enjoy the music, especially learning different techniques; we enjoy that, and learning good marches," he said, adding: "We have a musical director who comes in to oversee the music – Robin Paget. He writes all our music; every bit of music we play, Robin would write it."

Over lockdown the band had to close down, but with the easing of restrictions in May, members are now back practising every Tuesday night in the Soldiers of the Cross Hall, Ballinamallard in preparation for a summer of parades.

"We got going there about a month ago and we're starting to get the band back to where we left off," said Kenny.

On June 11, the band held its annual band parade in Ballinamallard, but Kenny noted that due to Covid restrictions it was a smaller parade than they would have had in previous years.

Prior to the pandemic, Ballinamallard Accordion Band would have attended around 32 parades a year.

"We do community parades, and then we go and support other band parades and they come back to support us," explained Kenny.

The band has also been known to travel a fair distance for a parade, taking members to Norway in 2011 as they celebrated the band's 50th anniversary.

"When we didn't have the pandemic, we certainly had a busy time," said Kenny with a laugh. "[The band members] definitely missed it. They were all mad to get back to band practice.

"We started off with open air band practices outside, just to get the whole thing back up and running. Then we got permission to get back into the hall," he said.

Describing the band as an "extended family", Kenny continued: "We all get to know each other well and we look forward to a Tuesday night band practice.

"It's great that the band is still going after 60 years. It's a long time, 60 years – the fact that it's still going and still creating a lot of interest in the Ballinamallard area and the Irvinestown area too, [it's great]."