Preston Scout House
Alumni Band Inc.

Canada's famous Scout House Bugle Band grew from activities of a single Boy Scout troop Preston Scout House Band, which grew to international fame in the 1950s, originated in 1937 as an activity to interest local boys in the 1st Preston Scout Troop.

Over the next 30 years, Preston Scout House Bugle Band became the best-known drum and bugle corps in North America, winning more than 80 major awards and titles—many of them during a 10-year undefeated streak against all competition   At its peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Scout House traveled up to eight thousand miles a year, to perform for audiences ranging in size from two hundred thousand to one million annually.

Scout Troop leader and band director Wilf Blum was inducted into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame in 1985, one of the first Canadians to receive this honour In 2005, he was inducted posthumously into the City of Cambridge Hall of Fame   The entire Band was inducted in 1997.

Blum introduced music to Boy Scout activity after he noticed how excited the boys of Preston became each summer when traveling bands on the way to the next-door Waterloo Music Festival performed in town. The bright, clean sounds of bugle bands, the splendid uniforms and the military precision displayed during parades and other performances captivated the members of his troop, so he decided to create a band.

With a generous donation from a local businessman, Blum purchased a few instruments, and the band began practicing.  The first performance didn't take place until June, 1939. Blum himself knew nothing about music, so the learning pace was slow in the beginning.  None of the troop members could read music, so they learned by ear.

A distinctive knees-up marching style, with fully extended arms swinging to shoulder height was developed during the World War II years, on Sunday morning church parades when the band would accompany members of the local Women's Royal Navy unit to services. The marching style produced a comfortable, biting pace that made Scout House look different than every other drum and bugle corps in North America. In the 1950s and '60s, the use of B flat horns also made the Band sound different than other drum and bugle corps of the day.

Scout House Band was named for the building where the Scout troop met; an abandoned brewery stable that the scouts restored. Scout House became the social centre of Preston, attracting huge crowds to dances and music theatre events. The organized activities for the community's young people became so popular, Scout House and its activities were featured in national newspaper articles.

As the popularity of the Band grew in the 1940s, it began to march in parades outside Preston, To reach these other towns, up to 45 members of the Band would travel on the open back of a Cherry Mills flour truck, often arriving with a light dusting of flour on their Boy Scout uniforms.

As the band was developing into an outstanding parade, the Waterloo Music Festival was growing to become the largest event of its kind in North America, attracting bands and adjudicators from across the continent. The program always included a massive street parade competition featuring all the competing bands and drum and bugle corps. Scout House came to dominate the street parade category, taking top place against the country's finest military bands year after year. In many of those years, Scout House also won the top field show music award, even though most of the Band members still couldn't read music.

The Band's first international tour began on Tuesday, July 29, 1947 when 45 members of the 1st Preston Scout Troop Band boarded a bus, with smaller boys sitting three to a seat for a 1,400 mile trip to play in Buffalo, Syracuse and Boy Scout Camp Yawgoog in Rockville, Rhode Island. The first international appearance by the Scout House Alumni Band was also in Buffalo, 52 years later, when the Alumni Band marched in a Labour Day Parade in 1999.

Band director Wilf Blum was constantly innovating in all areas of the group's activities. In 1952, Scout House Band introduced its annual Spring Show in Hespeler Arena. Over more than a decade, the annual Spring Show expanded to include fancy marching routines, uniform changes in mid-show; songs, skits, special lighting and sound effects. During the show on May 17, 1954 (40 years before alumni corps became popular) 32 former Band members wearing their street clothes came down from the stands to the floor of the Galt Arena Gardens, picked up instruments and played and marched in a seemingly-spontaneous performance. It was, of course, carefully rehearsed in advance. Attendance at the annual Spring Show quickly outgrew local arenas, and eventually moved to Kitchener Memorial Auditorium, where it broke all attendance records for any kind of event in the Auditorium.

The Band also was quick to introduce new instruments as they became available, adding tenor drums and glockenspiels to the percussion section, and introducing such new brass instruments as French horns, tenor horns, and E flat bass horns.

The biggest single innovation was the uniform that Scout House adopted after breaking away from Boy Scouts Canada to become an independent, self-supporting organization. The new uniform, introduced in 1954, took its styling cues from the traditional Boy Scout uniform.  Scout House members wore knee-high socks, tight black shorts, a short sleeved maroon pullover tunic and lanyard, white gauntlets and stylish black Aussie-style hat with red and white plumes.

The combination of the Band's instrumentation, unique marching style and distinctive uniform, when most other units were wearing a military type outfit, set Scout House apart from every other drum and bugle corps in North America.

By the late 1950s, Scout House was touring extensively every summer, from the Atlantic coast to the American Midwest, creating a huge fan base_; particularly in the province of Quebec and the Midwest.

But as field contest rule changes were introduced, Scout House lost its competitive edge. Score sheets no longer gave credit for the astounding general effect routines that the Band performed. Wilf Blum decided that retaining the Scout House character and image was more important that competing Throughout the 1960s, Scout House performed mostly in exhibition, often at the top senior corps contests of the season. Continuing financial problems forced Scout House to cease operations in the spring of 1967.

There were several attempts to revive the Band over the next 20 years, but none succeeded. However, a 50-year reunion organized in 1988 was enormously successful, attracting hundreds of former members to Preston Arena to renew friendships and pay tribute to Wilf Blum. The organizers of the reunion established a formal Scout House Alumni Association, which was a charter member of the Great Alliance of Seniors (GAS;. This group, and the approaching millennium set off a wave of nostalgia across the continent that spurred the formation of alumni groups across Canada and the United States.

Scout House Alumni formed a colour guard and drill team to perform at a GAS reunion held in Galt in 1994. There was so much interest in that performance, and so many invitations to perform in other community events that the colour guard began to appear regulaiiy in area parades and special events. Alumni officials then decided to bring together former members to perform on stage at the GAS reunion scheduled for Mississauga in 1999. Rehearsals began in the fall of 1998. Enthusiasm ran so high that after the stage concert, the group decided to continue. The next performance was the July 1 Canada Day Parade in Preston. Spectators stood in the rain to applaud the return of Scout House to the streets of Preston.

After its performances in the spring and summer of 1999, Preston Scout House Alumni Band marched into the new century to become Canada's largest and most successful alumni drum and bugle corps. Since that first stage concert at the GAS reunion in Mississauga, Scout House Alumni Band has tripled in size and earned standing ovations from audiences at parades, field shows and concerts across Ontario, Quebec, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Alumni Band retains the name of Preston, even though the town no longer exists as a separate municipality The former adjoining towns of Preston, Galt and Hespeler now make up the City of Cambridge. The old towns have retained their identities as neighborhoods of Cambridge.

The original Band's distinctive knees-up marching style, with shoulder-high arm swing, is maintained by the Alumni Band's colour guard, which wears the tight black shorts, short-sleeved maroon tops with lanyard, white leather gauntlets, knee-high socks and Aussie-style hat adopted by Scout House in 1954. Horn players and drummers now* wear the same uniform top, with long black pants.

The Alumni Band's music book includes selections suitable for parades, field show; concerts and such special events as Oktoberfest, Royal Canadian Legion events and Christmas parades.

Parade and field show crowd favorites include such popular Scout House selections from the past as Waltzing Matilda, Blue Tango, Wayward Wind and the Scout House Theme Song, with lyrics written by Band member Ken Whittington, set to the tune of Men of Harlech. The Band's 2005 field show included Memories; The Way We Were, to set a nostalgic tone, and a concert including Rhapsody In Blue and selections from Oklahoma, At Canadian Legion events, the Band plays a medley of three of the world's most popular marches; Colonel Bogey, Semper Fidelis and The Maple Leaf forever. The Canadian Legion branches in Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo have all provided strong support for Band activities, often providing rehearsal facilities and financial support.

Two new arrangements by music director John Conrad have been added to the repertoire for the 2006 field show, Poinciana, a tune made popular in the Big Band era, with a fiery Latin beat, and Sway, a ballad made popular by Dean Martin and other crooners in the 1960s.

During the 2005 summer parade and field show season, Scout House Alumni earned standing ovations and enthusiastic audience responses at such high profile events as the Burlington Sound of Music Festival Grand Parade, Preston's July 1 Canada Day Parade and concert, the Belleville Waterfront Festival, Mighty St. Joe's parade and alumni concert, the DCI Canadian Open junior championships, the Dundas Cactus Festival Parade, New Waterloo Music Festival, the Alumni Classic Concert during the DCA tournament weekend, and the Kitchener/Waterloo Oktoberfest parade and concert.

Originally; all Alumni Band members had marched with the original band. As the group's popularity grew, other men and women with marching music experience were welcomed into the organization. Now, there are about 130 men and women in the Band, including about 60 horn players, about 40 in the percussion section and about 30 in the colour guard. Ages range from 27 to 73, with an average of about 60₊

Scout House Alumni Band now includes members from more than 20 communities across Ontario, ranging from London to Ottawa:

The Alumni Band quickly re-established the Scout House award-winning tradition, receiving the City of Cambridge Cultural Achievement in Music Award in 2001 and best band award in the 2001 Cambridge Christmas Parade, the first of many parade honours received over the following four years.

The Band's current practice site is the Knights of Columbus Hall in the Preston neighbourhood of Cambridge. Maintaining a close relationship with the community is an important part of the Alumni Band's annual routine.

Each spring, Scout House performs a number of free concerts at area retirement homes. In 2005, the Band attracted a capacity crowd to Galt Arena Gardens for a free Spring Opening show; in appreciation for the support of community groups and individuals. The group's service to the community is also recognized through major Trillium grants from the province of Ontario, used to purchase instruments and uniforms. During the Christmas season, a small ensemble tours area retirement homes and Legion branches, performing for seniors in the community.

Music director is John Conrad, who also taught the Scout House horn line in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His son Tom Conrad is percussion instructor Former Scout House Band member Larry Blundell is the field show co-ordinator and marching instructor Ken Becker is colour guard instructor