‘The Church flute band has brought me back to me. You know, it’s brought me back to life as to who I really am’
An East Belfast man has described how a church flute band has helped him to rediscover his love for music.
The Church Flute Band, which is run out of The Gathering Church in the Pitt Park area of the city is coming up to celebrating its first year anniversary and has seen people from across Northern Ireland come together to embrace their faith and play music together.
The band was formed last year by Reverend Ross Munro with the aim of utilising the passion within the band culture to help bring people closer to God and explore their faith. It now has 35 members and a busy schedule of events lined up for the months ahead.
Davy Clarke from East Belfast is one of the members of the band and spoke to Belfast Live about how it playing in it has helped him rekindle his love for music. He grew up playing in a variety of bands, from the Regal Accordian Band he played in as a child alongside his father to the Sharpshooters, however he stopped his involvement in the band scene in the early 90s when he was 22.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Davy said that he only returned to playing music again a few years after the death of his wife in 2018 after being encouraged by a friend and former bandmate and says that being part of The Church Flute Band has “brought him back to life” and given him a new sense of hope.
He said: “I’ve been involved with bands from I was two-years-old, I’m 58 year old now, so you’re going back 56 years.
“I was a member of the Regal Accordion Band, which is my father’s band. I stayed in that for 14, 15 years until I was around 16, 17 and I joined the Ballmacarret Defenders where I learned to play the flute. From there I left and joined the Sharpshooters. I stayed in the Sharpshooters for four or five years and then I packed bands in altogether.
“I just lost the interest, lost the momentum that I had with it, and I just decided that was, that was enough for me. I still enjoyed going out and watching the bands, but I just didn’t want to be part of it.
“In 2018, my wife of 30 years passed away due to cancer and in 2020 because of coronavirus>COVID, all the bands used to come over and from Glasgow and things like that used to come to my house.
“So we decided to start our own wee band in 2020 to raise money for the Northern Ireland hospice where she passed away. From that, Craig that that does all the tunes for the Church Flute Band and was in the sharpshooters with me, had been at me for the last year and a half to come on down.
“But I was stuck in a rut and I didn’t really want to. He kept going and, and there was something in the back of my head kept saying to him like, you need to go there. You need to get out and you need to go.
“And 6 months ago I came down and it’s been the best thing I’ve ever done. You know, it’s brought It’s brought hope back, you know, and it’s brought my faith back. It’s brought my Christianity back.
“The Church Flute Band has brought me back to me. You know, it’s brought me back to life as to who I really am.”
Davey said the band is currently getting offers to play events five or six times a month, including at locations in Scotland and Liverpool, and enjoy entertaining people while sharing their faith with others saying: “We’re trying to spread the gospel through our music.”
For all the latest news, visit the Belfast Live homepage here and sign up to our daily newsletter here.
