Scotland winners, Renfrewshire-based drumming group The Buddy Beat, produced an inspiring video documenting the impact music had on their recovery from mental illness. Jane Bentley, who co-founded the group in 2007, tells us what winning the Epic Award means to them . ..
“We are all over the moon! The Buddy Beat was initially set up as a social inclusion project – aimed at involving people at all stages of their mental health journeys, from the hospital ward to the wider community – and you can’t get more inclusive than winning a national arts award! It’s a real testament to the tenacity and enthusiasm of the group members, who funded the video project by their own efforts, as well as developing the courage to tell their own stories.
I think the win will have a huge effect on the group in terms of boosting confidence, and hopefully creating opportunities to play – we believe everyone has a sense of rhythm, and it’s our mission to prove that – our ‘party piece’ is that we involve everyone in the audience in drumming along with us – on musical plastic tubes. Sometimes it’s only when we experience what it’s like from the inside, that we understand what making music really does for us.
On a more serious note, part of creating the video was to encourage more people to take part in arts activity, and we hope that it will contribute towards a greater recognition of the positive role the arts can play in fostering mental health – and I think that applies to anyone who participates in voluntary arts!”
Runners-up – Castletown Heritage Society
In 1911, ‘The Edwardian Concert’ took place at Castletown’s Drill Hall. 100 years later, the Castletown Heritage Society re-staged it, taking account of modern sensibilities and tastes, and involving much of the local community. Muriel Murray tells us how happy the Society was to not only win the runner-up award, but also the People’s Choice Award, voted for by the public . . .
“We as a society were delighted that the Edwardian Concert project brought us success in the first ever Scottish Epic Awards. It was gratifying to have had recognition for the months of planning, researching, practising and 
performing and back stage help from a huge number of people. But above all the event was such fun and captured the interest of the community. We like to think that the judges also gave consideration to the on-going work that we do in the community in many different ways.
Taking part in the People’s Choice was a great experience. So many people showed their support by voting for Castletown Heritage Society, not only society members their friends and families and those resident in our village but also participants in our skills workshops and other activities, off-shore workers, ex-pats, showing us what a broad base of support we have for our efforts at Castlehill Heritage Centre. The news is getting round the community and people are talking about the results in the street! We applied with every confidence in ourselves, but were humbled by the variety and quality of the projects undertaken by the other contenders.
The committee of Castletown Heritage Society, who helped draft our submission, is thrilled to have featured among the winners. Committee members are particularly pleased to see that the prize includes access to training and advice programmes on running community groups. We are very keen on training but our remote location can make attending training events just a little more difficult. Having on-line access to this will be of great benefit to us.”
The Castletown Heritage Society website
