Mark Jamieson

Mark Jamieson has played with Squid since its beginnings in 2000.
He started playing music at the age of 5 when he started playing piano.
He had passed his Royal Conservatory of Music grade 9 examinations
before changing his focus to drumming.
Mark started drumming with the Dartmouth Pipe Band Association
and advanced to the senior band within 5 years.
He was part of the band
when it captured the North American Championship for Grade 3.
He also competed in several successful solo seasons.
Mark's highlights with Squid to date include
representing Nova Scotia in the Boston Treelighting Ceremony in 2000 and 2004,
and performing in the Halifax International Buskerfest in 2004.

The imformation above is brought to you from SQUID website.

Please check further information about SQUID @
http://www.tastysquid.com

　　

Ian MacMillan

Drummer / Percussionist Ian MacMillan began drumming at the age of 12 in 1988.
After rapid progression, he went on to instruct and lead competitive drumcorps
with the Dartmouth Pipe Band Association for grades 4 - 2
during the 1990 - 1998 and 2000 seasons.
During these years he captured many solo and drumcorps titles / awards
on the Maritime and North American circuits including Champion Supreme
on numerous occasions and the 2000 North American Championships.

Known for his amazing stick-twirling and technique,
he is a well-respected performer, clinician, choreographer, and instructor
in the world of competitive Drum Corps and professional drumming.
Many of his students have gone on to compete
on the North American and World levels in the highest grades possible.

In 1994, Ian widened his focus to cuban, west african, middle eastern, and brazilian percussion and co-founded the ECMA nominated world music group, MacCrimmon's Revenge.
He is a founding member of Precision Drummers Squid,
as well as Fola, a west african style djembe ensemble.
Ian also currently performs with El Viento Flamenco, and Los Flamencos.
He has worked with numerous dance classes, performed at many music festivals,
and has appeared live and recorded
for Vision TV, CBC, Radio-Canada, CTV, The History Channel, and NBC.
He has also recently performed with Symphony Nova Scotia.
Ian presently instructs numerous drumcorps, teaches hand drumming classes,
and is a drumset teacher with the Canadian Conservatory in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

This information is brought here from SQUID website.

Go check further information at www.tastysquid.com

Daniel St.Pierre

In 1996 Daniel joined the Dartmouth Pipe and Drum Band and

within his first year he was playing in the parade band.

After competing in the junior bands for a few years
he then made the move to the senior band,
playing up to the grade 2 band level and grade 1 solo level.

While in the Dartmouth organization
Daniel instructed at both the beginner and intermediate levels.
He was a member of the North American grade 3 championship band
while he was also leading the grade 4 junior band.

In 2001 Daniel left the Dartmouth Pipe Band
and joined the Gaelic College grade 3 competition band
for one competition season.

Daniel, A founding member of Squid,
who graduated from Dalhousie University
with a BSc in Economics and a Minor in Business
now makes Squid his full time job.

This information about his bio is from SQUID website:
www.tastysquid.com

Go check their website!

Sad to say, today was the last day of Buskers Festival 2006.
That means I cannot see the Squid shows any more.

It had been very exciting, fun, happy time
since I happened to know Squid.
I am only an 11-day-old fan of Squid,
but I feel like I have known them for years.

I do not know how I will pump up myself
without their energy,
but I will survive until I see them next time.

There was a kind of lucky but a little emberrassing incident
happened right after their show from 1pm.
One of the drummers kindly talked to me
saying "Thanks" for our being frequent audience.
Well, to tell the truth, I would love to come see them everyday,
or even every single show,
but we could only make 7 shows in 11 days.
It was my pleasure to be at their shows
since each time I got more excited, more fun,
and more attracted by their sound.

So I think I AM the one who would love to give a big thank to them
for letting us be happy with their music,
and for recognizing me as an e-mail sending crazy fan.

I am pretty sure that we are going to more of their shows
@ Buskers 2007 if they come back.

The other day, I sent an e-mail to ask if they sell the "Squid" T-shirts for fans.
Since it was a kind of very good questions, so I was expecting a reply from thier manager or their public relation person, though the one who sent me the answer kindly was one of the members himself.

Yesterday, I had a little ? in my head about their performance on the day and I also wanted to keep sending a big cheer to them, I wrote an e-mail again.
I was a little bit curious about what happened in their 2nd show yesterday, so I mentioned it.
But it was not that good question, so I was not expect their reply, and I actually wrote not to bother themselves to answer my question.

After I sent this e-mail to them, I finished a little work to do and went to bed.
Maybe because their sound were still in my head when I fell asleep, I dreamt of them.
I think they are actually all twenty-some, but they were teenagers in my dream...

When I checked my e-mails this morning, one of the e-mails I received was the notice of read e-mail from Squid, so I already got satisfied since the notice meant they read my big cheering e-mail before thday's show.

More surprisingly, in half an hour I received another e-mail from Squid.
This time it was not an automated notice, but E-MAIL FROM SQUID MEMBERS AGAIN!!
They generously answered my silly question, and thanked to my cheer.
It was one of the most memorable presents for me in my life.

They are very rocking, funky, young talents who care a lot about fans.
I am very impressed by this thing, and feel like keep sending cheer like everyday, but well, maybe that would be too much for them.
I do not want to be like a stalker, so I am not sending an e-mail every hour or even every day.

But hopefully they do not react badly to my cheering e-mails once a month or so.

"Never Get Bored!"

I have watched 4 performances of Squid @ Buskers Fest.
Twice of the 4 times were today.
If you watch exactly the same performances, you might get bored.
You would know what's gonna happen next, and should have less excitement.

However, this would not apply to my case when it comes to watching Squid.
More I watch and hear, more addicted I become.

Actually, there was a little accident when we had just started watching their second performance today.
My little daughter got Ketchap on the WHITEST T-SHIRT she has, and I actually got cross thinking about the stain...
Since I wanted to remove the stain for sure, I decided to leave the show for fast care.

We were about to leave and they started one of my favorite numbers.
That made me stop walking and return to the show pulling my stained-daughter.

Of course, we stayed until the end of the show since I could not leave.
I knew my daughters were very happy when I was caught by Squid Magic.

After the show, we directly went to the Neptune Theatre to buy "Squid the Evolution" for next
May.
The good news was the availability was still good.
The bad news was their card system did not work well and I did not carry cash at that moment.
I asked if he could put our tickets on hold until we come back with cash for a short time, but
he said since the tickets of our favorite seatings would be abailable even though we come back
tomorrow, he did not insist to come back as soon as possible.

Well, to me, it did not matter as long as we could get the best seatings, so I told him that I would come back tomorrow.

I really really enjoy their shows.
I did not know I liked the drum performances this much.
I like Ian's very professional play, I like Mark's very funny play, I like Daniel's cute jumpy play,
and Ryan gives them a nice colour with this Bagpipe.

Right now their drum and pipe sound goes round and round my head.
I feel like going back to another performance.

I know it is very risky for mr because I will be more addicted, and I will have a hard time when the Buskers Fest is over.
I do have DVD on which we got their autographes today, and I really like the DVD, but the live shows are definetely the best since they answer with their performance if we cheer.
I actually give the DVD my hands for each song since I cannot help myself.
They are that great!!

Anyway, it is almost time for today's last show, and I'm not going.....
Too bad, I am already addicted.

It was a very dissapointing starting of the day since the Buskers Festival
did not have many performances for the rain.
We went to the Historic Property a little after 12pm when we were supposed
to hear the energetic sound of "Squid" as well as the exciting cheer of
the audience.

In stead, we saw empty seats and empty stage.
Nobody except for a couple of volunteer people.
They told us performances were not to start until 1pm.
We still wanted to know if the performer of 12pm would be playing at 1pm
on delayed schedule, however, the volunteer people didn't know who was going
to play or even if anybody would be playing in that rain.

After woundering a little bit around there hoping the members of Squid
show up, we dicided to go back to the car.
Since our car was parked @ the parking lot across from Farmers Market,
we went through all the Buskers Festival Stages.

And...the very lucky incident happened to us.
My daughter who has very bad eye power happened to find the members of
Squid just before the stage near the Summit Place when we were almost
passing by them.
To tell the truth, from the distance I happened to find Team Ryouko who
were testing if the performance could be done in the rain and I was watching
them when we passed by our Very Important People.
Thank God, and to my daughter, we did not miss that chance!!

I asked to the members if they were playing, but they were not sure and
said it was up to the weather.
Of course, I understand that playing in the rain is spoiling the instruments,
and it is not wise to take that risk when the audience could not cover the
cost of damage.
When you are professional, you have to think of all those thing.

I did not want to spoil this chance though, I asked if it was OK to take
their photos with my kids.
Since there are not many people around, they gave some of their time for
us to take photos.
It would have been harder if there were many fans around like just after
their performance.
I took 2 pictures somehow, although I was a little too excited about that
lucky incident.

I am not sure if they played for 10pm performance.
Maybe they did because it was not raining around our house.
We could not have the excitement for Squid sound today, but the lucky
thing had made our day!!

We are going tomorrow for sure, probably twice: one in the early afternoon
and one after supper.
We will enjoy them as much as possible during the Buskers, and after that,
we will still have fun with their DVD which we already enjoyed a lot
yesterday.

I also have to check Neptune Theatre for the next year's Evolution.
I did check the website if I could buy the tickets on-line, but I did not
see that option.
I will go check @ the theatre anyway as soon as possible.
I hope there are still good seats left.