Loyalist bands

Loyalist band websites and the associated guestbooks, discussion forums and even online radio stations, make up the most intensely active corner of loyalist and unionist webspace. The bands regularly parade and play and membership is often dominated by the young. Band members have lots to discuss and organise during the marching season and many are clearly enthusiastic about the new information and communication technologies. The net provides a new means for distributing recordings of their music. The use of text-messaging abbreviations in band guestbooks and online forums illustrates the continuities and crossovers between mobile-phone use and internet use. The intensity and frequency of discussion on several of the guestbooks suggests that these websites have become an important focus for a significant proportion of band members. The role of the online radio station Loyalist FM, in organising events, sponsoring bands and hosting band websites in 2004 and 2005 provides evidence that online activity has become woven in with the loyalist band scene as a sigificant new form of alternative media.

Political content on band websites varies widely in scale and tone. Significant numbers of those bands that take part in marches and parades completely avoid any political content on their websites, which are dominated by material on the music and on competitions. They don't even make reference to recent disputes on loyalist parades. These sites are not included below. This list includes sites with any contemporary political content whatsoever, whether that be a logo in support of Orange marches at Drumcree, or hyperlinks to loyalist or unionist websites. Some of the sites listed below have extensive political content and their associated guestbooks are heavily used for political argument. The Kilcluney Volunteers Flute Band site, for example, has long been a focus for opposition to restrictions on loyalist parades while Monkstown YCV Flute Band provides candid illustration of the relationship between paramilitary organisations and some in the loyalist band scene in a series of photographs with titles such as 'Firing party at Monkstown Y.C.V band parade 2002'.

By March 2005 almost a quarter of the sites listed below were defunct.

Contents

• Northern Ireland
• Scotland
• England
• Loyalist online radio stations

Northern Ireland

Scotland

England

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Online radio stations

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