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mcleanscotland are local Scots who pride ourselves on showing you the nooks & crannies other tours companies pass on by. We can show you those hidden gems even Scots do not know! Pitlochry pipe band championships June 2006 with mcleanscotland |
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Some educated comments for your consumption from one who knows! THE ANDY GRANT NEWS PAGE
FOR PIPERS & DRUMMERS AROUND THE WORLD! Stories will be posted as and when Andy sits down long enough to write them! An old (he won't like me for that - when I say old, I mean a vast experience of knowledge!) hand at Pipebands! Click on any/all of the links below to read the stories of competitions with the Denny & Dunipace Band, and Paul!
FOR THE 2007 SEASON CLICK HERE
above: Denny & Dunipace Pipeband enjoying a drink with Rupert.
NEWS OF THE 2006 SEASON THE BAND WILL BE PLAYING LIVE ON SCOTTISH TV THIS MONTH! They have been chosen to play before huge crowds at our National Rugby Stadium, Murrayfield, Edinburgh. Why? to entertain the Rugby Tartan Army before our national rugby team play the Pacific Islanders 18th November, and on the 25th November against a world class team; Australia. C'mon the band! Catch them if you can.
PITLOCHRY below: GOUROCK – EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: GLASGOW WORLDS: COWAL: great! PITLOCHRY 9 SEPTEMBER. THE OCTOBER GIG So what's it all about then? Why on earth is everyone heading for Pitlochry? Nice place but the main road's heaving with buses! What am I on about? The British Pipe Band Championships 2006! One of five Major Championships held every year so that lunatic musicians can compete against each other. Why lunatics? Who else but the Scots and Irish would take a musical instrument designed for hot dry climates and move them to intemperate and wet climes and then turn them into an art form? Me? I was a drummer many years ago and now am a Drum Major with an extremely well known Pipe Band. I now steward the Drum Major (DM) contests at these Majors due to health problems......and getting fed up getting beaten by this lot! At Pitlochry those in power decided to cut the DM stewards down to ... ME! Boy was I happy. NOT! run off my feet I was! I started at 1.95 metres tall and ended up 1.8 at the end! Mind you, it gave me a great excuse to head for the Beer Tent once the competition was over! Like I REALLY need an excuse at a Championships. The competitions on all Grades was fierce. None wanted to have the same results as at the first competition...unless they'd won. Mostly the competition is cut throat but friendly. After all, next season you may want to play in the Band you just growled at! After the actual competitions, many drift off to listen to the Big Boys in Grade 1, and their competitions are the closest of all. Most have their favourites with mine being at the moment, St Laurence O'Toole PB from Eire. Shotts & Dykehead and Field Marshal Memorial are the crowd's favourites, being the two big hitters of the Pipe Band world. The Drum Major's produced an all Irish Final, which raised a few eyebrows. The competition as a whole was of a very high standard, even though at least two of the best were absent. The Final was one of the closest for a long while and proved what everyone knew...judges are hopeless! That was a joke in case a Judge reads this by the way! At the end of the day, everyone enjoys themselves, even if they do question the parentage of the judges at times. If a prize isn't gained it just makes people try harder. The whole show is a blaze of colour with all the Bands, DMs and officials all decked out in tartan. Some brave soul even wore truibhas in his Band tartan! Is he ever going to have the mickey taken out of him!!
If you're over in Scotland, why not visit a
Highland Games or one of the Major Championships?
The contests can be found on the Royal Scottish Pipe
Band's website:
www.rspba.org and a Google for Highland Games will
give you the vast majority of Highland Games dates.
Oh aye! The Judges parents were married in my
Band's Grade! We came second! Why not
take a look at the Denny band supporters club!
www.mcleanscotland.co.uk/supportersclub.asp
Photos below for Pitlochry.
above: warm up sessions very smart - the Royal Scots pipe band
above: left Junior Drum Majors with wee laddie from N Ireland. Empties (some) D&D band.
above left: the Bells tent was really popular! right: the Welsh taking time out
RESULTS: The Grade 1
British Championship Trophy went to the Field
Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band from Ulster under the
leadership of Pipe Major Richard Parkes MBE and
Leading Drummer Keith Orr. This made it a double in
the first two Championships for Field Marshal
Montgomery. Bands
more pix and record of the day to follow ... come on Andy we are waiting!
126 pipe bands at Pitlochry for the British Pipe Band Championships with mcleanscotland
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