Neighbours tell schoolboy to pipe down

[mexpiper]

:sad: I saw this report on BBC News Tonight. I thought you might be interested. Its scarry that even in Scotland there are problems with pipers. They showed the young man all dressed properly and playing. I will try to find his picture and post it. From the Herald.UK

Neighbours tell schoolboy to pipe down

CAMERON SIMPSON December 09 2005
They may be our national instrument, but they are not to everyone's taste. So a teenage bagpiper has been told to stop practising outside his home because the noise is upsetting some of his neighbours.Andrew Caulfield, 13, and his mother, Elaine, have been warned they face a noise abatement order because his skirl scores two decibels above the accepted limit.Ironically, the body giving the warning, Renfrewshire Council, has asked Andrew to take part in a £30,000 initiative to encourage more youngsters to take up the pipes. Mrs Caulfield, whose family lives in the Ralston area of Paisley, said she was astonished by the local authority's threat.She said: "The council are being completely two-faced. Andrew gives up class time at school to teach kids the pipes on behalf of the council, and this is how his generosity is repaid."He also piped at the Paisley Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday and the council also had him piping Santa into the town when the Christmas lights were being turned on. All that, and then they send me a letter headed Anti-Social Behaviour saying if Andrew continues to practise at his own home we face a noise abatement order."One minute they are encouraging Andrew to show off his talents as a piper and the next they are telling him to shut up. It's disgraceful."Mrs Caulfield, a council lollipop lady, said her son had not been given a chance to appease their neighbours. She added: "We even bought him a smaller set of pipes that are not so loud, and asked the council to test them, but they wouldn't do it. They just said that even with the quieter pipes Andrew still can't practise – how can they still know that without another test?"The council decided to take action after several neighbours in Atholl Crescent signed a petition calling on Andrew to pipe down. Noise abatement officers carried out simulated tests and discovered that his playing was over the maximum allowed.Andrew said: "I am very disappointed with the council, and I wish they would come out do another test on my quieter, smaller pipes, because I just want to practise our national instrument. I love piping and not being able to play at home is very frustrating."Lorne Cousin, the piper who was chosen by Madonna to join her on an international tour, said last night he was outraged by the council's move."This is bureaucracy gone mad. The local authority should be spending our money on more important things than pursuing a young musician who is, after all, playing our national instrument."But the council said yesterday it was only carrying out its civic duty. A spokeswoman said: "We were trying to resolve a dispute among neighbours. A noise simulation of the bagpipes found them to be above the permitted level."We have not been able to test the quieter set of pipes because these would have to be undertaken from within a neighbouring property and the neighbours oppose this." One of the Caulfields' neighbours, who declined to be named, said: "When he practises I can hear it clearly through the wall. When I'm at home I don't expect the peace and quiet of my living-room to be shattered by the drone of bagpipes."

http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/52219-print.shtml

[Nick]

That really is sad What makes it worse is they first ask him to play and teach, and then tell him to knock it off.

I remember reading a small piece a few months ago about businesses being told to reduce the pipe music they played in their stores. I don't know about anyone else, but I like the sound of the bagpipes!

[GlassMan]

I love the sound of bagpipes. And it's not like the kid is horrible or something. I can understand a neighbor being upset by someone of my skill level playing outdoors, but a piper good enough for public performances?

I think they should get another petition signed by different neighbors who support his playing.

[bubba]

The kid should start charging them for teaching and performances. Bet they reconsider a few things.

[Jerry]

That really is sad What makes it worse is they first ask him to play and teach, and then tell him to knock it off.

I remember reading a small piece a few months ago about businesses being told to reduce the pipe music they played in their stores. I don't know about anyone else, but I like the sound of the bagpipes!

I posted this once before, but, I was driving through a town near my home, and there was one of those "kids" with a thousand DB stereo in his small car. He had his windows open and had itt cranked up so high that the closed windows in my pickup were rattling from the heavy bass throb of the rap he was playing. I had a bagpipe CD in my stock CD player and as I approached at a stoplight, I cranked it up to my player's limited ability and rolled down my window. When I got beside him he looked over and glared at me before rolling up his window. I guess that if I had the kind of amp and speakers he had, I could have cracked the glass in his windows. The pipes do have a penetrating sound.

[davedove]

I can understand the part about violating the noise ordnances. That's part of living in town. But to not allow the smaller pipes without testing is completely wrong. He should have the right to play whatever he wants so long as he doesn't violate the regulation.

[wgority]

This is simply the Scots, once more, sacrificing their national patrimony. I keep seeing this peculiarity among them. For instance, there were no bagpipers present at the gala opening of the New Scottish Parliament Building a few months ago. Unfathomable.............

On the good news side this week, though, BBC Scotland announced that they would provide coverage of the World Pipe Band Championships next year.

[bubba]

Seems to me that folks of Scottish descent in the Americas are getting to be more Scottish than the folks in Scotland. A pretty sorry state of affairs I must say.

[JayFilomena]

I can understand the part about violating the noise ordnances. That's part of living in town. But to not allow the smaller pipes without testing is completely wrong. He should have the right to play whatever he wants so long as he doesn't violate the regulation.

I have always been a believer in compromise so long as I am not the only one compromising. I would see no problem with the smaller pipes from 3-4pm, and other forms of practice at different hours. Then there are passive aggressive ways of getting back at the neighbors. Call the police when the cars are parked incorrectly. Call the citycouncil when someone puts an unauthorized garden nome on the front lawn, or the flag being flown is not regualation size. Report them to the DMV for improperly displayed tags etc. I am sure there are many things in his neighborhood he could be offended by.

[Wompet]

I posted this once before, but, I was driving through a town near my home, and there was one of those "kids" with a thousand DB stereo in his small car. He had his windows open and had itt cranked up so high that the closed windows in my pickup were rattling from the heavy bass throb of the rap he was playing. I had a bagpipe CD in my stock CD player and as I approached at a stoplight, I cranked it up to my player's limited ability and rolled down my window. When I got beside him he looked over and glared at me before rolling up his window. I guess that if I had the kind of amp and speakers he had, I could have cracked the glass in his windows. The pipes do have a penetrating sound.

At the 2001 Maryland Ren Faire, the Scottish Rogues' frontman used that same scenario as a sales pitch. I bought their first four albums that day.

On a similar note, back in college when guys would p***ing matches over whose stereos were better, my roomate or I (who didn't like sitting in the middle of this) would put my CD of the Royal Scots Dragoons in, set the volume at 3/4 max (we never got mad enough to crank it, lock the door, and visit a friend six doors down. Things would normally stay quiet for a few weeks after that.

The young man in question isn't doing this sort of behavior. He is trying to be as quiet as possible, to the extent of geting smaller pipes. Given the community spirit he demonstrated with the work he's already done for the council, he probably practiced when it would cause the least disturbance. If the council can't take this into account, and test the decibel levels of the new pipes, then they should be boycotted by every piper within 50 miles.

There are some who will say "well, why doesn't the boy practice inside?" Having listened to pipers play in a building with bad acoustics, I tell you this is not a good idea. It was a bad enough that, even after paying the price of the ticket and the hour-and-a-half drive to get there, I left at intermission.