Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band

[Father Bill]

Having just won the championship, here they are:

http://www.scottish-tourist.com/fiel...ery-pipe-band/

[OC Richard]

The competition season in Scotland is filled with championships, which to overseas eyes appear absurdly redundant and repetitive; the same bands attend them all, pretty much.

Collectively they're called "the Majors".

Here are the Majors of 2015. Note that all were held in Scotland save one:

British Championships - May 30th, Bathgate
United Kingdom Championships - June 13th, Belfast
European Championships - June 27th, Forres
Scottish Championships - July 25th, Dumbarton
World Championships - August 15th, Glasgow

Why not hold the European Championships in Europe? Say, in Germany? You would get different bands attending that way. Why not hold The Worlds in some other corner of the world?

It costing near $100,000 for a band from Canada, the USA, Australia, New Zealand, etc to attend ONE of these UK-based Championships, the same bands from the UK attend them all, The Worlds attracting by far the most overseas bands. They might be using a different system now, but traditionally bands qualify for The Worlds by accumulating points from the other Majors, meaning that the same few UK bands always qualify for The Worlds.

[Father Bill]

What do you mean by "the championship"?

My apologies for my ignorance, Richard; I billed it here the way I understood it from the posts online and thought folks might enjoy seeing their joy as a band. I still think that.

I should possibly have said "a championship".

[Jock Scot]

OCR.

I think its the traditional Scottish mindset, that many from outwith Scotland will be uncomfortable with and will no doubt, from many perfectly reasonable directions, quibble with the details.

Scottish pipes, mainly Scottish bands, Scottish music, Scottish culture, based on Scottish military traditions, Scottish kilt, mainly Scottish tartan, Scottish competitions even on a European and World basis, so if you want to compete then come to Scotland and spend your money here and no one is forcing you to come. Don't forget it is also mainly(?) a Scottish tourism thing. From a Scot's point of view its all perfectly obvious.

[MacGumerait]

My apologies for my ignorance, Richard; I billed it here the way I understood it from the posts online and thought folks might enjoy seeing their joy as a band. I still think that.

I should possibly have said "a championship".

No worries here Father Bill , I think you meant this competition :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CCFO88tgig

The Field Marshall Montgomery Pipe Band will also probably win " The Worlds " in August , AGAIN .

Of course , I am a bit biased .

Cheers , Mike

[OC Richard]

Sorry dear Father if I sounded snarky, it was not my intention, and I deleted that line from my post.

On piping sites people from various non-UK piping communities, especially North America, have long been calling for holding The Worlds somewhere else in the world every now and then (every five years, or what have you).

I have disagreed with that. It's simple: if you were to stick a pushpin in a world map for every Competition pipe band it would become immediately obvious that the greatest number of bands, the highest concentration of bands, is in Scotland and Northern Ireland. So the UK is the obvious place to have the World Pipe Band Championships.

On the other hand it's patently absurd to have the British Championships, the UK Championships, the European Championships, and the World Championships all in the same country year after year.

It would be like FIFA holding the European Cup and the World Cup perpetually in Switzerland.

What I have long called for is for The World Pipe Band Championships, for they alone are regularly attended by bands from all over the world, who cannot attend any of the other "Majors", to be divorced from the Scottish system of Majors, and to be a stand-alone true World championship. I think the qualifying for The Worlds should be based solely on a band's performance at the previous year's Worlds, not on the other Majors which only UK and Irish bands can attend.

(BTW bands from Eire are "overseas" bands, bands from Norn Iron are not, though they both cross the same strip of water to attend.)

[Jock Scot]

OCR.

Personally, I can see some merit in Switzerland permanently holding The football World Cup. Perfect it is not, certainly at the moment, but at least the alleged illegal international wheelings and dealings about where the next and next but one finals will be, will be avoided. Mind you would Switzerland want hoards of ill mannered football supporters, yes I know it is a minority who are behaving so badly, rampaging around their country every five years?

Thankfully the pipe band enthusiasts are far better behaved and when all said and done the system as it is at present, does work.

[Father Bill]

No danger of lasting offence here - I know nothing about it and am just happy to hear beautiful pipe music and to see people being happy.

In my mind, the most beautiful thing imaginable is a massed pipe band coming across the field in their varied uniforms, playing loud and clear together. I have a hard time not to shed a tear, and frankly don't try very hard because I love it.

Whatever they do, and wherever they do it, I love it!

[neloon]

Perhaps, when China is running the world, the "World Series" will be held in Beijing
Alan

[drctl]

British Championships - May 30th, Bathgate
United Kingdom Championships - June 13th, Belfast
European Championships - June 27th, Forres
Scottish Championships - July 25th, Dumbarton
World Championships - August 15th, Glasgow

Just in case anybody is wondering the Brittish Champions this year are Inveraray and District. They also finished second in the UK Championship last week.

Here is their performance in the UKs: https://youtu.be/tn5V0tmmhSY

Inverrary and District also won the Worlds last year. They are a force to be reckoned with. They are headed up by Pipe Major Stewart Liddell who is considered by some to be one of the preeminent pipers living today.
I may be biased as I own a set of pipes based on an exact reproduction of his pipes.

Here is an amazing performance from Stewart Liddell if you care to watch:

https://youtu.be/_JzPcfWb0Eg

or this, blazing fast fingers!

https://youtu.be/IhJfpjDFUxs

No connection to the band, just a fan of amazing piping and an aspiring player myself.