Pipe Band tartan trends

[gun eagal]

I don't think I a photo of myself in the full kit from back in the day, which is a shame.
Here is a photo of me in the first band, age twelve or thirteen:

I've looked for a photo of the Seattle Pipe from that era, but so far no luck.

[OC Richard]

Both of our photos illustrate the largest trend in civilian pipe band tartans.

In the early days of civilian pipe bands they tended to wear military-style uniforms and military tartans as well.

The alternative costume for civilian pipe bands was Evening Dress, which was often coupled with a traditional Clan tartan.

As late as the 1990s nearly all the pipe bands were wearing either military tartans or clan tartans.

In truth, there weren't many tartans other than those kinds.

Then came the explosion in commemorative tartans, Irish county tartans (which House Of Edgar introduced in 1986), US State tartans, fashion tartans (Highland Granite etc), newly invented district tartans (Isle Of Skye etc), and on and on.

At the Worlds in 2004 (my first year going) out of 206 bands

23 Royal Stewart (that's a tenth of the bands!)
20 MacLean of Duart
18 MacPherson

So 61 of 206 bands, well over a quarter, were wearing just three different tartans.

All of the bands were wearing old Clan tartans except for the 15 district tartans and a handful of new tartans:

Scotland 2000
Scotland The Brave
Millennium
Spirit Of Scotland
Flower Of Scotland
Loch Lomond Millennium

The next time I went, 2007, there were 25 new tartans not seen in 2004, and more tartan variety in general.

[gun eagal]

Here's a good example of the evening dress option that was so striking back in the '70's. We thought they were pure class. That's Bruce Gandy behind the bass drum. Bands in those days often had just eight pipers. The Grade 2 band I was in 1975(?) when we placed 1st at Santa Rosa had just six pipers and five drummers.

[imrichmond]

Bands in those days often had just eight pipers. The Grade 2 band I was in 1975(?) when we placed 1st at Santa Rosa had just six pipers and five drummers.

Very true. When I played with a grade 1 band in Ontario back in the late 1970s-1980s, we used to compete with twelve pipers and were considered a big band. Lower grade bands I competed with from the 1960s up into the mid-1980s often competed successfully with only six pipers (the minimum required), and occasionally even with one of the six as a "dummy" (i.e. with chanter plugged, so making only a drone sound and fingering as though actually playing). In those days, though, the judges were allowed to stand as close to the band as they liked and it sometimes happened that a judge would confirm his (they were all men in those days) suspicions by putting his head right down beside a chanter he suspected of being silent.

Interestingly, when I moved to British Columbia in 2005, I was surprised to find that some local pipe bands were still wearing the prince charlie jacket, albeit with a long tie and no vest, along with a a dress sealskin sporran and white hose. It was a bit like entering a 1970s timewarp. I hadn't seen that uniform in a couple of decades and had never previously worn it myself.

[gun eagal]

The Balmoral bonnet was very popular back then. Now I can't think of a single band that wears them. Here's another bit of ancient history, the CP Air Pipe Band. They came in second to us at Santa Rosa, which I think might be the only time they didn't take first. Now they are known as SFU. This photo was taken in 1976 at Cowal, where they placed first.

[Tomo]

I was in Edinburgh about 18 months back with my daughter (she was 3 at the time). One of the places we went in was the Celtic Craft Centre and as soon as we walked in she shouted look Daddy it's our tartan.

They guy in the shop was in the middle of packing up a full set of kilts for a pipe band in Macfarlane (Clan/Red) Ancient. There must have been 20 to 30 of them on the counter and rails.

I think he said it was a band in France - but one thing's for sure, they are not heading down the muted tartan route.

Of course, I have no idea what they will be combing this with. I tend towards a more earthy pallet to tone it down, but with BASB and a different sporrans I think the higher contrast would make the overall effect much more vivid - perhaps it's versatile option that's easy to dress up or dress down..

[Shinenotburn]

That looks fantastic! A very well balanced outfit indeed.

[OC Richard]

When I played with a grade 1 band in Ontario back in the late 1970s-1980s, we used to compete with twelve pipers and were considered a big band. Lower grade bands I competed with from the 1960s up into the mid-1980s often competed successfully with only six pipers...

In the 1970s I competed with a Grade 2 band in Santa Rosa and we usually had only six to eight pipers.

It was so interesting, a few years ago I was watching the bands compete at one of our California Games and I ended up chatting with a piper visiting from Australia. I asked him "what's the biggest difference between our contests and your Australian contests?" and he said "the size of the bands, yours are so big!"

Which amazed me because the bands were maybe 10 to 12 pipers. Here, if you go out with 8 the judges don't take you seriously.

That is one of the biggest changes in the pipe band scene, bands going out with 30 pipers in Grade One!

Interestingly, when I moved to British Columbia in 2005, I was surprised to find that some local pipe bands were still wearing the prince charlie jacket, albeit with a long tie and no vest, along with a a dress sealskin sporran and white hose. It was a bit like entering a 1970s timewarp. I hadn't seen that uniform in a couple of decades and had never previously worn it myself.

That's funny! Yes that happened to me, I joined a band in 2005 wearing that exactly outfit, the only thing missing from the old days was that they were wearing Glengarries. At least they got that memo!

That outfit- the Prince Charlie with long tie, no waistcoat, and the heavy cream Arran hose with ghillies- seemed to be a transitional one from the old days when bands wore full Evening Dress with bow tie, tartan hose, and buckled shoes and pointing the way to the new Pipe Band Dress of black Argyll, black Glengarry, white hose, and ghillies.

One thing I wonder about is how the black Hunting sporran with chrome top became the standard Pipe Band sporran the world over.

It's a style that didn't exist in the old days. Hunting sporrans were always brown. I wonder who came up with the idea of making a Hunting sporran out of black leather and sticking a chrome Evening Dress cantle on top.

They do make sense! There are no tassels to fall off and get lost, and there's a shiny bit of chrome for bling.

But to see 20 bands in a row wearing the same sporran, it's just boring.

Anyhow here are bands in the old days in full Evening Dress (long hair sporrans continued to be worn in Evening Dress for quite some time after the new small sealskin Evening sporrans appeared)





Then long ties, heavy Arran hose, and ghillies came in.

This also shows a new "fashion tartan" Flower Of Scotland.



And then this: do away with jackets altogether, just have waistcoats. In recent Worlds not a single Grade One band has appeared in jackets, which was unthinkable in the old days.

Now that the sporran chain is exposed it becomes a new place to add bling. The black Hunting sporran with chrome top is nearly universal.

This also shows the most recent tartan trend: bands having bespoke tartans. (In this case a traditional tartan but a bespoke colour-scheme.)