Pipe Band tartan trends

[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.)

[Shinenotburn]

That looks fantastic! A very well balanced outfit indeed.

[gun eagal]

I think that photo was taken a few years ago because Alan Bevan has been PM since 2014, and it looks like Terry Lee is still PM in that photo. But they wore the same kilts at the worlds in 2019. How much does it cost to outfit that organization? They must have hundreds of members between all their bands. Back in the day we called them "The Red Tartan Army" after the pibroch.

[OC Richard]

It's a complex tale with SFU, RMM, Maple Ridge, Triumph Street.

As band people know, two daunting expenses facing a startup band are kilts and drums.

We did the most economical thing: we bought a whole band set of kilts from a band who had just switched to new kilts, a new tartan.

We wear the old Regina Police kilts, in Prince Charles Edward Stuart tartan.

[gun eagal]

We wear the old Regina Police kilts, in Prince Charles Edward Stuart tartan.

Which band is that, Richard? That is a very nice tartan for pipe bands, and seems to be used by a lot of Police pipe bands. Perhaps it is because the Edinburgh Police wore that tartan back in the day?

[OC Richard]

We're now the Long Beach Pipe Band.

Started out as the Los Angeles Scottish G4, then got promoted to G3, then became the Long Beach Fire Department Pipe Band (which was when we got the old Regina Police PCES kilts, great kilts for a fire dept band) and now on our own as the Long Beach Pipe Band.

Here's myself (left) and the Pipe Major at a Games, I think we're playing for the Drum Majors contest.



I didn't know Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band wore that tartan! It's the old tartan of the 72nd Highlanders



They lost that tartan in 1881 when they became the 1st Battalion the Seaforth Highlanders, and switched to MacKenzie.

The tartan survived only in the rear pipe ribbon worn by pipers of the 1st Battalion