today's Worlds dress

**OC Richard** · 12th August 22, 06:36 PM

I was up at 2:45am Pacific time, cafe mocha in hand, to watch the first World Pipe Band Championships since 2019.

Today (Friday) was intended to be the Grade One Qualifier, however since the number of bands entered didn't exceed the number which were to be promoted to the Final tomorrow (14) today and tomorrow feature the same bands.

It was announced that a total of around 150 bands were competing this year, down from (as I recall) around 225 bands pre-Covid.

Some bespoke tartans made their Worlds Grade One debut today, I post photos of them here http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...45#post1400145

As usual competition breeds conformity, for example all of the Grade One bands pleated their kilts to the stripe, all were wearing waistcoats sans jackets, all wore Glengarries and ghillies, all but one wore white shirts, and all but three wore striped ties.

The change which has already taken place is that none wore white hose and only one wore black; the remainder were dark blue or dark grey.

Another change which appears practically complete is that only three bands wore the black Barathea/silver button waistcoat; in 2014 all but a couple bands wore them.

Most bands are wearing tweed waistcoats now, with imitation staghorn buttons, in deep blue or dark grey.

About the bagpipes, looks like every band except for Saint Lawrence O Toole is wearing dark blue covers, nearly all with silver trim, none with gold.

All of this is disappointing to me, as I had predicted bands moving towards brown tweeds and earth-toned tartans.

The punctuated equilibrium of the Pipe Band world is taking its own sweet time getting around to the punctuating part.

**piperalpha** · 13th August 22, 02:26 AM

That’s too bad that all the bands are playing it safe again.

im not surprised they’re down 75 bands. It’s good to hear that it’s resumed. If I didn’t have to work overtime I would be watching it as well. Hopefully the music is better than the attire.

**Lallans** · 13th August 22, 09:02 AM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

I was up at 2:45am Pacific time, cafe mocha in hand, to watch the first World Pipe Band Championships since 2019.

Today (Friday) was intended to be the Grade One Qualifier, however since the number of bands entered didn't exceed the number which were to be promoted to the Final tomorrow (14) today and tomorrow feature the same bands.

It was announced that a total of around 150 bands were competing this year, down from (as I recall) around 225 bands pre-Covid.

Some bespoke tartans made their Worlds Grade One debut today, I post photos of them here http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...45#post1400145

As usual competition breeds conformity, for example all of the Grade One bands pleated their kilts to the stripe, all were wearing waistcoats sans jackets, all wore Glengarries and ghillies, all but one wore white shirts, and all but three wore striped ties.

The change which has already taken place is that none wore white hose and only one wore black; the remainder were dark blue or dark grey.

Another change which appears practically complete is that only three bands wore the black Barathea/silver button waistcoat; in 2014 all but a couple bands wore them.

Most bands are wearing tweed waistcoats now, with imitation staghorn buttons, in deep blue or dark grey.

About the bagpipes, looks like every band except for Saint Lawrence O Toole is wearing dark blue covers, nearly all with silver trim, none with gold.

All of this is disappointing to me, as I had predicted bands moving towards brown tweeds and earth-toned tartans.

The punctuated equilibrium of the Pipe Band world is taking its own sweet time getting around to the punctuating part.

Are you watching this event in person, or is it being streamed online somewhere?

**EagleJCS** · 13th August 22, 11:10 AM

It's been streamed online by the BBC (https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e3x5q9/live/c99bj5). As of right now (14:08 Eastern US time), they're going through the awards ceremonies. They're up to the grade 3A pipe bands (starting with Juvenile Drum Major awards working up to the grade 1 pipe bands).

**piperalpha** · 13th August 22, 03:15 PM

What the actual mother of Christ is going on with Scottish Power’s pipe bag covers? It looks like they were running short on material and instead of ordering up some more they said to hell with it. It’s 28 degrees Celsius out. Hey Angus, get the silver thermal blankets. We’ll use half of them per pipe bag. Let’s do the front half.
I hope this doesn’t become a trend. It’s the only thing that looks worse the bright white socks

**OC Richard** · 13th August 22, 04:37 PM

Originally Posted by piperalpha

What the actual mother of Christ is going on with Scottish Power’s pipe bag covers? I hope this doesn’t become a trend.

They wore those at the 2019 Worlds as well, Mylar things over the front half of the bag-covers.

They're supposed to keep the sun from heating up the reeds. Bob Worrall was saying they must be doing their job because Power's tone held...but so did the tone from FMM and Inveraray, who came in ahead of them.

(Another puzzling thing about their pipes is why the Royal Stewart cords?)

It was 84f with 80% humidity today in Glasgow Green. It was nice that the bands had Friday to help get their pipes accustomed to the unusual weather! There were a lot of drifting chanters and drones, and early chanters and late drones, on Friday. Today the pipes were much more settled.

The announced results today were

1. Field Marshal Montgomery (Northern Ireland)
2. Inveraray (Scotland)
3. Scottish Power (Scotland)
4. Saint Lawrence O Toole (Republic of Ireland/Eire)
5. Boghall and Bathgate (Scotland)
6. Simon Fraser University (Canada)

The newcomers all sounded like they belonged! Nice playing from Dunedin (USA) Closkelt (Northern Ireland) and Saint Thomas Alumni (USA).

**OC Richard** · 13th August 22, 04:58 PM

EDIT: post deleted

**kilted redleg** · 14th August 22, 08:53 AM

Nice to see the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards led by Champion piper/solider Ben Duncan won their class 3B. Ben just retired from service and has a job instructing piping at a local school. As a bit of an armchair piping historian it's good to see the military getting back into the competitive piping world, as that's how it was years ago. Regiments would prize the trophies "won in the field" on the piping fields. Also if anyone is interested at the National Piping Center in the book section the Argyll and Sutherland regiment released their volume 2 of pipe tunes this week. Book can be purchased here: https://www.thebagpipeshop.co.uk/col.../books?page=14 Don't know when US dealers will have it.

**imrichmond** · 17th August 22, 02:33 PM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

They wore those at the 2019 Worlds as well, Mylar things over the front half of the bag-covers.

They're supposed to keep the sun from heating up the reeds. Bob Worrall was saying they must be doing their job because Power's tone held...but so did the tone from FMM and Inveraray, who came in ahead of them.

Back in the day, when I played with a grade 1 band in southern Ontario summer heat, to keep our reeds cool and provide some needed moisture we used to put a couple of small chunks of ice in our sheepskin bags just before marching up to the line. Less flashy than Scottish Power's solution, but it worked.

**imrichmond** · 17th August 22, 02:38 PM

It's not surprising that the bands opted to wear vests without jackets, given the unusually high temperatures in Glasgow last weekend. Mind you, 40 years ago, we used to compete in similar temperatures in Ontario while wearing full No. 1 dress, as did a great many bands across North America. The current, more relaxed, mode of dress is much more sensible.