something different in the Pipe Band world

[MacGumerait]

Now, Now... this is a family show....

I think Tobus was referring to the Southern Texas Farming University , STFU .

[Hopper250]

True, but "shut f*#k up" is grammatically incorrect.

Thanks for sharing...I totally missed the hose. However the closeup shows some sloppy shoe tying.

The SFU could be for the shoe tying. After all it also means "Stop F*&%$#g Up"

[BBNC]

How can a member of a pipe band not stand out, they carry this great wailing thing around, LOL!

[EagleJCS]

How can a member of a pipe band not stand out, they carry this great wailing thing around, LOL!

Oddly enough, many pipe band members don't like wearing Highland attire. They'll wear their street clothes to an event, change into their band uniform, play the music (contest/performance), then change back out of the uniform ASAP. They put up with it because it's the 'price of admission' to doing what they enjoy - playing the pipes and/or drums.

[imrichmond]

Oddly enough, many pipe band members don't like wearing Highland attire. They'll wear their street clothes to an event, change into their band uniform, play the music (contest/performance), then change back out of the uniform ASAP. They put up with it because it's the 'price of admission' to doing what they enjoy - playing the pipes and/or drums.

It's not necessarily that they don't like wearing highland gear. There are, in fact, very practical reasons for this practice. When I played with competition bands, particularly at the grade 1 level, most of us used to wear shorts and t-shirts to the highland games and carry our kilts and jackets in garment bags. Just prior to our performance, we would don our kilts over the shorts (shorts were shorter then than the knee-length+ monstrosities sold as shorts nowadays). This prevented the uniform from becoming creased and rumpled during the usually lengthy drive to the competition site and ensured that we looked pristine when performing. Since we were competing almost every weekend from late May until early August, changing back into civilian clothes for the long drive home ensured that the uniform would look good for the following weekend. Also, given that, on competition day, we normally began the process of tuning and settling the pipes around 11:30 a.m., with a short lunch break around 12:30 p.m., for a competition performance that would usually occur between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m., wearing shorts and t-shirts made us far more comfortable and better able to tolerate the sticky south-western Ontario summer heat during several hours of piping.

That said, I have noticed a distressing trend among some younger pipers and drummers to argue in favour of abandoning highland dress and allowing bands and solo pipers to compete and perform in non-highland dress. This anti-kilt attitude seems to have been bolstered by the increasing popularity and success of the excellent Breton pipe bands (bagads), who generally wear their ethnic dress comprising trousers (skirts for women), white shirt and a sort of bolero jacket even when competing in Scottish events.

[EagleJCS]

You do have a point imrichmond. If I were traveling many miles/hours to compete, I probably wouldn't wear my kilt either. I would probably put it on once I arrived on site, though. To do a performance that's 20 minutes from my front door - why not put the kilt on before I leave the house?

I've also seen it plainly stated by many pipers (and a few drummers) on the Dunsire forum when the topic of Highland dress comes up that they don't like to wear it, but do because they have to in order to compete (solo or band).

[OC Richard]

It's not necessarily that they don't like wearing highland gear. There are, in fact, very practical reasons for this practice. When I played with competition bands, particularly at the grade 1 level, most of us used to wear shorts and t-shirts to the highland games and carry our kilts and jackets in garment bags. Just prior to our performance, we would don our kilts over the shorts (shorts were shorter then than the knee-length+ monstrosities sold as shorts nowadays). This prevented the uniform from becoming creased and rumpled during the usually lengthy drive to the competition site and ensured that we looked pristine when performing.

Interesting. When you speak of the lengthy drive, would that be in a band coach or various members in individual cars?

I grew up in the competition scene here in California, and here it's standard for people to drive themselves individually to Games, in ordinary clothes, and dress at the site itself.

It amazed me, attending Games in Scotland, to see coach after coach pull up, each disgorging a fully dressed band!

About SFU's new tartan, it's an interesting twist on traditional colour schemes, because they kept most of the colours from their previous Ancient Colours tartan, but changed the blue to a rich dark blue as is used with Modern Colours.

[OC Richard]

My memory may be faulty, but it seems to me that it was at the World's and it was Shotts & Dykehead.

That's correct, I have the DVD. Their PM said something to the effect of them wanting to shake things up a bit, do things a bit differently. Who knows? Some day it might be like the Breton thing where bands change formations, have solos and duets etc, during their competition sets.

[imrichmond]

Interesting. When you speak of the lengthy drive, would that be in a band coach or various members in individual cars?

I grew up in the competition scene here in California, and here it's standard for people to drive themselves individually to Games, in ordinary clothes, and dress at the site itself.

As with your experience, OC_Richard, we travelled in private cars, carpooling where possible. The drives were often quite lengthy. From my base in London, Ontario, for example, even a trip to the relatively nearby games in Fergus or Georgetown was a minimum two-hour drive each way, as were the Toronto Indoor Games. Alma, Michigan was around six hours; Maxville was about seven hours to our motel in Cornwall, then a little over an hour the next morning to reach the games in the village of Maxville. The following day, we would drive another hour and a half to Montreal for the games there and, that evening, immediately after the games, drive 8-9 hours back to London. This was a long weekend and in those days there were highland games on the holiday Monday in the village of Dutton, a little over an hour's drive from London. After a very short night, having arrived at our designated crash pads around 3 a.m., we would also compete there. I recall that on one such weekend, I put something like 1200 miles on my car. You can imagine what that sort of weekend would do to a band uniform if it was worn for travelling.

Obviously, for band and solo gigs in town or nearby we used to, and still do, dress before leaving home. Since I now live in a small city accessible only by ferry and air, nearly all performances are within forty minutes of our homes and we all normally arrive fully dressed at the performance site. Two or three times a year my band does venture further afield, and, because most of the travel time is spent aboard a ferry where we are free to walk about and spend much of our time standing, we generally travel kilted on those occasions.

[OC Richard]

From my base in London, Ontario, for example, even a trip to the relatively nearby games in Fergus or Georgetown was a minimum two-hour drive each way, as were the Toronto Indoor Games. Alma, Michigan was around six hours; Maxville was about seven hours to our motel in Cornwall, then a little over an hour the next morning to reach the games in the village of Maxville. The following day, we would drive another hour and a half to Montreal for the games there and, that evening, immediately after the games, drive 8-9 hours back to London.

Wow! That's like it is here, worse even. Here in the LA Metro area the only close Games are Costa Mesa (less than an hour from LA), two hours to San Diego, four hours to Las Vegas, two hours to Seaside, seven hours to Pleasanton, seven hours to Sacramento.

Just got back from Pleasanton, there was a band from Minnesota, a band from Florida! Talk about a trip! Three thousand miles...

There in Scotland, there are dozens of bands within an hour or two of most of the Games, and seems that bands tend to hire coaches for the trip.