Homecoming et al

Pat Taylor from Canada has emailed worrying about getting into the UK. I suppose it is a slight concern. Our 'border security' has been tightened up lately (not before time). Pat tells me that he's read that a Canadian musician has been refused entry and sent back home from London. Must have been a paperwork issue. Can't imagine anything so draconian happening to pipers, say, coming over for the Worlds. If challenged my advice is simply to say you are on holiday and have brought your pipes along to play a few tunes with friends. A band will be different maybe but I still don't anticipate any serious problem. Bands are amateur organisations after all....and this is Homecoming Year! No one will be turned away!
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The big Glasgow Fair fortnight of contests is almost upon us with the first tranche happening on July 17. Looking at the calendar it is surprising how many of the games clash. Organisers should plan a bit better for next year. On the 17th alone we have Balloch, Tomintoul, Inverness and Taynuilt. The real stinker is July 25th when Lochearnhead, Airth and Halkirk clash with the Euro PB Champs at Inverclyde. Entries are bound to suffer and I know Lochearnhead, where we sponsor the junior piob., are trawling for names. Get along and support them if you can.

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The College is bursting with students

on the summer school. Willie Morrison and

Gordon Walker (above with class) are in to supplement our usual teachers. Incidentally Gordon Bruce, the piping instructor for West Lothian, tells me he is putting on a recital in Livingston on July 17 starring Gordon and Stewart Liddell. Get tickets at the Box Office 01506 777666. Gordon B apologies for the deliberate mistakes in the poster (above right). Can you spot them? Answers below.

Willie has a number of students one of whom is from Paris. When he told me I picked him up wrongly and thought he said Harris. Visions of him conversing in Gaelic and using the new Gaelic Tutor 1 ran through my head until the French connection was pointed out later.

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Dugald MacNeill is back from our school in California and it went very well he tells me. He had a set of McCallum pipes to auction from which he raised quite a bit of moolah for the CoP. On Dugald's behalf I want to say a big thank you to Stewart and Kenny for their generosity.

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Nothing much new on the cops to tell you but I see the band website is still down. All the page states is 'This domain name has been reserved for future use'. By whom I wonder. Any reader checking and finding it up again might like to let me know. Here's the link.

Disconcerting too is the story currently running in the press that forces throughout the land are facing major cutbacks and all may be amalgamated into one Scottish police force in the future. What would happen to the various police bands then?

The Strath. Pol. PB petition has received a boost from the Musicians Union. They've emailed their thousands of members with the link and I see quite a few have signed up. Good to see our fellow instrumentalists are on side. Thank you MU!

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Got our copy of the Piping Live! programme last week. Certainly very busy five or six days ahead. You see just what happens when the CoP and PT get on side. You can check out the festival website to earmark your must see events and then book your tickets on line here. The band quartet event look interesting and the Silver Cap is a must. And don't forget the SFU concert which is not in the programme.

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Answers: Liddell spelt with two Ls instead of three; Gordon pic is reversed showing him playing on right shoulder.

Message from America

Former policeman George Barlow, Binghampton, NY, has emailed: Being a retired police officer with 26yrs of service for my municipality and a piper who was called on to pipe for various city functions, I've watched with great interest how my brother officers and pipers are being handled in Strathclyde. Alas the pipe band web site is no more, but what I find rather interesting is that on line you can visit the Strathclyde Police Dart team. Now I understand that moneywise supporting a dart team is much easier than a pipe band. However, the question arises which is more Scottish darts[an English sport] or pipes.Say the word Scotland to anyone and two things come to mind - that great tasting bottled stuff and bagpipes. To be fair if the powers to be are not supporting the pipe band then the police should be without a "dart team" or anything else that carries the police name that has nothing to do with the execution of law enforcement. One has to wonder what agenda is at foot here? Judging from the looks of the main perpetrator [not House] I think it might be due to the lack of females in the band, however that's a cultural thing in the mother country. Here we have female pipers in bands, because [don't take this wrong] - we pride ourselves on not being you. Certainly scheduled practice times could be worked out - its been done before. Mr. Wallace could you or someone on that side of the pond explain to me how something established by an act of parliament can be done away with by an administrator? One final thought, I signed the petition but now its time for maybe the college to widen the fight and have static window stickers that proclaim SAVE THE POLICE PIPE BAND or something to that effect. Petitions are great but when signage enters the picture, bosses take notice. Keep up the good fight!!! The boys of Strathclyde shall not go easy into the night !!

Thank you George for taking the time to write. Actually I think we have a good record here apropos lady pipers and darts is pretty popular in Scotland too. I didn't know the band website was down. How depressing is that?

I was reminded today that there is actually a legal statute which prevents the band being disbanded. I mean a legally binding document which requires that Strathclyde Police has a pipe band. Great, but it is the level of band that concerns me. Scotland cannot afford to lose another Grade 1 band, simple as that. Scottish Power, Boghall, Vale, Fife Const., are all there or thereabouts and improving, but as we stand at the moment only Shotts and the Police seem to be making any top four headway with the judges when they come up against SFU, FM and SLoT. Is this important? You bet. It is unthinkable that in the cradle of pipe band civilisation we should be happy to see the top end of Grade 1 populated with bands from furth of auld Scotia.

Someone said to me today that they thought I was going on and on a bit about the cops and their predicament. They were fed up reading about it. What did I, the PT and the CoP get out of it? What was the hidden agenda? Well, nothing really, it just grinds my gears that the police hierarchy, paid by you and me, can dismiss our music and 123 years of tradition in such a cavalier way.

Incidentally George I remember doing a gig at Binghampton Uni in the mid 90s. Lovely town and lovely people.

Ugly Rumours

Latest rumour is that the police hierarchy are preparing to formally scrap the band in four weeks time. I have this from a couple of sources but don't know how much credence it can be afforded. It is hard to believe that they would actually do this only a couple of weeks before the Worlds but who knows? In my experience the reaction to a campaign like ours goes either of two ways. The first possibility is that the target of the campaign puts his, her or their, hands up and saying 'okay, we made a mistake -totally misunderstood the feeling for the band and the public mood and can give a pledge here and now that Strathclyde Police Pipe Band will be given all the practice time required to maintain itself as a world class outfit.' The second occurs when there is a lack of generosity of spirit and a 'no one pushes me around' attitude. The person in authority hardens their attitude and it actually precipitates the outcome you don't want. I do not know Mr House, the Chief Constable, or anything about him worth reporting to you. If he falls into the latter category we are in trouble. In some ways this would be better than the death of a thousand cuts the band is experiencing at the moment. Gone, the band could rise again under a more enlightened leadership. I think if it does go it is unlikely to regain the status it has at the minute. A community based band entirely of non-cops? Well Fife Constabulary under Jimmy Murray are doing pretty well after only a couple of years. So again, who knows. One thing I do know -- other Grade 1 bands are waiting to snap up the pipers and drummers from Strathclyde once the axe finally falls.
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I have received news that the famous MacDougall of Aberfeldy name has been bought by a partnership. The new owners of the MacDougall names were not mentioned, but I understand that one of the partners is based in Hampshire, in England. Website is http://www.macdougallbagpipes.com/ where a price list shows a standard artificial ivory set of these new MacDougalls starting at £2,750. For that price they'd better be good. Most of the excellent makers who advertise in the PT are making very fine art ivory sets for about a quarter of that.
The old MacDougall pipes were very steady instruments but too quiet for my taste. No match for the fuller toned Henderson or Lawrie pipe. The great advantage of the MacDougall was its steadiness and because they were so subdued (most of them anyway) when they did drift it was not as noticeable as it would be in a more robust set. Another major misunderstanding about this pipe is what I call the romance of the brass lined drone. This was not done for any acoustic or harmonic effect. In fact it stifled the already quiet sound. The sleeves were inserted so that if the pipes cracked in warm climes they could still be played. A big plus for Scots regiments stationed in the tropics.
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The CoP End of Term contest went very well with a healthy entry. Congrats to Derek Midgley for winning the overall. Another competitor was Donald Campbell, brother of Tony Blair's former spinmeister Alistair. Alistair is a piper too and STV have made a show about them and their childhood in the north of England. There's another brother too and they were all called 'Jock' by their classmates at school, a source of real annoyance Donald said. Mild I'd have thought against some of the abuse Alistair dished out and took in his later life.
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Donald McBride has emailed to tell me about a website where all we 50 plussers can indulge in some nostalgia by listening to bands in the early 70s and weep into our beer. It's at http://www.thebagpipeplace.com/library/page24.html . Some stick out names and some very fine playing. These were great days, sob, never to be repeated, sob...damn it - just ruined another pint, but thanks anyway Donald.

At Pitt Street

Petition poster handover went well with no arrests and a good turnout of press. Hopefully we will get a decent show in the media tomorrow and tonight but whatever the outcome it was worth doing. I asked the guy at the Pitt Street HQ reception to hand over the poster to Mr House the Chief Constable. Let's hope he takes the sentiment it displays on board. Stuart McMillan the MSP was there with me and Willie Park piped. Bemused looks from passersby and various cops as they went about their duties. I made the point to the Press Association girl that.....well you've read it all before. Let's see what happens now. I say again - the Worlds next year without the police band is a real possibility.
I hope you all like the poster and thanks to Hugh Clarkson for making it up for us free of charge.
Someone asked me what the PT gets out of doing this sort of thing. Not a lot really save the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing something that is right. If the Piping Times cannot campaign to help save this band then it is not worth the paper it is printed on. Silence from many quarters of the piping and pipe band world is deafening mind you. Some heads are so far below the parapet they must be eating worms. But I am quite happy to put the magazine in the firing line for the good of piping, all sanctimony aside.
The PT and its readers got very little credit for bringing the television cameras to the Worlds and now we are having them streamed live over the internet. It is nice to be right about something once in a while. We can of course gauge the strength of a magazine by the pressure it can exert. We won the BBC fight and we will continue to do whatever we can for the police band. I am sure our readers would expect nothing less. Thanks again to all those who took the trouble to sign the petition.

Petition Poster

We will be presenting the petition poster re the Strathclyde Police band at the police's Pitt Street Headquarters at 2pm. Hopefully there will be some Press there. Anyone who wants to come along will be welcome. Will only take a few minutes I suppose. Stewart McMillan the MSP will be there with me. Probably be just a case of posing for a photograph or two and then handing in the poster. When I last looked we have more than 3,100 names (quite a few 'anonymous' right enough) but significant I think nevertheless.

My colleague in the Whistlebinkies, Eddie McGuire is also Scotland and Northern Ireland branch Chairman of the Musician's Union. Following the stories last week he has written to the Scotsman:

Dear Sir,
The quality of the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band first deeply impressed me 33 years ago when I heard them at the Lorient Festival in Brittany. I have always kept those standards in mind when writing music that combines pipe bands with our leading orchestras. Moreover, since then they have performed at hundreds of community events keeping the ideal of local policing alive. They need time and support to keep their championship standards high. That's why I fully agree with the call from the Principal of the College of Piping, Robert Wallace, in Tuesday's Scotsman, to prevent this pipe band being cut. If a band with well over a century of tradition and 22 World Pipe Band Championship titles to its credit could go, then other forces may be tempted to follow suit, especially in the light of proposed 'national' streamlining. There is a petition in support on the College of Piping website,
Eddie McGuire
Chair, Scotland & Northern Ireland Region Musicians' Union

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I've had a distressing email from Bob Lawson in Edinburgh telling me that local stalwart Neil Gillies had died. Neil would have been known to those on the games circuit in the 70s and 80 and latterly he was a great supporter of the Highland Pipers Society in Edinburgh and also the Scots Guards Club. The last time I spoke to him was at Newtonmore a couple of years ago when he congratulated the College for bringing out the CD of Robert Reid's recordings. Condolences to Neil's family a this sad time.

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Another great victory for Stuart Liddell's Inveraray band yesterday at Banbridge. Four straight firsts from every judge. Doesn't happen too often. There's a good interview with Stuart in the next edition of Pipe Band magazine. By the way, how good is the RSPBA results service? They must have been on air last night within seconds of the announcements on the park.

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PT will be sent out tomorrow. News of a new piping school in the north of Scotland, second instalment of Angus MacKay (I'm, re-running Campbell of Kilberry's piece he did for the magazine back in 1954) plus all the other goodies. Jeannie has a piece on the CoP band. It will be competing at Gourock at the Europeans and Barry Donaldson, the pipe major, says we have so many pipers we might be the biggest band on parade at the Worlds. Incidentally the RSPBA has, as expected, graded the band 4b. In all this we must not lose sight of the band's raison d'etre. That is to offer pipers who have never played with a band before the opportunity to compete. Others coming over for the Worlds and who have attended CoP outreach schools are also keen to get involved and that is fantastic. But the bottom line is that we want all participants to enjoy joint music making and those who need the experience to get it.

Scotsman Responds

The Scotsman has redressed the balance re the band. They ran a
news story yesterday and a comment piece from myself. The news story headlined 'Police officers pipe up for rebellion' read:
A rebellion has broken out among members of a police pipe band after senior officers decided it could no longer perform at community galas and other events.At least ten members of the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band have lodged an official complaint against senior management over moves they say will bring about the end of the 126-year-old institution.The band's 15 police members are angry at a decision taken by Chief Constable Steve House to require the permission of a divisional commander, Chief Superintendent Anne McGuire, to take part in charity fundraisers, village fêtes and other events.That has resulted in the band missing a number of events in the past few weeks, including an annual taxi outing for disabled children and the Govan Fair. The band, which numbers about 40 in total and is made up of its 15 police members and civilian staff and guests, is world-renowned in piping circles. Last year it performed at about 20 events, but is struggling to cope with changes to the police members' shifts that make it much harder to practise.The Scotsman understands ten members have put their names to an official complaint. So far, efforts to resolve the grievances – which are being handled internally – have failed. Now its supporters are warning that the band will fold within a matter of months or even weeks, with morale among its members said to have hit the floor.Last week, Chief Superintendent John Pollock told The Scotsman he believed it was time to call time on the band to save money. Sources within Strathclyde Police have suggested the band costs as much as £700,000 in officer time and expenses.The band's supporters call that claim "ridiculous", saying the positive publicity and boost to community relations provided by the pipers far outweigh the money spent. College of Piping principal Robert Wallace says the band costs about £30,000 a year – and insists it is worth every penny."Strathclyde Police says it believes in community involvement. What better way to engage with the community than with the pipe band?"For 40 years they have taken disadvantaged kids on the annual taxi ride to Troon. They've taken part in galas across the force and are a highlight at the Govan Fair. Now the force has decided the band should not take part in any of these events."Assistant Chief Constable John Neilson confirmed that "several officers within the pipe band have utilised the force grievance procedure".He said: "As this is an ongoing process, I am unable to outline at what stage each grievance is at. However, work is ongoing in an effort to conciliate individual grievances."
My comment piece read: Only in Scotland could musicians playing our national music to a world class level be so despised. It beggars belief that the philistines who occupy police headquarters at Pitt Street in Glasgow could plot the demise of the iconic ensemble that is Strathclyde Police Pipe Band – and gloat about it in the name of force efficiency, as did Chief Superintendent John Pollock last Friday. His outburst stuck in the craw of every right-thinking Scot. No one should be under any illusion as to what the future of the band is. Morale is so low that I doubt they will exist next year and a 123-year tradition, a proud history of 22 World Pipe Band Championship titles and the affection of an entire community will be gone. Can you imagine the Royal Marines telling their musicians they weren't needed any more? To say it costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep the band going is nonsense. They receive £29,500 per year from the force.You could barely buy a fraction of the good PR the pipe band gives Strathclyde Police for that price, playing as they do at dozens of public events throughout the year.The economic argument is further rent asunder when you consider that the World Pipe Band Championships generates around £4 million for the Strathclyde and Scottish economy every year. Strathclyde Police Pipe Band are an integral and essential part of that endeavour. Can you envision the Scottish Premier League without any of the top teams? That is what we are talking about here.This August the Championships are to be streamed live around the world over the internet, a decision announced yesterday by the BBC. It is almost unthinkable that in 2010 they will do so without this band filling our screens at some point in the day. Oh yes, say the police authorities, we are very supportive of them and proud of their traditions.What they don't get is that their traditions are at the very top end of the musical scale.Cut their practice time, cut their opportunities to play in public and they will very quickly become a second or third-rate outfit that no one wants to hear. Will you be happy about that Mr House, when you and 40,000 others attend the closing ceremony at Glasgow Green in August?
Some of the comments which accompanied the story on the Scotsman website are disappointing basically calling for the band to 'get back on the beat' and 'join the real world'. This, I believe is the heart of the matter. Scotland just does not understand or value its culture enough. I cannot imagine the authorities in Brittany, for example, forcibly disbanding one of their top ensembles. Inroads have been made in getting the piping and pipe band message across but until our music is properly taught as part of the Scottish schools music curriculum we will always have an uphill struggle.

Scotsman story on Strathclyde Police PB

Outrageous story in the Scotsman today re the Strathclyde Police PB. It reads:
'SCOTLAND'S oldest and most celebrated police pipe band should be scrapped to boost the fight against crime, a senior officer has told The Scotsman.
Chief Superintendent John Pollock said that growing pressure on police budgets means that the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band is now a luxury that the force can no longer afford.He said that ceasing to bankroll the band is one of several "hard decisions" that Strathclyde's chief constable, Steve House, should make to ensure the force is able carry out its primary role of protecting the public.It is understood that several hundreds of thousands of pounds are being spent every year on the pipe band, both in terms of the time devoted by serving officers to practising and performing and the expense of travelling to major competitions throughout Scotland and overseas. But the amount of resources devoted to running the band has come under the spotlight in recent months, amid tight spending settlements and a Scottish Government efficiency drive on the public sector that is requiring police forces to find annual savings of 2 per cent................Mr Pollock, who is president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents, is urging Mr House to go even further and pull all funding from the band due to growing pressure on core police services from tighter public spending and growing demands on forces.He said: "Difficult decisions will have to be taken by chief constables."If we accept we are in a hard place at the moment, then I think some hard decisions will have to be taken. One example, in my own force, is the pipe band. What is the financial legitimacy of continuing to fund the pipe band?"There is undoubtedly a fine tradition, so it's not going to be an easy decision."Mr Pollock added: "I'm not saying I don't like the pipe band. But when harsh realities come, what would the public expect of us?"For the sum of money spent on the band we would have a number of additional officers on the street and a number of different supervisors making sure officers are doing what they are asked to do."I recently asked a senior figure in the private sector, what would you do? He said, from the business side, scrap it; from the emotional side, keep it."We don't have that luxury."Mr Pollock stressed that he would be fully supportive of the band if members chose to practise and perform in their own time, or if the government chose to fund it through money for culture and the arts."But I don't think it should fall to the police and to the public," he added.
Mr Pollock is clearly a patsy set up by the Chief Constable to fly an anti-band kite for him. The facts are that the band gets a budget of £29,500 a year at the moment. As a rule they do not go abroad to compete unless in a one-off situation like Alden Biesen a few years ago. There are 15 serving officers in the band. 80% of their time is on policing and 20% on practising and playing at public events. Compare this to the mounted branch who recently moved to a new farm in Ayrshire at a cost of £3m and whose officers spend 65% with their animals and 35% policing.
What is most outrageous about Mr Pollock's outburst, however, is that he is Chief Superintendent of Complaints for Strathclyde Police. He is meant to be impartial. Yet at the moment there are currently 10 officers from the band going through the force grievance procedure. How can he possibly rule on their individual cases when he has got it in for the band like this? Comments welcome.