Uist and Barra

I thought I should update you with some feedback from the Uist and Barra on Saturday. We had a pretty full house and I think the only adverse commentary was about the heat in the main auditorium (pictured left). I think we have now worked out how to control the a/c so everything should be okay in the future. The problem is that the modern building is so well insulated that all you need are a few bodies in a room and the heat starts to build. This is what happened on Saturday with around 100 people milling about at various times.

The feedback from all the pipers I spoke to was very positive and most appreciated the lack of any gap between final tuning and the platform. Two minutes and they were on. I think the audience appreciated this too as there was very little gap between performances. The judges used tuning lights too so the whole day was over by 5.05pm. We heard 15 piobaireachd (some big tunes), 15 MSRs and 30 Jigs (each piper had to play two) with a tune up between MSR & Jig. So the U&B proved what can be done with a good venue and efficient stewarding.

Another pleasing factor about the day was the social aspect. Great to see Liz and Derek Maxwell from Glenfiddich, Jimmy MacGregor down from Perthshire, Fiona Manson, Tracie Williams, and youngsters Keith Bowes and Alasdair Henderson (listening to the top players is the best way to learn lads) among many others. Alistair MacQueen was there fresh from his success in the Archie Kenneth and he kept his winning run going by picking up a bottle of the cratur in the raffle.

The standard of play was considered at least as good as previous years with the usual ring rustiness from some pipers, the odd slip putting them out of the prizelist. The pipes all sounded pretty good to me. I've just learned that you can include film clips on these blogs so here's one (below) of Stuart Liddell's 2nd jig with which he took 2nd prize. Done on the mobile so quality not great.

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Getting ready now for the CoP Lecture and Piob Soc conf. at the weekend. Heading for the biggest attendance ever with more than 50 booked for the conference and that doesn't include the day visitors.