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DIGITAL SERIES ISSUE 55 INDEX PIPING WORLD5 NOVEMBER THE WORLD’S ONLY INDEPENDENT PIPING MAGAZINE 2 is the pipe band world really a sleeping 2013 giant? 8 danny fleming: pipe obsession hits the news John Grant 14 new australian book: shows rich piping diversity Danny Fleming 16 murdoch maclean macleod: 1924-2013 18 act solo piping: hughes wins championship Reay Fencibles 21 stevenston juniors: stewart and barrie champions The sleeping giant 25 ‘floo’ers o’ the forest’: a magnificent memorial 25 highlands competition: heavy losses force call-off Angus John MacLellan 27 worth a look: boghall & bathgate ‘forte’ Stevenston Juniors 29 maccrimmons of skye: popular book back in print 31 ashton trophy: liverpool piper wins award 33 off the wire 41 pipe bands in pictures: 43 angus john maclellan: 1936-2013 48 the reay fencibles:iain mackay scobie’s research 60 piping for dancing:the highland fling 65 moladh air piob-mhor mhic cruimein: in praise of maccrimmon’s pipes 74 leading the way: antwerp & district 80 piping pics: act solo championships 2013 82 the tuition of young pipers: pipe major john grant 95 swiss championships: switch affects entry 97 worth a look: world pipe band championships 2013 November 2013 Antwerp & District Pipe Band www.duntroonpublishing.com THE GLOBAL PIPING PHENOMENON Piping World Piping World hats off to the 2013 world pipe is the pipe band world band champions really a sleeping giant? with Bruce Campbell COMMENT EDITOR, PIPING WORLD URING the course of my ‘day job’ (how can you call a pas- band would have plus past members D sion a ‘job’) I am lucky enough and current learners (and including the to be able to speak about my favourite number of non-band pipers around the subject to a lot of different people. world) I came up with about 150,000. Often I get asked about the numeri- It has taken me some time to get to cal size of this piping world of ours and terms with this astronomic number but the reaction I get when I tell of my esti- since then I have come to believe that mated numbers is breathtaking - at that figure, as large as it is, is about 80- least it is as far as they are concerned 100,00 short of the real figure. because it rarely fails to take their In support of that, as if my head breath away. count wasn’t enough, consider the fact For a long time I dawdled along that between them Scotland's two thinking that there was about 10,000 leading bagpipe makers are selling over pipers in the world until I read a one thousand sets of pipes a year. Canadian piper’s estimate of about Add in the other dozen or so com- 25,000. panies in Scotland whose total output That caused me to think and after without the use of cnc lathe equipment working how many pipe bands there probably accounts for about the same are - both registered and unregistered and then multiply it over a ten year - and how many pipers an average pipe period and you have a total of about OUR ADVERTISERS .... please support them 04 Pipe Tunes 28 PIOBAIREACHD magazine 54 My King Has Landed in Moidart 88 ‘The Collected Works of Jock 10 PipeReeds.Com 30 ‘While the Billy Boiled’ 58 ‘Music of the MacCrimmons’ McLellan, DCM of Dunoon’ 12 Piobaireachd lessons 32 Wallace Bagpipes 62 Caledonian Collection Book 1 90 The Perfect Valve 14 Holyrood Book 1 34 Redpipes 64 Sgoil nam Piobaire 1 94 CHANTER magazine 20 Cowal Bagpipes 38 ‘The MacCrimmon Pipers’ 64 The David Glen Collection 98 Piping CDs 22 Gannaway 44 The David Glen Collection Bk 7 70 Duntroon Collection Book 3 100 Duntroon Web Store 24 Box & Fiddle magazine 48 The Piping School - skype lessons 76 Piping for Highland Dancing 26 Seton Gordon award 50 New titles from Duntroon 84 Complete Piobaireachd Lessons PAGE 2 PAGE 3 Piping World Piping World 20,000 sets sold in that same 10 year niches called grades. period alone. Last month PIPING WORLD ran a If we don’t have that huge amount of comment piece which had the word pipers in the world then where are “bonkers” in its headline. these new instruments going? Maybe the inference that the I have only measured a ten year peri- RSPBA’s inability to sort its top grade od but consider the ‘generational’ peri- out properly was a tad excessive - but od of 30 years and that comes up to just a tad. 60,000 sets - from Scotland’s top mak- Any outsider who would be brought ers alone. in to re-structure pipe band competi- That obviously does not include the tions would quickly point out two star- many fine overseas makers of our tlingly obvious factors - that there has noble instrument nor the even smaller to be a size restriction put on pipe firms which still make a significant bands and automatic promotion and impact. relegation needs to be brought in to all The purpose of this comment piece grades. has, however, nothing to do with the If a band doesn’t compete in a seaon amount of new pipes being produced then it needs to be dropped down a but rather about the startling lack of level. progress we are making in the pipe But to make all of this realistic and band world. get that level of support from their If the reaction to the amount of member bands then the governing pipers current out there is literally bodies have to make it financially breathtaking then the next reaction, worthwhile for their member bands. given that I speak to a lot of people In short, the spoils which are now involved in commerce, is predictable: coming their way need to be given out what a huge and untapped market. - or at least a sizeable chunk. If only ...... Winning the World Championships The pipe band world is perhaps the in Grade 1 should be worth no less one which is the most backward in this than £10,000 and even qualifying for game of ours simply that is the one the finals should be worth £2,000. which has chosen to adopt a set of That might sound like a lot of money rules by which it is governed and then but it is a drop in the ocean when com- steer its member bands into nice little pared to how much these same bands PIIPIING WORLD ON-LIINE NEWS ‘‘THE DAIILY PIIPER’’ www..thedaiillypiiper..com PAGE 4 PAGE 5 Piping World Piping World collectively spend coming to Glasgow to understand then a look at how the each year. English Premier League operates would RSPBA CEO Ian Embleton A very conservative estimate of the provide a perfect model to copy. total ‘spend’ of Grade 1 bands this year It is singularly the greatest and most would reveal not much change from successful sporting organisation in the £1million. world. Just how long are bands going to be Its members get bucket loads in the given the short end of the sandwich; sums of tens of millions of pounds a why do they not share in the bounty year just for being a member while the which comes the RSPBA’s way in terms promoted clubs each year see the of on-the-day revenue and royalties? windfall which is about to come their But for that to happen, and then way as being equivalent to about taken to an even higher level, it is £90million over a two year period. essential that a more cohesive struc- Our pipe bands get ..... well, nothing. ture be adopted. What they do get when they come For the bands to get more they have up a grade is the stark realisation that to be prepared to give more and the they have a snowball's chance of actu- first step is to sort out the mayhem ally surviving as they face little prospect which currently exists as Grade 1. of actually being successful and then On the subject of the premier grade, the further realisation that their top the time when the RSPBA continues to players will be poached by other bands. allow overseas associations to grade its Limit the numbers in bands and make own bands at the top level has to be promotion/relegation automatic. over. It won’t cure all of the ills but it Just because a band is Grade 1 in would go a long, long way. upper Siberia does not mean that it What about a third change - actually automatically has the right to expect to supplying the piping press with some be graded at that level on Glasgow information instead of treating us like Green - or it shouldn’t be. the enemy. And neither does it mean that an overseas band can continue to stack its Would you like to contribute an ranks with the best players from over article to ‘comment’; you can the world ‘just for the trip’. contact the editor by email at If all of this is too much of a concept [email protected] Reader’s comments on this and any article are more than welcome [email protected] And now you can keep up to date with the latest in piping via our THE DAILY PIPER on-line news portal www.dailypiper.com PAGE 6 PAGE 7 Piping World Piping World danny fleming: pipe obsession hits the news ANNY Fleming has had a thing family are said to have 'understanding about pipes for a log time, not neighbours' D just a past-time but a major thing.