The following article by Fergus Muirhead was taken from the Glasgow Herald 03/07/08:
SOLO PIPERS IN FINE SPIRIT AS THEY TEAM UP FOR SUPERBAND
Some of the world's top solo pipers had spent the day at The Glenfiddich -- the World Championship of Solo Piping -- and had just finished playing a few tunes together at the post-competition ceilidh when the idea of the first Scottish "superband" was born. Roddy MacLeod, Principal of the National Piping Centre in Glasgow, explains:
"For a lot of us, our solo piping regime means that we don't have the time to play in pipe bands any more but we decided that we quite enjoyed playing at the World Pipe Championship at Glasgow Green and would like to be able to do it without the year-round commitment of a regular pipe band."
MacLeod was in charge of the hugely successful Scottish Power Pipe Band for almost 20 years until his retiral two years ago, and so it seemed natural that he would be chosen to lead this new superband, although it is not clear how democratic the process was. "It was my idea to be PM because, of all the guys involved, I had most experience as a pipe major of a grade-one band and the rest of the guys seemed happy to go along with that."
One of the first thing the band had to do was find a name and a sponsor. MacLeod had no hesitation in approaching Glenfiddich, "Because there are so many of us who have played at the Glenfiddich championship I approached them thinking that we might need a little bit of money. So I explained that the idea came from the championship and we would call ourselves the Spirit of Scotland Pipe Band."
Glenfiddich came on board straight away. "It's such an exciting and interesting venture, we felt compelled to give some support," explained Liz Maxwell, organizer of the Glenfiddich competition. "The idea was conceived at Blair Castle during the 2007 Glenfiddich piping championship, so perhaps we felt just a little parental responsibility."
The band name comes from our successful and prestigious annual Spirit of Scotland Awards and, quite appropriately is led by Roddy MacLeod, who was awarded the Genfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award for Music in 2004.
"The value of being associated with the piping and drumming elite forming the Spirit of Scotland Pipe Band is immeasurable and, although band sponsorship is a new venture for us, I am sure it will fit very nicely into our existing piping commitments."
Of course, the whole idea in the first place was that these guys didn't have time to practice with a band, so how will MacLeod cope with imposing discipline on people used to playing on their own? "So far we have had a few small practices and its going well. One of the reasons we're doing this is that we all get on together. We've been playing in competition against each other for years and are all very close. There is no sense of egos running riot or not being able to take instructions. The others all know what it takes to run a band and all know someone has to give direction. If people don't subscribe to that, then it won't work."
Dr. Simon McKerrel agrees. McKerrell, until recently head of piping studies at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, but who has recently taken up a post as a lecturer in ethno-musicology at Sheffield University, is one of a new breed of competing solo pipers who also has had a successful career as a piper in traditional folk bands, such as Back of the Moon. "I know all of the pipers and I don't see any of them having big egos - well not the size of mine anyway. They are all such good players in their own right that they are not troubled by ego."
McKerrell's background with folk bands has meant that he has been given the task of arranging the tunes that the band is going to play for the medley - a mixed selection of tunes that all of the grade-one bands will play in the final of the world championship. "Over the past couple of months, Finlay MacDonald and I have been trying out tunes, and arranging harmonies. I've tried to inject a bit of non-piping traditional music into the set.
"For instance, we're playing a tune by John McCusker, who is not a piper. His tune, Friday Harbour, is a slow air and I have arranged it more like a vocal three-part harmony arrangement than a standard pipe band setting. I'm hoping people will be impressed by the music and our settings. It's not all about syncopation or new tunes. It's about good quality tunes that combine well."
To complete the Spirit of Scotland Band for their performance at the world championship MacLeod has enlisted the services of a drum corps largely based in Canada, and will not arrive in Scotland until the week before the event, so truly the band will not have its first full practice until just before the championship itself.
MacLeod is cautiously optimistic about the band's chances. "We all have our pride and we don't want to go and sound anything other than really good. We all go into competition wanting to play well and wanting our pipes to sound good. We've all played at grade one level before so the first hurdle is to try to qualify in the morning and compete in the afternoon's final round. If we do that, then we will be competing with the best in the world and it will be a real endorsement of our standard."
He did go on to say that even if the Spirit of Scotland superband doesn't make it to the final, the audience at Glasgow Green won't be deprived of hearing them. "Of course, if we don't qualify for the final we'll just have to play our medley outside the beer tent so that everyone can hear it anyway."
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