David Colvin’s critically acclaimed and award-winning play about Gordon Duncan, Thunderstruck, is playing in Glassford on May 23rd, 2025. Glassford is a small village located 8 kilometres south of Hamilton, and 3 kilometres from Strathaven.
The play is a must-see for pipers, and this date may be the last chance to catch the play till 2026, so if you are anywhere near Glassford Village Hall next week buy yourself some tickets for the emotional Thunderstruck roller coaster. Get your tickets here!
No one knew what to expect from the play at the first showing in 2018, and after a very busy week at Piping Live! it totally caught many of the audience by surprise. From the first scenes the audience were laughing, and a bit shocked. There were tears of laughter and also some very poignant moments in between the skilful storytelling and the music.
One of the final events of the festival was a radically different tribute to Gordon Duncan in the form of Thunderstruck, a play about the influence of the great man on Scottish music, written by and starring David Colvin. Certainly not a family-friendly production, the show found creative and humorous ways to lay down the rules of bagpipe music to help a non-playing audience appreciate just how Gordon Duncan smashed them to smithereens in ways none had ever done before. Highlights ranged from a beautifully poignant use of Hector the Hero as a metaphor for Gordon’s own life and death to a hilariously frank depiction of just what an awestruck (or perhaps even thunderstruck?) young boy would say to Princess Diana on receipt of his band’s World Championship trophy. Stuart Milne • Piping Today Magazine
Chris MacKenzie interviewed David Colvin for Piping Today magazine in 2019. Both spoke in depth about Gordon Duncan, and the impression that Gordon and his music had on both of them and his impact on the wider world of piping. The interview is in the link below.
