By CHRIS MacKENZIE
Despite it being 10.30 in the morning and already 20+ degrees outside, the NPC auditorium is full of eager faces all hanging on every word from the speaker. This is no surprise, given the speaker is Pipe Major Richard Parkes MBE, all time record holder for most Worlds wins as PM. Under his leadership Field Marshal Montgomery, was a band renowned for its tone. Over an hour and half Richard revealed his secrets, the humble peg will never look the same again and to know what he does with a kettle you had to be there. As the engrossing session went on it was apparent that the one thing Richard couldn’t give the assembled acolytes was the deeply ingrained desire to produce the best sound possible, for that you need to dig deep inside yourself, but look out the dental bands and a chisel anyway.
The first band up on the main stage were Meallan, a very new, twin fiddle, accordion, harp, guitar and keyboard configuration. In the Glasgow sunshine the young band had the crowd on their side by set two. Gaelic song and punchy tune sets followed.
One of the hardest gigs in the festival is the Lunchtime Recital. An hours’ performance in front of a piping savvy audience with nowhere to hide is a daunting task. Throw in a hall that was getting warmer by the minute, and you get a sense of the task facing Sarah Muir. She was straight in with a set of beautifully paced 9/8’s on a pipe that showing no signs of struggling in the heat. What followed was a textbook recital with well curated mix of time signatures, and great tunes. A delightful rendition of Ian Mckerral’s lovely slow air Alison’s Song, a pacy Sandy’s New Chanter and a rip roaring The Fourth Floor were all highlights and by the time Sarah had run through some big competition MSR tunes, and the ground of Ronald MacDonald of Morar’s Lament it was time to close out with a 4/4 set followed by sets jigs, polkas and some finger shredding reels. A cracking hour’s piping, clearly appreciated by the audience.
It’s not often pipers compete with the backdrop of a skeleton playing a practice chanter, but then most completions aren’t the Gordon Duncan Memorial Recital Challenge. The four pipers each play a Breton inspired, Irish inspired and Scottish inspired set, in recognition that Gordon took his inspiration regardless of where it was (the Trust should perhaps add a rock section next year). One of the great features of the event is that in true Gordon Duncan style, tuning is kept to a minimum and across two hours of piping there was roughly 5 minutes of tuning that is a small fraction of the time consumed in other competitions. The competitors this year were James Stone from Ireland, Cedric Le Bozec from Brittany, Brian Lamond from Scotland and Tori Kiloran from Canada. As you would expect the piping was first class across all the genres, but the outstanding set of the day was Cederic’s ‘home’ Brittany set which bounced along with that infectious Breton beat to which Cedric added some finger pyrotechnics that were simply jaw dropping. The cheer when he finished almost took the top of the auditorium. Special mention to Scots piper Brian Lamond for putting a Gordon Duncan chanter stop in his Irish set. That’s definitely the spirit of the competition. Tough job for the judges to choose a winner. To no one’s surprise Cedric took the Breton section and he also took the Irish section but his decision to play a full MSR during his Scottish set cost him the overall title which was taken by James, who also won the Scottish section. A cracking afternoon’s entertainment.
Out in the sunshine some players from the Bagad Brieg were bringing their brand of joyous and infectious Breton music to a very enthusiastic crowd. They play dance music, and they danced along with it. Listening to a bagad, even a mini bagad, if full flow is one of life’s great pleasures, and as they took La Boum literally into the audience, Glasgow belonged to them!
Closing the big stage was a trio of Malin Lewis, Sally Simpson and Ali Hutton. This trio have been winning friends at festivals over the last couple of years with their brand of carefully crafted arrangements and beautiful melodies. The trio can move their music from relaxed and chilled to full on gale in a heartbeat keeping the audience on their toes. Another good end to a Piping Live! day.
Musical highlights from the week can be found on the bagpipe.news instagram page here: https://www.instagram.com/bagpipe.news