By CHRIS MacKENZIE
It was the second ever “World’s concert” and the first by a Scottish band, as the 78th Fraser Highlanders had performed the year before. This was a chance for the Scottish to step up to the concert platform and give as good as the Canadians. The choice of band to take to the stage was a no brainer as McNaughton’s Vale of Atholl under PM Ian Duncan, with his brother Gordon Duncan as Pipe Sargent, had already established a reputation for innovative tunes and arrangements. The Motherwell Civic Centre was packed on the World’s Wednesday in 1995 with an audience anticipating something special. They were not to be disappointed. As well as the mesmerising music on offer the concert is remembered fondly for being possibly the longest pipe band concert ever held as it finished in the early hours of the Thursday, although rumours that some of the audience went straight to work are apparently urban legend. The running length wasn’t helped by the hour long set by Dougie MacLean, he of Caledonia fame, in between the band performances. The concert, and the 78ths before it, set the bar for all future World’s concerts – it is not acceptable to turn up and go through the motions with your MSR and medley – this is a stage where pipe band music can be, indeed must be, explored, developed and improved.
Thirty years on, two of Gordon Duncan protégés, Ali Hutton and Ross Ainslie, thought that it would be a good idea to pay tribute to that iconic night, the Live ‘n’ Well album that followed, and of course the much-missed Gordon Duncan. So here we are at 12.30pm on a January afternoon in 2026 at the annual Celtic Connections piping concert with the Gordon Duncan Tribute Pipe Band and an air of expectation.
It was perhaps inevitable that the opening set of the afternoon would be played by Stuart Liddell, in between winning the senior piobaireachd at both Oban and Inverness, The Glenfiddich and the Grade One World Pipe Band Championship with Inveraray he managed to learn Mary Ann MacKinnon’s, Brendan’s Swamp Fever, solo set from the concert. Full of slurs this set in 1995 was the antithesis of what ‘good piping’ was regarded as by the ‘establishment’. Indeed, it was only a few months later that Seumas MacNeil uttered his infamous “if this is piping I’m going back to the fiddle”. Yet those in the hall in 1995 loved it, as did those in the hall in 2026.
Next it was the turn of the two instigators Ali and Ross, along with Owen Sinclair on guitar, to present three of Gordon Duncan’s sets. A set of jigs followed a lovely Lorient Mornings and then it was into Gordon’s magnificent response to Seamus MacNeil, Just for Seumas, complete with snares and a techno backbeat. This entire set was a delight and both a testament to Gordon’s genius and the skill of his two protégés in bringing his music so brilliantly to life.
Sadly, Gordon was not the only member of the Duncan family taken too early. Lament for Alex Duncan, is a piobaireachd composed by R.S. MacDonald as a tribute to Ian and Chris Duncan’s late son Alex, and was delicately played by Finlay MacDonald on reel pipes with Alex’s twin sister Tina on fiddle with a guitar accompaniment from Owen Sinclair.
That should have been that for the first half, and the chat at the bar would have been how good the first half had been, however a late addition to the programme meant that we got to hear a poignantly moving rendition of Gordon’s brilliant The Sleeping Tune played on fiddle by Greg Lawson (of Grit orchestra fame) and Donald Shaw on piano. A stunning end to a stunning first half. The late addition did mean that the break was shorter than an introductory E, and within 10 minutes the Gordon Duncan Tribute Pipe Band was on stage.
The band was composed of some original Vale members including PM Ian Duncan, Chris Ross (3 times World Bass Drum champion), Andy Wright, Mark and Micky Stewart alongside some well-known names drafted in for the day including PM Ben Duncan, Duncan Nicholson, Gordon McCready, Ross Harvey and the aforementioned Stuart Liddell among the seventeen strong pipe corps. A five strong snare section, three tenors and bass meant that the band had a perfectly balanced sound for the concert hall, no drums drowning everything out at this concert.
What followed was an hour and twenty minutes of the band reviving some of the classics from that original concert. Sets including, the Molindenar set with it’s incredible Tar the House ending, R.S. MacDonald’s cracking The Gargoyles, The MacCrimmon Will Never Return set, the MacIain of Glencoe suite, and the second half of the band’s Sir James of the Bings medley including the delightful air Eileen Mary Connolly. A finale of the Mary Ann MacKinnon’s classic Steam Train to Mallaig led to rapturous applause and the band back out for an encore. As the multi-coloured sombrero’s were passed round the band it could only mean one tune was closing things out, and as the strains of R.S. MacDonald’s fabulous Il Paco Grande, a tune synonymous with the Vale, rang out and the band took their leave of the stage to finish in the foyer, we knew we had witnessed another iconic piping concert.
It is perhaps an indicator of just how far ahead of the curve that the tunes, arrangements and playing was back in 1995 that it all sounded fresh and not in the least dated in 2026. Thanks are due to Ali and Ross for making it happen, to all the players who gave their time, Stuart Cassells for being an informative, and a little emotional, compare, and of course to the original band for their part in defining the future of pipe band music. All the proceeds from the concert go to two charities, The Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust and Eilidh’s Trust.