As I mentioned in my piece on the first two-day Worlds at Nottingham, I had also found among old papers the attached copies of bnads and tune lists for a local competition at New Meadowbank in Edinburgh in 1948 and the World Championships at Stirling in 1974.
I have no knowledge of the winner at New Meadowbank but Stirling was won by Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia under Tom McAllister.
Here is the Meadowbank programme. As you will see it lists all the bands plus the tunes submitted:
[wds id=”16″]The Worlds at Stirling in 1974 will be remembered by more of our readers and it lists some of the great bands and pipe majors of the recent past:
All the big bands bands are there aming an entry of nineteen in all. You will notice the Canadian bands Guelph and Clan MacFarlane in what was a heyday for Ontario piping and drumming. Ed has now sadly passed on but Ken is a respected member of the RSPBA’s current Adjudicator’s Panel. The challenege from western Canada led by Triumph Street and City of Victoria and ultimately Simon Fraser University under P/M Terry Lee was still a few years off.
Notice too the 2nd Battalion Scots Guards under Dixie Ingram, a high position for a military band with all of its service commitments. We have British Caledonian Airways (Renfrew) under Robert Stewart, and the Robert Armstrong Memorial under Tommy Geddis (this band is to feature soon in a special report on Piping Press).
There were places in the grade too for Johnny Walker Whisky, Musselburgh RBL under Norrie Summers, the north of England’s Mount Carmel, Bowhill & Seafield Collieries, Polkemmet [see picture up top], Bucksburn under Davy Duncan and Eddie McAtear’s 100 Pipers Whisky from Paisley.
Here is a short feature and picture on the Mount Carmel band. It dates from 1967 and first appeared in Pipe Band Magazine:
From the tune lists at Stirling you will see it was all traditional fare, tunes that would be played by solo pipers at recitals, ceilidhs etc. The deluge of new ‘pipe band’ music was yet to alter the medley repertoire to what we recognise today. It will be noted that there was no MSR contest and that bands had to submit two medleys.
If you have any memories of that day please pass them on. Perhaps you played in one of the featured bands and will remember the march down from the castle in Stirling at the end of the competition. Please get in touch if you’d like to share a memory with the rest of the pipe band community.