We don’t give prominence to anonymous commentary unless it has some sense or truth about it. Here’s one on the dearth of bands in our Juvenile grade. We received it this week following Alistair Aitken’s review of the Scottish Championships:
‘Until those running the best Novice A bands have the courage to accept promotion when it’s awarded, I think the Juvenile category will remain fairly sparse.
‘A few observations to substantiate my previous sentence: The top two Nov A bands from last year’s Worlds are still in Nov A; Nov A Champion of Champions are still in Nov A; the winners of the Scottish at the weekend have been in top two in last three Worlds and are still in Nov A.
‘I do realise that some players ‘age out’ every year, but I can’t believe that bands are losing such a large chunk of their players to justify continual appeals to the Music Board for re-grading and remaining in the lower grade year-on-year. The results bear that out.
‘What I can’t work out is WHY they’d want to stay at a lower level? Retarding the natural progression the kids should be enjoying, and asking a large cohort to play at a level they have clearly outgrown, does no-one any favours, least of all the kids themselves.
‘What does it do for motivation to know that, no matter how successful you are, you’ll be playing in the same grade again next year and will never get a chance to test your mettle at the next level?
‘Perhaps the RSPBA Music Board should re-vamp the appeals process which currently allows bands that are clearly good enough for Juvenile to remain in Nov A (indefinitely it would seem).’
Anyone like to comment on this issue? The reader makes some very good points I think you’ll agree.
Piper Appeal
Is there any band or solo piper who can help out a nursing home in Bootle near Liverpool? Piper Ronald Wright is in his 80s. He recently suffered a severe stroke and is being cared for in the Orrellgrange Nursing Home in Bootle.
Ronald has lost his voice as a result of the stroke and, learning of his love of the pipes, the home staff have asked for our assistance in finding someone or some band who could play for him and help in his rehabilitation.
I am sure there will be someone who can give some time to help this elderly gentleman, a former member of Bootle Pipe Band. If you can, please contact Amy Hughes, Activities Co-ordinator, on 07930 110106 or email luglea.o2@googlemail.com. The address of the care home is Orrellgrange Nursing Home, 43 Cinder Lane, Bootle, L20 6DP.
Mallaig & Morar Games
This popular games is from 12 noon on Sunday (Aug 4th). Convenor Allan MacKenzie has sent piping details. Prizemoney in Piobaireachd is £80, £60, £40, £30, and light music (M/S&R/H&J), £60, £40, £30, £20, with a bottle of specialist whisky for the Champion Piper. Sponsors are Mallaig Harbour Authority.
Light music for juniors, where the money is £30, £20, £15, £10. Judges for all events are Rona Lightfoot and Iain MacFadyen. Entries on the field.
Games round up: Today we have Dornoch in Sutherland and tomorrow Aboyne (entries will be taken on the field), and Newtonmore. There may also be games at Inverkeithing and Dundonald in Ayrshire but we haven’t heard if these last are going ahead.
Thanks to all those who have been forwarding results to us. Please keep it going through this busy period. Every little bit of publicity helps promote our wonderful Highland games circuit. Photographs and all info welcome.
Band Appeal
Keith Bowes Senior: Renfrewshire Schools combined bands are travelling to New York in April 2025 for Tartan Week. We are undertaking many fund raising activity’s to raise the necessary cash to help with travel and accommodation.
Thirteen-year-old Archie Cardwell is a piper with our Novice B band. He started the chanter aged 10 following a come and try session at his primary school in Howood. He has made good steady progress passing his SQA Level 3 last year.
Archie (pictured below) is walking the West Highland Way, a rugged 96-mile trek from Milngavie to Fort William, to help raise funds for the trip.
Please support him if you can. Tartan Week is an amazing opportunity for these kids and will help greatly with their development. I hope readers can contribute.
Archie will update us every couple of days with his progress, and his pipes won’t be far away in his support vehicle. Here is the link to our Crowdfunding page. Thank you!
Ken Eller
Very sorry to learn of the passing of Ken Eller. Ken was Pipe Major of the Clan MacFarlane band which helped put Ontario pipe bands on the map back in the 1970s. They took prizes in contests over here with their big, Shotts-like sound, and quality playing.
Ken is pictured in front of the Clan outside the old Shotts band hall in the early 1970s. I think I can spot Ron Rollo and John Kirkwod in the picture. Can anyone give us the other names?
Ken’s influence continued for more than half a century after the Clan folded. In later life he was a respected teacher and mentor, travelling to schools throughout North and South America. Highly respected as an RSPBA judge, he travelled over to Glasgow each year for the Worlds until illness and infirmity intruded.
@DLivingstone, This may well apply to some Nov A bands, but the band who have just won the Scottish at Nov A, and have been top two in the last three Worlds at Nov A, ALSO have two bands. The ‘new starters’ and those not up to playing at the higher level already have a place to cut their teeth in the lower band and be ‘filtered through’. So your argument, at least in this case, does not stand up. If ‘single school’ organisations can field two bands (sometimes three), and compete in Juvenile grade, then ‘County-wide’ bands (who have an enormous potential catchment of players with many schools feeding in, and state funding), AND who already have two bands, AND who have been very successful at Nov A for several years, should be stepping up rather than hogging a lower grade they have dominated for so long.
I think with regard to progression of juvenile bands, your anonymous correspondent misses an important point.
The role of many if not all juvenile bands is to bring on new young players and those young players will start off learning-the-ropes in a Novice Juvenile band and progress from there.
If that band upgrades to Juvenile, what do you do with the new intake of starters who are not yet up to playing at grade II/III level? If they are not brought on and developed, then in a couple of years that band will have no players.
Fine for those organisations which can have the luxury of two juvenile bands (like all of the bands in last weeks Juvenile Grade at the Scottish) and can filter players through, but they are in the minority.
A more realistic suggestion would be to bite the bullet, acknowledge that the world has moved on. The current crop of Juvenile Grade bands could well hold their own in III or II so the grade itself could be done away with.
I’m sure that would prompt grumbling (much like the removal of the Ladies Bands Grade did a few years ago), but the RSPBA is well used to handling unpopular decisions.
I’m certain the comments regarding upgrading of successful junior bands could be applied universally. It seems in many cases to be a ‘race to the bottom’ … grab whatever prizes may be offered and ignore progression, seriously affecting promoters’ abilities to hold more senior/advanced competitions.
In Australia there is one competing Grade 1 band, three Grade 2, perhaps a dozen Grade 3,‘lots’ of Grade 4A, oodles of 4B. I have heard the arguments regarding ‘worldwide standardisation’ but politely point to the failing ‘top of the pyramid’.