The concluding part of these reminiscences by Tony Daniel a pupil of John’s in London…..
Then came the time I went to his home and was told he was in hospital in Croydon. I went to visit him; he was surprised but happy to see me but he couldn’t talk as he had had a tracheotomy. He would write notes to me instead.
But I soon learnt to understand him even though his voice was heavily distorted. He asked if I’d brought my practice chanter. I said it was in the car and he told me to go and get it. When I came back he proceeded to give me a lesson at his bedside to the amusement of the other patients and staff alike.
By Tony Daniel
I visited him when he returned home from hospital and he would have me blow his pipes and turn the chanter round so that he could play while I blew. The pleasure on his face was priceless. He said this was teaching me to blow steady.
Then he said, with a tear in the corner of his eye, that he would love to teach me for two years, ‘But I’m finished; I don’t think I have two years left in me’.
He would tell me of happy times in Glasgow at the Scottish Pipers’ Association where he would listen to all the top players at their professional competition. He talked of his best friend in the Glasgow Corporation Transport band, Duncan Johnstone.
And there was another time when Brian MacRae the Queen’s Piper came to see him about some tunes for a new book he was putting together. Because I could understand his speech and others couldn’t, John wanted me to interpret for him.
Brian had just flown in from Canada. John gave him some tunes he had written and said he had one he had composed in honour of his wife and wasn’t sure whether to call it ‘Katy MacDonald the Nurse from Barra’, or just ‘Katy MacDonald of Croydon’.
Then he pointed to me and asked me to play it, but I didn’t have my pipes. I was on my way to Kirkcaldy in Fife with a 32 ton load. The artic was parked outside. Brian said I could play his pipes. I blew so hard two of the tenors popped out of their stocks. Brian said, ‘I’ll have a pint of what he drinks!’ I think the pipes had dried out on Brian’s flight. Anyway we got them going and I played John’s tunes for him. Brian noted everything down and after about an hour I headed off.
I saw John on my return and I remember him telling me of the time he was on the radio with Seumas MacNeill who asked him about pipers taping their chanters. John replied, ‘I think any piper using tape to alter a note should not be playing the pipes in the first place… or they should get a good pipe chanter from RG Lawrie and a reed that doesn’t need tape to make it true.
Seumas says the old pipers used soap across the top of the hole to flatten it. John replies, ‘Soap! I don’t think you would get much of a note using soap, but you may get a few bubbles!’
Then Seumas asks John, ‘What are you going to play for us?’ John says, ‘An old favourite of mine you don’t hear much nowadays called the Braes of Brecklet.’ And it was wonderful.
A few days after the radio show John received a parcel. On opening it he discovered a chanter and a sgian dubh from R.G.Lawrie. It was a thank you from them for praising their pipes and reeds on the wireless. The had been inundated with orders because of it.
When John died he was taken from London to the isle of Barra for burial. I asked his widow if she would like me to go. She said, ‘No Tony because at this time of year you should spend Christmas with your family. You could be stuck there for days if the sea is rough or clouds are too low for the plane to land and he will have two pipers at the service anyway’.
After Christmas I phoned to ask how the funeral went. She sighed and said John never got a piper at the funeral. She said one was stuck in Oban and couldn’t cross because the sea was too rough, and the other was a fisherman who couldn’t play because he broke his hand on some fishing tackle at sea.
So I said I’ll be there ASAP. Two days later I was landing on the beach at Barra to be met by about half dozen people who took me to where John lay. I played two tunes that were special to myself and to John, the Dark Island and Katy MacDonald of Croydon (although it should have been called Katy Scott as she was his wife).
I said to local man Farquhar McNeil, ‘Did you hear my drones altering while I was playing, how they were getting sweeter and sweeter?’ He said, ‘Aye I did; that would be the hand of John from the grave’.
Some great memories of John that I’ll always treasure. He made me promise to carry on with my piping after he was gone. I said I would. He then said, ‘Tony, my friend, you are the son I never had’.
R.I.P John Scott; gone but never forgotten.
- Read part 1 here. If any reader has other memories of John or any photographs please forward to editor@pipingpress.com. Thank you to those who have contributed so far. We will publish in due course.
