I am sure that we are not the only people who are have failed in our attempts to get in touch with bagpipe manufacturer RT Shepherd & Co. On a visit to Fife this week I called in to their premises in Cardenden to find the place locked up with curtains closed and blinds down.
Local enquiries yielded scant information other than that around a month ago the premises had suffered a burst pipe during a winter storm making the building unsafe. It had been closed ever since.
Though their website and Facebook pages remain ‘live’, all attempts at contacting the firm by phoning, leaving messages or emailing have come to nought. If anyone has any info on the situation please get in touch. I hope this leading bagpipe and reed maker will be back up and running before long.
It seems quite a while since the heyday of founder Bob Shepherd, the Worlds-winning Pipe Major of Dysart & Dundonald. Bob built the firm up into one of the major manufacturers in the world, with his chanters and reeds pre-eminent in Grade 1. Bob died in 2019. Read our tribute here.
UK Pipe Band Championships
I hear that only four bands have so far entered for the UKs to be held at Ingliston near Edinburgh on July 12. They are Shotts, Boghall, SLOT and Johnstone. Surely the other grades will be better supported? If this is the actual G1 entry on the day how can this championship be counted equal points with the other majors when it comes to working out Champion of Champions places?
Correspondence
Folklorist Margaret Bennett: ‘I have the name of a piper in the Clan Fraser Pipe Band, 1939. Back row, third from the right: George Bennett, b. 1917; grandfather of Martyn Bennett (1971-2005).’
Thanks for that Margaret. Hope you are doing well. I had no idea Martyn’s grandfather was a piper too.
Reader Alastair McInnes in Australia: ‘As a lad in the 1930s, my dad Charles was taught the chanter by an ex-pat Scot, Johnnie MacColl. Johnnie’s dad was Archie (A.R.) MacColl, half brother of John the composer. Johnnie’s family emigrated to Brisbane after WW1. He had been gassed in France and could only play the chanter. Apparently he was brilliant.’
Colin Harmsworth, Chief Officer of the Joint Civil Aid Corps: ‘Having begun my career as an army musician and later conducted various amateur bands, it was only natural to establish a Civil Defence Music Service within my organisation. The first band to join is the Milton Keynes Pipe Band
‘There has been a decline of professional military bands and I suspect pipe bands have faced similar declines. In modern times, amateur and voluntary bands are struggling to survive.
‘Our goal is to unite voluntary and amateur bands under the banner of Civil Defence. Our organisation aims to foster a culture of collaboration, ensuring bands work together. While competition is valuable in honing skills, bands should also have the ability to support each other so that no group is left unable to fulfil a performance commitment due to low numbers.’ Contact Mr Harmsworth here.’
Band Pictures
Our request for pictures of bands of yesteryear yielded this from Jeff Cox in Iowa:
Jeff writes: ‘Here’s a picture of the Iowa Scottish Highlanders in 1961 in front of Student Union Building at the State University. In 1964 it became the University of Iowa. Sadly the Highlanders disbanded in the 70s from lack of student interest.
‘Every home football game the Highlanders performed at half time. I returned from Vietnam in 1971 and I just couldn’t perform any more.’
Schools Championship
Leslie Wilkinson reports: The Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Championships are this Sunday, March 9, at the William McIlvanney Campus, New Farm Loch, Kilmarnock, KA3 7DF.
A record 94 bands are taking part representing 144 schools across Scotland. Sixteen bands are from the islands this year. Among the furthest-travelled will be Sgoil Lionacleit and Sgoil Bhàgh a’Chaisteil from the Outer Hebrides.
2025 also marks a significant milestone for Tynecastle Youth Community band, celebrating its 10th anniversary. Band member Olivia Cockburn (11) has been promoted to lead drummer after just one year of learning the instrument and is looking forward to her new responsibilities on Sunday.
Another success story comes from the Isle of Arran Music School, which recently secured a multi-year grant in recognition of its outstanding work. Currently 29% of children and young people on Arran participate in its programme.
One parent of two of the band’s young musicians said: ‘It gives my sons the opportunity to learn an instrument that I would otherwise struggle to financially support and to socialise with friends outside of school hours on an island that has social limitations for teenage boys.’
Kinross-shire Schools Pipe Band has also made remarkable strides in re-establishing its tuition programme after the challenges of the pandemic. Seventy-seven young people are now involved, and this will be the first time the band competes in the Championships.
Re the UK Championhips. If the final entry for Grade 1 is only 4 bands, I would venture a step further than the editor’s comment on the Champion of Champions outcome, and ask the question “is it worth having a UK Grade 1 contest at all?”