Rob Boyd in California: ‘Dear Robert, Thank you very much for sharing the Piping Press Guide to the Games. You have no idea how much this is appreciated.
‘I was your steward at the Dan Reid Memorial in San Francisco many years ago. Your ‘Chance Was a Fine Thing’ is one of my all-time favourite recordings! If you ever have an opportunity to talk about the making of that album, I think your Piping Press followers would be just as curious and interested as I am.’
By the Editor
Thank you for the kind word Rob. The album was made on the 27th of May, 1982, and recorded live at the Scottish Pipers’ Association meeting in the Dorchester Hotel, Glasgow. The then President, Angus J MacLellan, was supportive of the idea as was his committee.
I think such a live recording was fairly unique at the time. Ca Va Studios who operated out of a converted church near the Dorchester in Glasgow’s west end, were hired by the recording company, Claddagh Records, Dublin. The engineer was Cy Jack with assistance from Duncan McCrone. Both are expert sound men and folk musicians in their own right.
There was a large crowd, and a good, if smokey, atmosphere in the place. We set up the mobile recording desk, the mics, and once the crowd had settled, I tuned up and ran through my programme of light music and piobaireachd (Lament for Ronald MacDonald of Morar and the ground of My King Has Landed in Moidart one tone up) and had only a couple of retakes. There were the usual imperfections in any live recording, glasses clinking and coughs from the audience, slips by me, but overall I was quite happy with it.
The idea was to try to capture the spirit of the music often missing from studio recordings. The album sold quite well and downloadable tracks are now available individually from the Piping Press Shop here.
Two 2/4 marches from the album, Highland Wedding and Jeannie Carruthers:
The most pleasing aspect of the whole exercise was that I was able to get a copy of the disc to my first teacher, Alex Ibell, only a couple of weeks before he died.
The title came from the fact that it was purely by chance that I learned the pipes. In 1960 we had moved from a bombed out building in Clydebank to Whiteinch a few miles up the north bank of the Clyde. By luck Alex lived two floors below us and recruited any boy who was interested into the Boys Brigade Pipe Band.
It was to my great good fortune that that BB company happened to be the 214th Glasgow, renowned for turning out well taught pipers and drummers.
The front cover was taken by Douglas Corrance a well-known landscape photographer. We were up in Skye and travelled round to Elgol for the shot. The original intention was to capture the pipes in the foreground with the well-known view of the Cuillin behind. But Douglas wasn’t happy with that and we ended up beneath the imposing cliff on the shore near the village.
The pipes in the picture were made for me by Bob Hardie. I played cane drone reeds by Bill Hepburn, Turriff, Aberdeenshire, and a chanter reed by Warnock, Cookstown, County Tyrone, in a Naill chanter.
John MacKenzie’s Collection – digital book
First published in 1973, this outstanding collection is re-issued here in digital format with kind permission of the late Pipe Major’s family. The book runs to more than 50 pages. It is offered at a nominal price to cover overheads. It contains outstanding melodies such as the 6/8s Tug Argan Gap and MacNeills of Ugadale, the Wedding Waltz, Neuve Chappelle, Joe McGann’s Fiddle, the Saffron Kilt,…
