The news that the company of RT Shepherd has been taken over by a former employee should please everyone who knew the company’s founder, Bob Shepherd, writes the Editor.
Bob was an innovator in every way: new products, new manufacturing systems, better quality control, new thinking about how pipe bands should go about their business.
The video below confirms his reputation as a man who was determined to push pipe bands into a new era. It is on YouTube and was made more than 40 years ago, in 1983 to be accurate.
It is from a series of programmes made by BBC Scotland TV entitled ‘The Piper’s Tune’. The presenter was Seumas MacNeill. Bob is interviewed at length with musical illustrations from his band, Dysart & Dundonald.
Bob talks of his method of teaching, how he breaks a tune down in to phrases and even smaller pockets of melody. We see him conducting his band. Bob believed the role of Pipe Major should be changed to Musical Director, not playing with the band but conducting them.
He believed in the semi circle formation instead of the military circle, and Seumas talks of bandsmen playing with their backs to the audience. We see tenor drummers giving us a foretaste of today’s ‘mid-sections’. We hear innovative arrangements of tunes and how Bob was determined to encourage and foster ensemble ideas coming from pipe bands in North America, notably Bill Livingstone’s 78th Highlanders.
Seumas asks if it is possible for top solo pipers to be successful whilst still playing in a band. An affirmative from Bob. He goes on to talk of drummers helping with the illusion of dynamics.
Whilst all this work was going on with his band – they won the Worlds twice in the 70s – Bob was building up his bagpipe and reed making business, attracting worldwide interest to his premises in Cardenden in Fife, the business that was yesterday rescued by Ross Watson of Broadleys Bagpipes & Reeds.
I recommend you watch the video. It’s twenty minutes long, a bit blurry but enjoyable and a good record of what Bob Shepherd was all about:
- I am grateful to reader Nicholas Taitz for drawing our attention to this video and others.
Bagpiper’s Handbook – Handy Maintenance Tips
A concise yet complete handbook for all pipers. Learn how to tie in a stock, adjust your reeds, test your bag and much, much more. A handy size, the book can be kept in the pipe case for easy reference. The comes complete with a set of video instructions which help explain each lesson. Access them here.
…£10.50
