Who would have believed that a band founded in a hut in the Lanarkshire coalfield 115 years ago could stage such a spectacular evening’s entertainment as we enjoyed last night?
I said on Tuesday that this concert was the highlight of Worlds Week. After two hours of live pipe band music no one in the 2,000 crowd at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall could gainsay that statement.
The title of the show was ‘Solas’, Gaelic for light. Shotts, then a bleak town on a bleak Scottish moor, lit up the world with its gas lanterns.
That particular industry may be long gone but it has been replaced in part by musical light from P/M Emmett Conway and his disciplined crew. Not a drone out of tune nor a chanter interval wanting. Clarity and projection the name of the game.
The musical menu was interesting and varied (not all of it worked it has to be said) but it was executed with aplomb. Now I will make my usual grouse about the dominant nature of the side drums. Leading Drummer David Henderson sensibly cut his corps to nine but it was still too much – even when they played softly.
I hereby set a challenge to the drum manufacturers. Can you come up with a concert pipe band side drum suitable for indoors? Its will be softer in tone, more snarey and deeper in pitch. A lot of money could be made here.
There were numerous highlights to the evening. The band honoured Gail Brown the first lady piper to play in Grade 1. (Was Katie Forsyth of Vancouver Ladies and Muirheads the first drummer?) Most people today don’t worry about gender or any other descriptive. You are either a piper or a drummer – good enough and you go right to the top.
This was not always the case. In 1970, when Gail was in her pomp, she was, as a female, an outsider. But Shotts and P/M Tom MacAllister welcomed her. Why? because she was a damned fine piper. Together (with a little help from A Duthart) they went on to win the Worlds.
Margaret Houlihan, another damned fine piper, put together a set to mark Gail’s achievement. It featured lots of G1 ladies and enjoyable it was too.
There was a fine vocal interlude from folk singer Siobhan Miller and I particularly liked the arrangement of John McLellan’s Lochanside – sympathetic chording from the backing band and melodic interweaving from the phalanx of pipers. What an anthem.
That old trooper Robert Mathieson almost stole the show. Emmet had put together a montage of Rab’s greatest hits and there, strutting onto the stage at the Glasgow Royal, was the maestro himself, taking charge as usual and rattling along with the Big Birl, Good Drying, the Egg and the Fiddle, brilliantly synced with an overhead display of photographs from Mathieson’s Worlds-winning reign at Shotts. What a roar to finish. Almost as loud as the one that greeted his big turnout in 2008.
Emmet Conway might not win the Worlds on Saturday but he will one day. You cannot produce a band like this and not eventually reach that pinnacle. So keep an eye Shotts. Worlds title number 17 cannot be far away.
For now they can take satisfaction from their performance last night. Not only can they deliver on the competition grass – they can put on a show to rival the best there has been during Worlds Week.
Robert Wallace
