A new book tracing the history of the World Pipe Band Championship is now available. ‘Around the Worlds’ has been a labour of love for the author, Iain Duncan, former RSPBA librarian and an Honorary Life Member of the Association.
The book tracks the iconic championship from its inception to the present day. The sub-title is ‘The Development and Evolution of the Grade One World Pipe Band Championship and the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’.
In the introduction Iain writes: ‘My remit was to establish how the World Pipe Band Championship came to be, where and how it all began; its journey, its transformations, its heartache and determination encountered over decades.
‘The whole story spans one hundred and nineteen years, interrupted three times by two world wars and a world pandemic, a total of twelve years, yet despite this, the passion continued.
‘From the outset the journey embraces countless peripheral events which helped produce the event we know today. This, in no small measure, was due to one man’s vision.’ That man was P/M William Sloan of the MacLean Pipe Band.
The book goes on, ‘For the future of the world pipe band community, 1930 was to become a landmark year….
‘It is inconceivable that Willie Sloan did not have knowledge of the first Scottish Pipe Band Association which grew out of the Wallacestone and District Pipe Band in 1907, and also the Victorian Highland Pipe Band Association of Australia, formed in 1923.
‘Also the 1924 initiative, the well-proven Fifeshire Pipe Bands Association, still actively and successfully functioning….
‘Notwithstanding this, Willie Sloan’s hypothesis would address the broader national scenario…’
The new association was formed and initially worked with Cowal to organise what was then recognised as the World Championship.
But the SPBA, as it was then, was determined to do better by its members bands and in 1947 held its first, and controversial, World Pipe Band Championship.
The book details all of background to this momentous decision and goes on to give details of the successful bands in subsequent years.
The text is supported by dozens of illustrations and information on these bands and excerpts from the relevant programmes and other documents.
To obtain a copy of a book, required reading for all pipe band enthusiasts, contact Iain here: iainduncan751@btinternet.com
