The Scottish Tattoo at the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) was held in the early 1970s in Toronto. It featured the leading Grade 1 bands from Scotland and Northern Ireland and a few from Grade 2, plus all the top local bands and others. Here Eddie Gorman, then a piper with Muirhead & Sons, reminisces… a Glasgow boy on his first trip to North America. The Toronto he describes may seem strange today. Eddie was so enamoured of Canada that he emigrated. He has always been active in the pipe band scene and at the end of this article offers some not-too-flattering comment on current pipe band medleys…
The Editor recently asked readers for their memories of the CNE. Obviously, having lived here for almost 50 years, a lot of these are still quite vivid for me.
Arriving in Toronto and the bus driving on highway 401. We had never seen so many lanes of traffic. Today, out by the airport, there are now 16 lanes of traffic.
Everything being so big and clean. It was a completely different world compared to what we were used to.
By Eddie Gorman
York University where we stayed. It was in the middle of nowhere. It is now built up and has transport links to downtown Toronto. Vanier and Stong residences at York University. The food was like nothing we’d ever experienced. Coke with ice!
The opening parade down never-ending Yonge Street. The heat, the heat and the heat! The march didn’t finish until we got to the CNE grounds, the rays radiating off the tarmac all the way.
We wore full number 1 dress in sub tropical heat! It was a miracle people from Scotland didn’t pass out – but most of us were very young.
The Tattoo itself? Always great fun playing beside all the other bands plus the Ghurkas, Welsh Guards etc. Tremendous camaraderie. Intermission, and we would all rush out to quaff a couple of Molson or Labatt beers.
The whole atmosphere of the CNE was incredible with so many ex-pat and second and third generation Scots in the audience having a great time remembering the old country as they called it.
We always had parties at York University after arriving back from the Tattoo or we would head to Yonge Street. Pubs were open until 1:30am whereas they closed at 10pm in Scotland.
The nightlife in Toronto on Yonge Street and Spadina Street, to name two, was something else. Everything seemed to be open all of the time. Bright neon lights everywhere, music in pubs, something you just did not get in Glasgow. And you could get a custom T-shirt made while you waited.
Sometimes we were invited to York Armouries after the Tattoo where local bandsmen always showed us the kindest hospitality.
Last month, the CN Tower celebrated its 50th birthday. For a long time, it was the tallest freestanding building in the world. We were lucky enough to see it progress from its foundation being laid until it opened…..from February 1973, opening in June 1976.
I read your report on the band medleys we are hearing now. I was listening to a recording of the Grade 1 bands, I believe it was the British Championships. Anyway, I had to turn it off. As you alluded to, technically challenging and intricate, but what thread should we be following?
That’s the rub. Without a doubt in my mind, the music has gone. There is absolutely no music in these harmonies and overlays. I know you are a proponent of bands facing the audience, but what do you think the general audience would gather from this, if the band was facing them? If seasoned players are critical of this, just think of the general public.
The other thing you mentioned in your opinion piece was that medleys, in part, were developed to break the stranglehold Muirheads held over the Worlds with their MSRs. Never a truer word spoken.
In fact, when I summoned up enough courage to ask Bob Hardie if I could join the band, I think it was in October 1972 or early 1973, he said, ‘Just remember Eddie, you will play for the best band in the world, but you’ll never win the World Championships.’ He was right.
