The World Pipe Band Championships 2023 Glasgow

The Scotsman

GLASGOW GREEN. The World Pipe Band Championships 2023. Friday 18 August 2023 - Grade One Day One Performances  Grade 1 Day 1. Grade One competition as thousands of pipers and drummers play for the ultimate prize in pipe band competition.  Thousands of pipers and drummers. Hundreds of pipe bands all competing for glory. One World Pipe Band Championships.  It’s back. It’s live. It doesn’t get bigger than this. Can the current champs hold on to their title or will another band take the trophy? You’ll only find out at the Worlds!  See the best pipe bands in the world compete for glory and have a great day out, immersed in Scottish culture on Glasgow Green.

Transcript

00:00 [no audio]

00:04 Okay folks, the first band to play in the Grade 1 MAPS

00:07 Extreme Real Competition this morning,

00:09 Auckland and District Pipe Band from New Zealand.

00:11 [music]

00:31 [music]

00:41 [music]

00:51 [music]

01:01 [music]

01:25 How you doing? Alan Tully is my name.

01:27 I'm the Pipe Major of St. Lawrence at Tewle Pipe Band.

01:29 We were on second today.

01:31 Tough because it was pretty cold and chilly this morning setting up.

01:36 And then when we went in to play it was 2 or 3 degrees warmer and no breeze.

01:39 So, difficult conditions this morning.

01:42 Thought the band did very well.

01:44 Did a good performance. Drones good, good starts, good stops, good technique, good breaks.

01:49 So, quite happy. A couple of little things.

01:51 I'm sure every Pipe Major will be the same over the next couple of days.

01:54 Expecting perfect results.

01:56 We're very happy for a first run.

01:58 That's great. The world is always, you know, this is what we work all season for.

02:02 All year is for these two days.

02:05 So, great. Loads of excitement last night.

02:07 Loads of excitement this morning.

02:09 Early night for everybody last night, so we're all fresh today.

02:11 Ah, well it's what everybody learns and plays pipe pipes for.

02:15 To come and try and compete to win the World Championships.

02:17 It's the pinnacle.

02:19 We won back in 2010.

02:21 We were the first band from the south of Ireland to ever win the World Pipe Band Championships in Grade 1.

02:26 And we've been very close a few times since.

02:29 In the top three for about eight years in a row.

02:33 And we've seconded on a couple of occasions as well.

02:37 So, yet to get back to that first place, but that's what we're here to compete for today.

02:42 And are you quietly confident, fingers crossed?

02:44 We're always confident. We've a good band.

02:46 [Music]

02:56 We're Patty and Everett Crowdis from BC, Canada.

02:59 And we're here to watch the SFU band and the RMM3 tomorrow.

03:05 We have two granddaughters that are a piper and a drummer in the RMM3.

03:10 And is this the first time that you've been over for the world?

03:13 No, we've been here, this is our third time.

03:16 Before COVID we were here twice.

03:18 And great to be back again.

03:20 What do you do when you're in Scotland?

03:22 Do you just come to the Woodlands and go straight home?

03:24 What's your plan?

03:25 In the past we've done bus tours and gone to England and Scotland and Ireland.

03:31 But this time we thought we'd try the train and go to Inverness and Dornick and Aberdeen.

03:37 And back to Edinburgh to go home in a week.

03:40 How popular are pipe bands back in Canada?

03:43 They're popular in BC. They're very popular in the Maritimes.

03:48 What would it mean to the bands to win from Canada?

03:51 That's what they practice for.

03:54 Especially the SFU band and of course they're the head band for the RMM3.

03:59 So it really means a lot.

04:01 Would you like to give a shout out to your granddaughters?

04:03 Yes. Congratulations. Good luck to the RMM3.

04:07 And Caitlyn and Alex, we're thinking of you as we're here in the wind.

04:12 I'm Tirat Singh from Cee The Smash pipe band. I'm the pipe major for Malaysia.

04:17 But in 2019, Grade 4B, we got through to the finals and we won Grade 4B.

04:22 How did that feel?

04:24 Unbelievable. I haven't felt as good as that moment ever again.

04:29 Hopefully this year.

04:30 We have 30 members in the band at the moment that are over here with us in Scotland.

04:35 And about 60 at home.

04:37 It takes us 13 hours to get to London and then it took us an hour to get to Glasgow.

04:43 Piping is getting stronger. A lot stronger in Kuala Lumpur.

04:46 Especially because we've been coming over to the world.

04:49 And that has inspired a lot more musicians to pick up the bagpipes back home.

04:53 Because for us, we represent the country. We represent the nation.

04:57 So that's a big change for us.

04:59 So hopefully a lot more pipe bands from Malaysia and Singapore at the World Championships.

05:05 My name is Donald Mackay and I'm the pipe major of the Johnson Pipe Band.

05:08 That's the first event just for us underway. The Matchless Spin Wheel.

05:13 Quite happy. Seemed to go quite well.

05:16 Drummers are happy as well. So we'll just wait and see how things pan out with the judges.

05:21 So we have two events for the Grade 1 today.

05:23 The first in the morning is the Matchless Spin Wheel.

05:26 And then we have the medley performance in the afternoon.

05:29 So it's the same order of bands playing two different disciplines.

05:32 A Matchless Spin Wheel and then a medley of different time signatures in the afternoon.

05:37 Can you tell people how important are the worlds to all the pipe bands that are congregating here?

05:41 Hugely important. They say it's a hobby but I think it's a bit more than that to be honest.

05:47 It's an obsession with a lot of people and we love what we're doing and love producing the music.

05:52 It's Scotland. It's the best place in the world. People are fantastic.

05:56 And it says people make Glasgow and that's exactly it.

06:00 Thank you.

06:01 [No audio]

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