NWJPBlog » Northwest Junior Pipe Band 5th in the World

Insider Information for the Northwest Junior Pipe Band

August 17th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

Northwest Junior Pipe Band 5th in the World

Posted by Todd Schiele in Competitions, Newsletters, Performances

August 16^th, the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow Scotland. The day NWJPB had been planning, fundraising, and practicing for for years for had finally arrived. There is no pipe band competition like the World Championships anywhere. The field was enormous; there were 224 pipe bands competing and 23 bands in NWJPB’s grade, Novice Juvenile. There was a light rain falling occasionally, but for the most part the sky stayed free of it. The band’s qualifier started at 9:00 AM so the band arrived, unloaded instruments and got to work tuning up and working through the music. Seeking out competition arena 4, the band approached the final tuning area to play their three tunes that comprise the “MAP” tune set, or a required set of marches all Novice and Grade 4 bands play in order to qualify for the championship round, when they then play a longer set of tunes.

Performing in the Qualfier

Northwest Junior Pipe Band placed third in the qualifying round, and only one point behind the two bands who tied for first place in “Qualifier 2″ which included 11 bands. NWJPB advanced on to the finals feeling jubilant at the recognition of their hard work and clean sound.

NWJPB goes on to the championships

White Spot Pipe Band was there at the qualifier to cheer on NWJPB, as were many of the Keith Highlanders Pipe Band. Some NWJPB members went to watch the Keith Highlanders compete in their qualifier round, in which they were placed first by both MAP judges in Grade 4B. The next stop for NWJPB members was the Juvenile competition to hear White Spot compete in their field of 10 Juvenile bands. White Spot put on a solid performance in Arena 5 at 10:30. Many members also went and watched the Keith compete.

NWJPB performed again at 12:12 PM. It was a strong performance and the band was hopeful. The rest of the day was spent watching many of the bands around Glasgow Green, especially the Grade 1 bands, including the exciting new “Spirit of Scotland” pipe band with some of the best known names in piping and drumming that weren’t in bands, including Jacquie and Jamie Troy, Craig Calhoun (Hoss, creator of Hosbilt tenor and bass drums) on bass, Roddy MacLeod, John Fisher, Alasdair Gillies and more. The band was one of 5 Grade 1 bands to go on to the final round of the championships out of 14 to attempt it, but they did it with only a week of practice together as a band. Congratulations to Simon Fraser University Pipe Band for being the obvious winner in the Medley, according to many who heard them play. Some members also stayed around to hear the other Novice bands compete, and the ultimate Novice World Champion Bucksburn and District was an amazingly good Novice band who played without any noticeable mistakes, as well as an impressive performance musically.

The final results put Northwest Junior Pipe Band in fifth place of all Novice Juvenile bands in the World. NWJPB wishes to congratulate the Keith Highlanders Pipe Band for placing third in Grade 4B, as well as White Spot Pipe Band for placing 6^th in Juvenile. We knew this was a special year for the top bands in the Grade 4 competitions in the BCPA region, and the results at the World Championships prove that. The talent here is quite high, and the Northwest Junior Pipe Band is proud to have won the Washington State Championships, second place overall for the season in the BC Pipers’ Association, and particularly proud of being crowned the fifth place Novice band at the World Pipe Band Championships.

Four bands from the Northwest US and British Columbia went to the Worlds, and all of them placed in the top 6, including Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, who won the title of Grade 1 World Champion and Best Drum Corps. There is little question the Northwest / BC Pipers’ region is a very talented area of North America, with top notch instruction and competitors.

Thanks also to the people of Scotland for opening their hearts and arms to the youth of NWJPB. There were literally hundreds of comments overheard and given directly to us at each of our performances and competitions about how talented the band was, and photographers and newspaper reporters almost everywhere we performed and competed. Many told the band’s leadership that the kids had a great chance at it. We’ve got many more stories to share, keep an eye on our blog to get them over the next couple weeks or so, or join our mailing list by visiting our contacts page.