Top Twelve Bagpipe Bands in the World

A youth bagpipe band is always working to teach, develop, and build the next generation of pipers and drummers, while hoping to build an appreciation for talented piping and drumming in our community and beyond.  We encouraged our band members and families to be up in the wee hours last weekend on August 14th to see the top bands in the world compete, broadcast live worldwide for the second year in a row.  In this 12 part post, we’re pleased to link to videos by the BBC of the top 12 bands in the world.  We’re especially proud that two of the twelve bands are based in our competition region (both are in BC, but our region runs through Oregon), and several musicians from both Simon Fraser University and Dowco Triumph Street live in Washington.

Many of these bands have incredible histories, and are made up of some of the most talented and dedicated musicians (of any kind) in the world.  The piping and drumming community knows, but many in the public may not realize that memorization of this music is required, unlike many orchestra and many other competition based music events.  Not only do they have the multiple tunes in these medley selections memorized, but they have a 2nd medley selection and two different March, Strathspey & Reel selections that are chosen at the start line.   As the bands are preparing to compete, they have no idea what music they will be playing, so all 4 music selections have to be mastered to ensure a chance at success.

12th place, Dowco Triumph Street Pipe Band, Vancouver, BC.  Pipe Major David Hilder, Drum Sergeant Andre Tessier.  After winning the World Championships in Grade 2 while part of the Simon Fraser University organization 3 years ago, the band was promoted to Grade 1 and then re-formed with a new name after the former Triumph Street Pipe Band asked the band members to take on the name, returning to the forefront as a Grade 1 band.  Triumph Street Pipe Band, under the leadership of Pipe Major Hal Senyk, placed 5th in the World Championships in 1979, winning the Sash for best drum corps…the first band outside of Scotland to ever win a top prize in the major championships. DTSPB has made it through the qualifier each of the last two years and then competed in the final 14 bands. This year, there were 18 bands in the qualifier, and only 6 came through. A remarkable achievement for a new band in Grade 1 to place in the top 14 two years in a row, this year is one placing higher than last.

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11th Place: Robert Wiseman Dairies Vale of Atholl, Atholl in Perthshire, Scotland, Pipe Major Adrian Cramb, Drum Sergeant Paul Turner

With over 100 years of history, promoted to Grade 1 in 1983 and repeatedly in the top 6 at the Worlds, British, Scottish and European Championships. 

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10th place: The 78th Fraser Highlanders from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Pipe Major Bill Livingstone, Drum Sergeant Drew Duthart (son of Scottish drumming legend Alex Duthart, and a legendary drummer in his own right, achieving every drum corps prize possible between the ages of 14 and 19 and winning the World’s Juvenile Solo Drumming Championship).

Founded in 1982, over the 16 times it has traveled to and competed in the premier Grade 1 at the World Pipe Band Championships in Scotland, the 78th have been in the prize list 12 times, and in 1987 the 78th became the first non-Scottish band to win the top award.

Unfortunately, embedding was disabled at time of posting, so click the image below to watch the Medley performance.

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9th Place:  Inverary and District Pipe Band, Inverary, Scotland, Pipe Major Stuart Liddell, Drum Sergeant Steven McWhirter

Both leaders are former players with Simon Fraser University Pipe Band and very well known soloists, this band is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of competitive pipe bands.  The beginning band was officially founded in 2005 as a Novice Juvenile pipe band, the very beginning of the competition level in the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association.  Their second year 2006, they placed in the top 6 in every event they entered. In 2007 then they won 4 of 5 championships and promoted to Juvenile in where in 2008 they won 4 of 5 championships again and were promoted to Grade 2, where in 2009, they won all five championships and received promotion to Grade 1.  The core players are very young, with the addition of some new talent after the last two promotions, it’s remarkable that a Grade 1 band in its first year was pre-qualified and managed a top ten placing in the final results.

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8th place: Fife Constabulary. Scotland, UK. Pipe Major James Murray, Pipe Sergeant Drew Mathieson. Founded 2007, the last of the 8 Scottish police forces to have their own pipe band.  Another remarkable story for a Grade 1 pipe band to finish 12th in 2008 and 9th in 2009 and now placing 1 better than that.

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7th place:  Strathclyde Police, Glasgow, Scotland. PM Don Bradford, DS Eric Ward

A roller-coaster story over the past couple years, Strathclyde Police has been in the news repeatedly with headlines of “It’s Over” and “Pull the Plug”, losing support of their sponsoring police force, receiving conflicting messages from the Police Chief and other sources and finally losing players as a result, Strathclyde Police has battled back this season to provide top performances.  Pipe Major Ian McLellan led the band to most of its former championships, and Don Bradford was the Pipe Sergeant under the most recent PM, Donald MacKay who left the role during the past years’ troubles. Don Bradford stepped up to Pipe Major and ended up resigning and then bravely stepping up again to rebuild the band at the last minute to help rescue this historic organization. Well done to all involved in this band’s history.  Strathclyde Police were formed in 1883 and was one of the first pipe bands to be formed outside of the British military.

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6th Place: Scottish Power Pipe Band, Scotland, Pipe Major Chris Armstrong, Drum Sergeant Barry Wilson

Chris Armstrong is producing a lot of unique, contemporary, entertaining and challenging solo bagpipe music,  is a full time instructor at the National Piping Centre, and has been leading the band since 2005.  The band has twice won the World Championships.  Two time winners of the Scottish Championships and the Cowal Championships, the Band has also held the All-Ireland title and placed second in the World Pipe Band Championships twice.

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5th Place: The House of Edgar Shotts & Dykehead. Shotts, North Lanarkshire, Scotland.  Pipe Major Robert Mathieson, now Gavin Walker, Drum Sergeant Jim Kilpatrick (one of the winningest drummers in the world) and well known lead tenor Tyler Fry

Celebrating their 100th anniversary, and Grade 1 since 1936, Shotts & Dykehead are known to challenge tradition in their performances.  Last year the crowd at the Grade 1 arena cheered wildly when the drummers turned around and faced the audience during their medley, after the rules were relaxed to allow it.  This year, the band took the field with two bass drummers, to great effect. 

Shortly before the World Championships, PM Robert Mathieson announced that he was stepping down after 23 years in the post.  According to reports, he wishes to continue playing with the band, but believes it’s time to hand over the leadership to younger talent.  It was great to see the band in the top 6 again, though many wished they had placed 1st, an ideal tribute to an incredible leader.

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4th Place:  Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia, West Lothian, Scotland, Pipe Major Ross Walker, Drum Sergeant Gordon Brown

Founded in 1972, the band leads a Novice Juvenile and a Juvenile band as well as their Grade 1 band.  Current Pipe Major Ross Walker and Leading Drummer Gordon Brown are products of this Pipe Band “academy“ learning to play with the band’s youth program in the late 70‘s.

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3rd Place: Simon Fraser University Burnaby, BC. Pipe Major Terry Lee, Drum Sergeant J. Reid Maxwell (the first leader of drum corps with two different pipe band World Champions and literally dozens of championships under his belt in solos and bands)

Simon Fraser has been an incredible force in the piping scene world wide for a number of years.  With 6 Word Championship titles, including the 2008 and 2009 World Championships, there’s no question they’re one of the top bands in the world.  Additionaly, they have a beginning program, no longer limited to youth, but that has produced top notch, championship winning bands in Juvenile competitions, and there are many talented and up and coming players in the Robert Malcolm Memorial pipe band organization.  The band debuted a new kilt design this year to mixed responses, but their performance, especially in the Medley, was top notch and many expected them to place higher in the end results, but the differences in talent and precision execution between all of these bands at the top level are so minor, it’s always difficut to predict the top 6 the judges will pick, even to trained ears who see all the bands compete.

Embedding appears to be disabled on this video, click the photo for the Medley link.

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2nd Place: Field Marshal Montgomery, Lisburn, Northern Ireland.  Pipe Major Richard Parkes MBE, MSc, Drum Sergeant Keith Orr

Having won as many championships as Simon Fraser University, FMM is always in the top 6, and usually in the top 3 in recent years.  Founded around 1945, they’ve been a strong competition focused band from the beginning.

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2010 World Champions:  St. Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band, Pipe Major Terry Tully, Drum Sergeant Stephen Creighton

Founded 100 years ago, having won every other championship but never the Worlds, this was a powerful season for SLOT and a lot of people were expecting them to do very well.  Even among some of the biggest fans of the other bands, after their performances, there was a lot of speculation that they had done it.  Terry Tully is known for beautiful piping compositions, some of which are fast becoming “standards”, and NWJPB plays some of his music as well.  Following the Medley performance below, take a look at Terry’s interview after the announcement, it was an incredible moment.

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