1 LBPS Annual Competition 2022 Adam Sanderson reports on the day’s events LBPS secretary Rona Dawson had strongly suggested that we hold the 2022 LBPS concert in the Burgh Halls, Linlithgow, (to be honest, she sold it to us with all the fervour of a dedicated estate agent), and it turned out to be an inspired choice. Linlithgow has a long history of having a ‘Toun Piper’, and LBPS founder member Gordon Mooney had filled that position himself, after John Anderson, (whose family had held the position for over 30 years), retired. The last daily rounds by the Linlithgow Toun Piper ended in the 1830s, but they were still called upon for civic events. Gordon had delved into the history of the toun piper, and had found that the well-known tune ‘The Rock and the Wee Pickle Tow’ had been played regularly in Linlithgow under the title ‘The Linlithgow March’. In the early 80s, pipe-maker Colin Ross had met up in Linlithgow with Gordon Mooney, and between the two of them they decided to hold the very first meeting of the LBPS in Edinburgh later that year. Other early meetings of the LBPS, in 1985 and 1986, took place in the town. The well-known family of bagpipe makers, includ- ing Border Pipes, the Glens, had also originated in Linlithgow. The Burgh Halls date back to 1670; it’s highly likely that generations of toun pipers had frequented the place. I think it’s fair to say that, for some of us, this meant the competition had a feeling of the LBPS coming home On the day itself, the weather was beautiful, blue skies and sunshine. The Burgh Halls are a short walk from the train station, which has regular train connections to Edinburgh and Glasgow. The venue itself is light and airy, and many people were commenting on how the acoustics in the room were superb. The perfor- mances took place in front of an ornate fireplace, decorated with tiles in the blue-and-white Delt pottery style. These included illustrations portraying a toun piper and drummer. I had briefly wondered if these were original tiles from the 1700s, but that notion was quickly dispelled by noticing a neighboring fireplace tile in the same style depicting the star ship Enterprise. Due to the pandemic, this was the first LBPS comp since 2019 where we gathered together as a group to play and meet up. The competition remains as laid back and as friendly as ever, with the audience taking part in the judging via score cards. Tea and biscuits were supplied throughout the day by the Burgh Halls staff. As mentioned before, the acoustics were excellent, and there were some great performances. For some of the performers, a nervousness was evident. I think that a problem that many bellows pipers have, myself included, is that we practice in isolation. Our Great Highland Bagpiping cousins don’t have this pressure. Typically, the GHB player’s musical life begins with taking lessons from a band or individual and continues along the path of constantly playing in front of others. For bellows pipers, it’s a bit of a jump into the deep end from playing in isolation at home to suddenly playing in front of an expectant audience, gazing at you while holding their pencils and score cards, as well as having an official judge at the table. That said, despite a few shakes, everyone seemed to cope well, and we were hugely entertained. I think the informality of the typical LBPS competition helps with cases of the jitters. If there was one negative point to the day, it was people chattering during some of the performances. It’s difficult enough tuning your drones with the pressure of people watching you, even more so when background noise makes hearing your drones a strenuous effort. This also bled over into the actual performances. 3 Unfortunately, Matt Seattle had to stop his competition set and begin again due to people talking over his playing. At one point, again during Matt’s performance, someone’s mobile phone started ringing. It’s a fine thing to meet up with people and have a blether, but the main reason we meet up is to play and listen to music, and this should not be forgotten, especially when it’s actually upsetting the performers and the gathered audience can’t hear the music either. I do hope this is not repeated at future LBPS events. Despite this one negative point, it was a great day, and I felt cheerful at the end of it. I would be very happy if future competitions were held in the Linlithgow Burgh Halls. It’s an outstanding venue, and there is a bit of a thrill hearing tunes in a historic building contemporary to the era in which those tunes were born. I have refrained from commenting on individual musical performances because A) I am not nearly qualified enough, and B) all the winning entries are available to watch on the LBPS YouTube channel and you can see and hear them for yourself at the link below. https://www.youtube.com/c/LowlandBorderPipersSocietyOfficial [Ed: to compliment Adam’s report here is a review written by another attendee and originally published in the online magazine Bagpipe.News - re-printed here with permission from the publisher.] REVIEW by PETER McCALISTER This year, for the first time, the annual competition held by the Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society (LBPS) was held in Linlithgow, at the historic Burgh Halls. This marvellous old building has been re-purposed with meeting rooms and a café – and the acoustics are superb. There was also the added benefit of a community picnic/BBQ at lunchtime. More of that later. For various reasons I had not been at an LBPS contest for about 20 years and it was amazing to see how many of the old faces were still there, along with some new additions who added a lot to the day. In bright sunshine the contest kicked off with the Seasoned Pipers category (for those aged 65+). This was won with a cracking set of music played by Brian Mulhearn, playing a set of pipes of his own manufacture. Brian as you may know, has a troublesome right shoulder and so cannot blow bellows easily under that arm – so he rigged up an ingenious foot pedal to pump the bellows. The Intermediate category was won by Robert Porter playing a very suitable set of tunes including The Black and the Grey from the Dixon manuscript. This is a factor which makes this contest different from many others, namely that any 4 Highland pipe tunes (well-played by other competitors) are heard less often and are possibly less appreciated by the judges [marks are weighted towards performances containing tunes with a Lowland/Border flavour – Editor]. I didn’t ask them about that, but the Lowland tunes are certainly more suited to the instrument, and many pipers played Irish or European tunes to good effect. •Bryan Mulhearn: more power to his … foot! There were three duet contests, and as I was successful in two of them I don’t wish to say much about that, except to hope that more pipers will take up this type of contest next year. At times, there was only one entry for each category, which makes for an entertaining fast-moving day. There is, though, less of the stress of competition, that stress which can bring out the best in the players. The other thing to say is that (in my experience) it is a lot easier to play along to a singer in a duet, than to play and sing at the same time. The only piper who attempted that feat was Matt Mochar. The duet for Pipes and Other Instrument category was again won by the only entrants, though I think Neil Clark and Kathryn Grainger would have beaten all comers with their lovely playing. Kath- ryn played a clarinet in its lower register in her duet with Neil. 5 There are various contests that are only seen at this event including the Skeely Piper (well done to Stuart Letford) and a trophy in memory of Martin Lowe, that true gentleman, who is much missed. This trophy goes to the competitor ad- judged to have made the most outstanding contribution to Lowland/Border piping on the day – the winner being Norman MacLeod. Finally, the big contests of the day were probably the Open Smallpipes and the Open Lowland and Border Pipes contests. Rona Dawson was first on with her smallpipes in D, and no-one thereafter could touch her flowing playing which was full of expression. A feature of this contest is the variation in instruments. No two instruments look the same or sound the same, and this makes it a very entertaining day for the listener. I’m more used to Highland Pipe contests where everyone nowadays has virtually the same sound (with some refinement, that makes the winners stand out, but the differences between the pipes can be small). To finish the account of the day, Iain Gelston from Tyneside struck up a set of Border pipes in the key of G. If you had shut your eyes you would have thought they were Uilleann pipes. Iain’s instrument had a beautiful steadiness and sweet- ness of tone, which beat all comers. I must admit to not having a great liking for the Border bagpipe sound, but Ian’s instrument totally reversed my previous point of view. It was the highlight of the day for me. Sadly, the pipe maker is no longer producing instruments but Iain is trying to find a way to have the pipe copied. Check out his performance on YouTube, as well as all the other performances. Peter MacAllister & Robert Porter 1st Place duet for pipes 6 While the judges were deliberating, the audience watched videos of the overseas entrants. Well done to Jeremy Kingsbury (USA) for winning that category. I mentioned the picnic: above the BBQ area and where the kids were playing was a veranda on which several of the pipers played a medley of tunes in the sun at lunchtime. Not a sight you see every day … “Once more through the ROKE!” [Re-printed from Bagpipe.News April 14, 2022] Neil Clark & Kathryn Grainger 1st Place Duet for Pipes & Other Instrument