Firstly hats off to the RSPBA for getting Saturday’s championship at Annan up and running and on time. Weather was atrocious on the Friday beforehand with flooding on the grounds and winds so strong that they blew one of the marquees away. Before we get to the piping, a word for the judges. It was heartening to see that they tried to adopt exactly the same positioning strategy for every band. This may have been sub-conscious but I hope not. If they can’t stay static then they must follow the same pattern for every band. This is the only fair approach and Messrs Garrett, Moles, Aitken and MacInnes did just that. FM played well to take their second championship of the season but this was cautious playing, particularly their Pretty Marion. Still, P/M Richard Parkes is a wily operator and might have taken things back a little to ensure a safe, solid performance. Technique was brilliant and every gracenote seemed to chime together with perfect chanters and a drone that hardly moved despite the blustery conditions. Two grumbles which seem minor in the context of the overall performance but I’m going to note them anyway. I felt the half doubling on C in the 6th part of the reel was too open with some pipers playing it as a C strike rather than a doubling, and the run from low A through to B to D in the last part of Blair Drummond too round. To me it should be played as genuine triplet or lift is compromised. This should not detract from Richard Parkes’s amazing achievement of reaching 50 major championships. Hearty congratulations to the modern day pipe band maestro and his superb pipe and drum corps.

A band that did not feature in the list but had good tempi throughout was Torphichen and Bathgate. The problem here was that the pipers simply could not handle it. Fingering and cohesion were all over the place and after a bright start things degenerated rapidly. The sound was pretty good to begin but one wag said that if their chanters had been as loud as their purple drums they would have done a lot better. Second prize on the day went to Scottish Power who have now consolidated their position in the top three. There is absolutely no reason why Chris Armstrong’s band can’t go on to win one of the majors this season. They have the poise, the hands and the discipline. Looking at the summaries the drumming seems never to score quite as high as the piping but surely it is only a matter of time before former World Solo Champion Barry Wilson sorts out the rough patches the judges must be hearing. At Annan I thought the Power’s top hand just a little thin and that might have been to do with when they came on – near the end of the day as opposed to FMs early run when the weather was better. My only grumble re the Power’s presentation was the overly long break to the reel. Check Inveraray’s razor sharp zip into McAllister’sDirk to see how it should be done.

Some band this. They took third in every category and with youngsters who look just out of Juvenile. What a credit they are to P/M Stuart Liddell, P/Sgt Douglas Campbell and L/D Steven McWhirter. That extra bit of power and poise we hear from FM will not be long in coming and who would bet against I’ray winning their first championship in the near future? I was interested to see how Stuart places some of his top pipers with Callum Beaumont next to the drummers when other bands might have put him in the front rank. This strategic placing of stronger players was something Bob Hardie used to do with Muirheads 40 odd years ago. Not a bad example to follow.
SLoT had a very smooth run and many thought they would have been higher placed. They certainly exuded more of the confidence they had in 2010 so they can build on what they achieved at Annan. I particularly liked the sound Terry Tully produced; better than some of the bands placed above him. I didn’t see it, but I’m told one piper didn’t get away and if so that may have cost them a place or two. Again I do have to take issue with the overlong break to the reel and in Lord Alexander Kennedy some pipers are nipping the four note groupings in the last part so that the Bs and Cs come across very clipped. In Mrs MacPherson I just don’t like the D and E gracenotes from C to low A in the repeat of the second part. It should be a taorluath as written. Minor points I suppose but at the top end of world class pipe bands the devil is in the detail and St Laurence are certainly world class. Up there too are Boghall but their sound at Annan just didn’t come across as strongly as it needed to. They too were on near the end so the weather may have played a part. Their opener, Brigadier Cheape, was v well handled with good fingering though I want to hear a doubling on the D in the third part as we used to play it, and as is written by Willie Ross. Detail again, but very important.
Strathclyde may have had the best drone sound of the day, definitely on a par with FM. The performance was  very good too and augurs well for the future. I’m not sure Argyllshire Gathering is a band tune. Seven Towers played it too and just couldn’t get the runs at the end together. The Police did and it showed the amount of careful work P/M Duncan Nicholson has put in over the winter. Of the other bands there were commendable performances from Fife Police, the Vale and Culleybackey with various difficulties over sustained unison and blowing consigning them to mid table.
Two things struck me about Grade 1. The first is that an MSR contest can be every bit as entertaining as a Medley, more so some would say. I personally would much rather hear some of the quality tunes we heard at Annan than the fare offered in the dodgier medleys. MSRs are much more difficult than the even lined stuff that bores the bald head off you. The cut and dot is the essence of real Scots music and at Annan we heard it in a band context at the highest level. Too early to say that the MSR is back in vogue but I get the sense that bands are realising that it is the true test of their piping and drumming musicianship. If you can cut it with Brig. Cheape you can cut it with anything.
The second point I want to make is that it may be time for the authorities to consider a premier league. There is quite a gulf between the top eight in Grade 1 and the rest. The bottom bands may be too good for Grade 2 but they certainly are not ready to challenege the prizelist in G1. Rather than have them go home every other Saturday with nothing to show for their hard work it may be time for G1a and G1b grades to be instituted.
  

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