(TRADITIONAL BAGPIPE MUSIC)
The Highland bagpipes,
an iconic instrument.
Its distinctive call has been used in warfare for hundreds of years.
But now, modern pipe bands go to battle in a different way.
(DRAMATIC MUSIC)
In August, bands from across the globe gather in Scotland
for three internationally renowned competitions.
Just keep it calm!
Piping Live,
the North Berwick Highland Games
and the ultimate clash of the piping clans...
Getting a bit real now...the World Pipe Band Championships...
Come on! (BLEEP) sake, guys!
..where civilian bands compete against each other...
There's a rivalry between a lot of bands...blow by blow...
My one dying wish... I wish you all keep that tempo just for once.
...for the ultimate honour... Listen in! Concentrate!
..to be crowned... Let's go.
..the World Pipe Band Champions.
(BANDS CHEERING)
Coming up... The UK's piping competition season is in full swing.
Let's just try and get the energy back into it, straight away.
We follow three civilian Grade 1 pipe bands on their quest for victory.
Right, again!And the city of Glasgow is transformed,
as pipers from all over the planet descend upon its streets.
This is all about celebration.
And we join the Army's piping school trainees,
as they also go head to head...
Halt!
By the right, quick, march!
(DRUMROLL)
Pipe bands are split into two types:
civilian and military.
We know that pipers were playing in a military capacity
definitely by the late 1700s.
The history of civilian pipe bands goes back to the late 1800s.
And it's around that time that we start
to see pipe band competitions come onto the scene as well.
And both have their own series of hotly contested competitions.
Pipe band season is very competitive.
Everybody goes to the competition to try and win.
At the top level it's getting tighter every year,
and the bands are getting better every year,
and it is very fine margins between getting 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th.
Pipe bands, it is serious.
You take it completely seriously.
It's a huge part of your life.
Yeah. I mean, it's a way of life, for sure.
(BAGPIPES PLAY JOVIAL MUSIC)
I think that pipe band contests are as popular as they are
for a variety of reasons. First of all, the music is powerful.
It's a special feeling to stand in a pipe band
and be surrounded by so many other pipers
and drummers and feel that music and, you know,
contribute to producing such a big sound.
It's very much a sports sort of angle
that you think about with the competitions.
I mean, you're taking an art form and turning it into a sport.
There's a rivalry between a lot of bands and a lot of respect as well.
Absolutely. But everyone's there to try and win.
It's super competitive,
and the rivalries are great. And that's what spurs everyone on.
The basic makeup of a band consists of the pipe corps and the drum corps.
The drums and the pipes are equally important.
You can't have a good band
if you don't have good drum corps and a good pipe corps.
(TRADITIONAL BAGPIPE MUSIC)
The grading system in pipe bands ranges from 1 down to 4,
with Grade 1 being the highest level for the elite musicians.
There is a huge commitment to being a Grade 1 band, yeah.
But ultimately, if you want to play at that level,
that's just the hours that are required to do that.
(TRADITIONAL MUSIC CONTINUES)
Just give your pipes a wee blow there,
and we'll get a blow together in a moment.
(TRADITIONAL BAGPIPE MUSIC)
As the bands head into the final furlong of the competitive season...
..there are three Grade 1 pipe bands to watch.
(BAND CHEERS)
Reigning world champions Field Marshal Montgomery,
led by Pipe Major Richard Parkes...
The World Championships are the most important competition of the year.
If you don't win it again, then it's gonna be disappointing for you.
..Inverary & District, led by Stuart Liddell...
Of course we're gunning for it, but you know,
there are other great bands out there that will...
..say something about that, I'm sure.
Just the last part. Keep the thing going.
And this year, there's an underdog hot on their tails.
Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate, with Ross Harvey at the helm.
To win the World Championships, it would be huge.
I mean, ultimately, that is the absolute pinnacle.
In the week preceding the Worlds
is the prestigious Piping Live! festival.
The very best of the best descend onto the streets of Glasgow,
to warm up for the pipe battles that lie ahead.
Piping Live! is the Glasgow International Piping Festival,
and we celebrate and promote piping of all forms.
And we take it to the people of Glasgow and beyond.
For organiser musician Finlay MacDonald,
piping is a way of life.
You know, pipes have been a huge part of my life since I was born.
There's a connection for me, my family,
my place, home. So pipes, for me,
aren't just an instrument, they're way more than that.
The National Piping Centre is the centre of excellence for the tuition
and development of piping.
And that's from absolute grassroots level,
right up to degree level...
How ya doing, pal, alright? Piping Live! is the jewel
in the National Piping Centre's summer programme of events.
It's always been important for us
that we nurture the traditional music,
but we're also looking at bringing in beginners, come-and-try sessions.
It's a celebration. Piping Live!'s always been designed that it happens
the week leading up to the World Pipe Band Championships.
It's become, like, an integral part of the whole piping calendar.
(TRADITIONAL BAGPIPE MUSIC)
With over 100 performances across the city,
it's one of Glasgow's biggest events of the year.
We've got bands parading down Buchanan Street,
which is our main city-centre street.
Take over the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall,
about seven or eight different venues around the city.
There's definitely more pipers here this week
than anywhere in the world at any time.
(CROWD APPLAUDS)
So, this is the Piping Live! Big Band,
and it's a chance for anyone who plays pipes
or drums to come together and celebrate the start of the festival.
We've got 130 pipers and drummers here today,
ranging from 8 years old to 80.
For any musicians that enjoy getting together
and playing music, this is the week to do it.
It's hugely important, not just for pipers and drummers,
but you know, the whole traditional music community
really kind of come together this week in Glasgow.
("Scotland the Brave" CONTINUES)
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
It was wonderful. I always feel quite emotional at this point.
All the year of hard work comes together
and this is the kind of first big event that we have
and playing through the streets of Glasgow's always an honour.
(RHYTHMIC MUSIC)
While the civilian pipe band season is underway,
the military pipers are preparing for their own competitions.
At Redford Barracks, on the outskirts of Edinburgh,
is home of the Army's School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming.
Afternoon, boys. Welcome back to the class again.
One, two...
The school trains British soldiers from all over the country
to play this ancient instrument in British Army pageantry.
Twenty-year-old student Ryan Smart is on secondment
from the Royal Tank Regiment, based in Wiltshire.
The reason why I joined the Royal Tank Regiment
is because I like tanks.
I... There's not much more I could say about that.
I just like tanks.
And 24-year-old Kevin Gunn
is from the 4th Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.
I've been in the Army coming up for three years now.
To be honest, I...
I needed a bit of discipline about me. I was a wee bit of a nutcase.
Needed a bit of purpose, I think.
("The Brown Haired Maiden" CONTINUES)
Yeah, I learnt when I was a child.
My dad played, so I was always quite influenced by that.
You know, him practicing with his band.
("The Brown Haired Maiden" CONTINUES)
I was never musical. Never thought I'd be able to learn the bagpipes...
..but I'm halfway through the course now.
I'm seeing progress, and it feels good.
Sergeant Roland Ray is from 10, The Queen's Own Gurkha Logistic Regiment.
Make sure you go through, OK, on your own times.
You don't get much time in this school and only in the class.
Don't depend only on the class. OK?
I was deployed in Afghanistan, September 2009.
During that time, whenever we used to go out on a patrol,
there is always a bagpipe playing outside the gate
saying a goodbye to us and giving us good luck.
And hearing those music from that time
is something always touch my heart.
The military have used the bagpipes for hundreds of years,
but the instruments origins are ancient.
We know that the earliest depiction of the bagpipes
is actually on a clay tablet from Samaria, from Mari,
which is on the Syrian/Iraqi border.
And that's about 3000 BC.
Some people believe bagpipes weren't found in Scotland
until the late Middle Ages,
when they were using during battles between warring clans.
The bagpipes from the start were always an instrument of war.
Their sheer volume speaks to that,
but it is no coincidence that we see their rise
come at a time of political instability
and increasing conflict amongst clans.
Over time, the instrument gained prominence in Scotland.
The bagpipes are synonymous with Scotland,
and I think Scotland's synonymous with the bagpipes as well.
It's such a rich instrument
and has genuinely played a hugely important part of Scottish history.
The Scottish one has come through to dominate.
Some people might say because it's the loudest. (LAUGHS)
But it's the most sophisticated
because it was taken up by the Scottish aristocracy
in 14th/15th century.
Pipers for the first time were given salaries.
They were given space in their lives to develop the technology
and develop the art music.
As curator of modern & military history
at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh,
Calum Robertson has access to some of the oldest bagpipe exhibits
that exist today.
We think that this chanter dates to probably the end of the 17th
or the early 18th century.
We know this because of the objects' provenance.
It was the chanter of Iain Dall MacKay, the piper of Gare Loch.
He was born in the mid-17th century
and died in the mid-18th century.
This chanter is hugely important
because bagpipes generally don't survive particularly well.
They're made of many constituent parts
and those parts are all organic.
So they're made of wood, they're made of bone and horn.
Their survival in the material record is relatively poor.
It's incredible to hold an object like this.
You get a sense of how it would have felt in the hands
of a great piper like Iain Dall MacKay.
During the Empire,
the British military introduced the Highland bagpipes across the globe.
This is a truly remarkable set of great Highland bagpipes.
Made around 1860 by Thomas Glenn,
they are, by reputation,
one of three sets of great Highland bagpipes
commissioned by an Indian maharaja.
They look very different to a standard set
of great Highland bagpipes because they're made entirely of brass.
So, they've been made of brass so that they are resistant
to tropical insects that like to eat wood.
By the 19th century,
military pipe bands started to emerge.
The history of pipe bands is rooted in the British military.
And to my mind,
the official start of pipe bands could be seen as 1854,
when the UK War Office officially recognised pipers
as a part of the British military,
with each battalion being allocated five pipers and one pipe major.
ROBERTSON: They can be used to rouse your own forces,
to intimidate the enemy
and also to give direction on the field of battle.
The development of civilian bands,
a lot of it has to do with people in the military
often want what they had in the military in civilian life.
And so, it's after people start retiring from the military
that you see these pipe bands popping up.
Pipe bands have historically played a large role
in communities in Scotland.
Used to be that you would join your local town pipe band.
These local pipe bands can now have more than 50 members,
and during competitions,
they perform a series of different pieces of music.
A March, Strathspey and Reel set, also known as an MSR,
is a set of three different types of tunes.
We start with a march, and we use that to march into the arena.
After that we play a strathspey, which is a type of dance,
and we round that out with a reel, which is another type of dance.
After they've played their MSR,
the band can get more creative.
A medley is a much more freeform musical genre.
So, we have between five and seven minutes
to play really whatever we like.
So, it's not just about the tunes themselves,
but it's about the overall, almost orchestral arrangement
of how we put those tunes together.
Pipe band teams will play the MSR and medley
over two days in the famous World Championships in Glasgow,
so rehearsing to be pitch perfect is key.
(DUCKS QUACK)
Over in Northern Ireland are the current holders of the crown,
Field Marshall Montgomery.
By the right, quick, march.
They're a dual country band with Scottish and Northern Irish members,
and today, they're rehearsing in Lisburn, outside Belfast.
Led by Richard Parkes, their pipe major.
The role of the pipe major is to lead the band, first and foremost.
Basically to be the conductor of the band.
The pipe major is the key,
and if it doesn't go well, the buck stops with him.
After being in the band for over 50 years,
mastering the bagpipes has been Richard's life work.
The sound of the pipes is like nothing else.
You either like it or you don't like it, but I liked it,
and it's a very subtle instrument,
and it needs to be well tuned to sound good.
I started when I was nine years old.
It's a long process of learning all the chanter work,
the embellishments, the technique. It takes a long time.
OK, guys, I want us to relax the tempo back a wee bit.
I just think it went a bit fast on Saturday,
so let's just relax it back a wee bit.
Field Marshal Montgomery have won the World Championship
on 13 occasions.
And I've been there the whole time, so that makes me
the most successful pipe major ever to win the World Championship.
The D's not right. Do you hear it going off there?
You need to listen to that as I've tuned your chanter.
You need to listen to that and try and blow.
In order to be the best, people need to show...dedication,
hard practice. They must have good ability as well.
It's like a good football team.
You need to have the best players to have the best band,
and you need to have a good leader as well or good leadership.
The problem is not that it's sharp.
You need to listen and try and adjust your blowing
to find out what it is.
I'm a very competitive person.
Everything I do, I'm competitive,
and it's just part of the way I am.
It's a big part of my life. It's almost like a second job,
and it's something that I've enjoyed doing,
and I've been very grateful to have been involved
in pipe bands for all these years.
Richard received an MBE for his work in piping
and is highly respected by his proteges.
He's a magician of the pipe band world, like.
He knows what he wants, and he knows how to get it too.
You need the leadership of him, and...
I think you have to be strict. People gain your respect,
you know, and they know that if I'm saying something,
they know the reason behind it, that it's not anything personal
towards them, it's about getting things right for the band.
Not that much... And Richard is grateful still
to be able to play the pipes at all.
In 2004, he had a serious stroke.
After the stroke, I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to play again.
Strangely enough, my whole playing experience is different now
than it was before.
Before the stroke, I very, very rarely ever made any mistakes.
But since that,
I have to now totally focus on my own performance,
instead of thinking about other sides of the band.
But I'm very lucky to have had the recovery that I've had.
Somebody did go early the first time,
it didn't happen there, so just be careful of that. OK.
There's two beats, one, two...
Don't hit the D until that beat exactly.
I think it's getting harder to win every year.
A number of things have to go with you on the day
to ensure that you can actually get your best performances
to actually try and win the World Championship.
We've got a bit to go to get back to where we were last year,
but I think the potential's there to get there.
We've just gotta eliminate any errors that we've had.
We've had a few errors in the first couple of competitions,
which really shouldn't be happening. We'll need to sort that out.
That's good.
Civilian bagpipe teams are preparing
for the biggest competition of the year,
the World Pipe Band Championships.
Tucked away on the picturesque west coast of Scotland
is the town of Inverary,
famous for its castle and the inspiration for our next pipe band.
Band ready!And they're one of the main challengers...
By the right, quick, march!
..for the title this season.
Led by Pipe Major Stuart Liddell since 2005,
Inverary & District are multiple competition winners.
We won the Worlds for the first time in 2017.
We were 2nd in 2018. We won again in 2019.
And of course, we're gunning for it this year as well.
It is good, but the joining B...
# Baah, ba-da, da, ba-da. #
Just watch it doesn't go... # Aah, ba-da... #
What attracts me to pipe bands is the sound
and the music, more than competing I would say.
I love listening to all the bands standing at a specific place
and that's just round at the corner where the drums
and the corner pipers are sort of meeting and get the best sound.
Did you hear? Right, come on! Right...
That is just a lack of your own awareness of your own instrument!
That's what that is!
My entire life is taken up with piping.
(LAUGHS) I mean,
any path in life I've chosen has been as long as I could play pipes.
So, it's a full-time career. It's a living.
And Stuart demands the same commitment from his team.
Right, again!
As a pipe major, I would say I would be...
firm but fair. (LAUGHS)
I wouldn't say I was strict, no.
Do me a favour and rehearse that every single day until the Worlds.
Every day.
Don't leave that one to chance because it ain't gonna work.
All your hard work will be for nothing
if you don't pull that one off.
It's only one or two guys.
The rest of it's fine, but it just takes one arsehole to do it!
Come on!
Pipes are a very sensitive instrument.
They're affected by temperature. Moisture's our biggest enemy.
When moisture hits the drone reeds, they become very unstable
and start moving and being unpredictable.
And because of the chanter, it's quite shrill.
When two chanters are pitched side by side, to the trained ear,
you can tell when they're not quite in tune with each other.
For band members like Calum Kaye,
Stuart is a big name in piping.
Stuart is a, I suppose a bit of an icon in piping.
He's one of the most well-known pipers in the world,
having been an amazing solo player. Still is, of course.
And one of the most successful pipe majors as well,
so he's kind of a top all-rounder. He's done it all.
Stuart's a guy that certainly knows what it takes to certainly compete
and win at the highest level. And he knows what is required
of himself as a leader and also what he requires from all of his team.
Standing here, it's a bit weird.
That is not matching that.
That front rank is behind.
One more. Same again.
See, you could have been home by now. See?
The band's success has drawn pipers from everywhere.
Seventeen-year-old Connor Eckert flew in from California
to join them for the competition season.
I first started with Inverary because I've been a big fan
of Stuart cos he's one of the best pipers ever.
He's a fantastic young player. A whizz kid.
Great natural ability, great composer.
Right, intro, from the beginning. Right, OK, here we go!
On the spot. Old medley.
I was a little self-conscious when I first got here, just cos of,
just my playing and just how I hoped, like...
I just didn't wanna mess up. This is a huge step out of me comfort zone.
I thought it would be a good experience to come.
If I was posed the question,
where would you rather spend the next three months, Glasgow
or California? I think that would be a relatively easy answer.
Probably wouldn't be Glasgow.
With younger members in the team,
Stuart will need all his experience to get the band ready to compete
for the world title.
Things definitely need to improve. I'm happy with where we are with it.
I know that we've got a bit of a road ahead to refine everything.
I'll see you on Wednesday. Thanks very much! Bye.
(RHYTHMIC DRUMMING MUSIC)
Away from the civilian competition rehearsals,
just outside of Edinburgh, Redford Barracks.
Put your toes on that line. That should keep everybody straight.
At the home of the Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming,
it's the day before their own
prestigious Army Piping Championships.
Spread out.
For Kevin Gunn and Ryan Smart,
everything has to be spot on for inspection.
Corps. Try again.
Corps. Corps."Ten-shun!"
We're not just teaching them to be pipers and drummers,
we're also training them to be ambassadors for the regiments,
as they go on state, ceremony and public duties.
Gunn? Sir.You alright?Yes, sir.
Bit more polish on that shoe, though.Yes, sir.
Good.
A lot of the pipers and drummers will never have worn this kit,
so the staff at the army school are teaching them how to play
and wear their kit,
which is quite sometimes a challenge
for these soldiers that have never been in this kit before.
Trooper Smart... Afternoon, sir.
We could tighten that up a bit couldn't we?Yes, sir.
Looks like John Wayne's gun sling.
The knot on your tie could be a bit tighter as well.Mm.
It's a parade in, not a wedding we're going to. OK?Yes, sir.
It's very, very important because as we go round the globe,
they're not just representing their unit, they're representing
the heritage that the piping
and drumming within the British Army is about.
Corps, stand at ease!
Stand easy.
Right, guys, in ya come!
OK, we're gonna lay the swords down, take a wee step back.
During their six months at the school,
the recruits not only focus on piping,
they also have to master another ancient tradition:
Highland dancing.
So, when the recruits come here, some of them know
that they're gonna be doing Highland dancing, for others, it's a shock.
Over...beat.
And over...beat.
Highland dancing's still done as it's still to do with our culture.
It's basically our history.
It all actually started with the soldiers doing dancing
back in war time, and that's why we carry on that tradition
with the pipes and the drums as well.
Five, six, seven, eight.
Bow, two, three, four.
Step, point, ready and Pas-de-basque right and Pas-de-basque left.
Corner, turn.
Past your sword, to your sword, left, right, left, right.
Pas-de-basque, Pas-de-basque,
corner, turn. (LAUGHS)
Past your sword, to your sword... What's going on, Mr Gunn?
Oh, I don't know. I'm not very good at this.
The Highland dancing, that's a funny one.
I'm not very good at it.
I've obviously created a bit of, I wouldn't say tension between me
and the teacher, but I think she thinks I'm a bit of a class clown.
I've still not got the rhythm for dancing. I can play pipes,
and an instrument, but I don't have a rhythm for dancing.
Three, two, three, four. Turn!
There can be a right mix of ability,
so we have people who just take to it straight away,
definitely got a gift for it and others
take a bit more work to get there.
I know this is very early days, so we've got a lot to practise.
OK? We're gonna think about pointing your toes,
knees back, head up.
OK? But good lesson. On you go, well done.
Well done, boys!
Over the next nine days, civilian pipe bands from all over the planet
are gathering in Glasgow, as they build up
for the annual World Pipe Band Championship.
One of the contenders for the title from West Lothian, near Edinburgh...
By the right, quick, march.
..are Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate.
The band's been second two or three times,
but the band has never won a World Championships.
To win the World Championships, it would be huge.
I mean, ultimately, that is the absolute pinnacle,
so it would be massive.
Pipers, remember,
it's just starting to set on the backfoot a wee bit.
Let's just try and get the energy back into it straight away.
Ross Harvey has been the pipe major since 2016.
I'd like to think that I'm quite a considerate pipe major.
I listen to a lot of input from guys that I trust.
The musical side of it is only part of it.
You've gotta try and keep the guys wanting to play together
and make the thing interesting
and hopefully have a bit of momentum as a band.
Keep thinking about the, as if the drummers are playing with us,
OK? Kick it along.
I started playing when I was seven...
..and...
when I first started, I did a year or so on the practice chanter,
and I've been at Boghall since I was ten.
By the nature of having the bag
and the bagpipes' got a few different elements to it
and it's a physical instrument.
It's a long journey to go from learning the scale
to going through the grades and working into the Grade 1.
There is a unity in our band.
The sense of family in our band allows you to...
Musically you've got an identity that's...
There's a base level of that musical understanding all the time.
(BAND PLAYING TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH BAGPIPE MUSIC)
A huge part of any pipe band is the drum corps.
And this winter, Kerr McQuillan has taken over our drum corps.
Within the pipe band, the drum corps adds a progressive element.
It gives you a totally different feel.
You work a lot as a pipe corps,
but ultimately when the drums come in,
it just helps to lift it to where it needs to be.
I like the strathspey there. Mm-hmm.
I thought that, er... It was too fast.
If I was to do anything, it was probably just pull that back, but...
Tiny wee bits, guys.
But it makes a difference.
I'm 19 and that's, erm...
It's very young to be taking on that responsibility.
Especially at the top end of Grade 1.
I'm the youngest leading drummer in the grade by about 15 years.
In terms of leading the drum corps,
he's had a lot of success in a short space of time.
So, he's shown to be a really natural leader.
What I dreamed of since the day I was born
was becoming the leading drummer of this organisation.
When he asked me, I was over the moon.
I've been planning it for years, though. You know,
it's always been in the back of my head. Every day I pick up my sticks,
"What would I do if I was the leading drummer of this band?"
When he told me, it was the best day of my life. There's no doubt.
Ultimately, we picked Kerr because he is the right man for the job.
He's a very focused individual.
I'm so sort of obsessed with the competitive scene in pipe bands.
There's not another musical industry that has such
a competitive nature about it.
(BAND MEMBERS CHATTER)
Happy enough?Yep, happy. It's a very good starting point.
The Worlds is the one. That's the one everyone wants to win.
That's the one you practise for all year.
At the end of the day, you want to win the Worlds.
We can actually do it. It's our time.
While the civilian pipe bands practice hard,
less than 20 miles east at Redford Barracks, outside Edinburgh,
it's the day of the military Pipe & Drum Championships.
The Army Championships is a competition that allows pipers
and drummers from all the regiments to come to the Army School,
perform at various levels of competition.
They all want to leave with some silverware
and some great feedback from the external judges that we do bring in.
The competition is very tough.
This year we opened up to the foreign Commonwealth,
and we had soldiers come across from Canada
to compete in the competition.
And that will certainly set the bar very high indeed.
And once the soldiers know this,
they'll have to really be upping their game
and became more competitive to become successful.
(PLAYS UPBEAT TUNE)
I am a bit nervous, you know, just shows that I care.
I wanna do my best. If I wasn't nervous, I'd be worried
because I wouldn't be thinking of how I'm gonna play and all of that.
I think that is a massive part of preparing yourself
for playing in front of people.
The judges, who are pipers in their own right,
will be marking how competitors carry themselves,
as well as their musical skills.
In a performance, I'd be looking good tone off the bagpipe,
steady blowing, accuracy of the technique
and how well they express the tune.
And at the end of the day, it's probably the person
who has the least mistakes that ends up winning.(LAUGHS)
Competition will be intense.
Ryan will be playing against some of the best
of the international military piping community.
You have to be harsher and you have to pick up
the slightest mistake, you know.
Because there's not a lot of errors come out of these top players.
Next up, we have Trooper Smart, Royal Tank Regiment.
Ryan's recital is made up of three performances.
The March, the Strathspey and Reel, and the Pibroch,
with a trophy for each section up for grabs.
Right, in your own time. Just carry on and play it.Thank you, sir.
Three months of practice now all comes down to today.
Thank you. Thank you.
It didn't go bad. Erm, played a bit fast in the reel.
Coulda relaxed a bit more in the strathspey,
but it coulda gone a lot worse, erm, so yeah, I'm pretty happy with that.
Time for Ryan to find out if all his hard work has paid off.
To all the competitors... who entered today,
it's a great challenge to go into a room
and test your skills.
And if you don't receive a prize, it's still a pat on the back.
It takes a lot of courage and dedication to come
and compete against your counterparts
within the other regiments.
Confined March, in 4th place,
Officer Cadet Farmer, Aberdeen UOTC. (APPLAUSE)
3rd place, Trooper Bell, Scots Dragoon Guards.
In 2nd place, Officer Cadet Clark, Edinburgh UOTC.
And winning the Confined March...
..Trooper Smart, Royal Tank Regiment.
Good job!
And the winner of the Confined Strathspey and Reel,
Trooper Smart, Royal Tank Regiment.
(INAUDIBLE SPEECH)
And winning the confined Pibroch, with a clean sweep,
Trooper Smart, Royal Tank Regiment.
Good effort, well done. (APPLAUSE DROWNS OUT SPEECH)
I didn't really expect it, no.
When he called my name out, erm, bit nervous obviously,
before that I was wondering, "Had I actually won anything?"
Erm, considering three places had been called out.
It was either I'd got nothing or first, so heart was racing a bit.
In fact, more than when I was actually playing.
Erm, but yeah, yeah, I'm very happy.
He played well, and he was a credit to his regiment.
Finishing off with a result like this, it definitely means a lot.
It means that all the work I have done,
all of that which people don't see has paid off.
Next time...
The three Grade 1 pipe bands, Field Marshal Montgomery...
Come on, focus, guys get it in your heads.
..Inverary & District...
Am I talking a lot of nonsense here? Can somebody relate to that?
..and Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate...
Right, quick march!
..go head to head in pursuit of glory on Glasgow Green.
And the aspiring your pipers from the Renfrewshire Schools Band
start their competition journey.
Try and relax. Try and not worry about things going on around you.
Plus, the Army pipers are out in force...
This is such a big event to be playing for.
..taking part in a once-in-a-generation occasion...
To be part of this parade is really the pinnacle for us.
..as they lead the military bands out onto the global stage,
for His Majesty the King's Coronation.
(UPBEAT MUSIC)
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