Irony

May 30, 2009 on 7:13 pm by Michael Grey | In News, Pipe Bands, Whinges | Comments Off on Irony

Like a lot of you who happen to drop in I get most of my piping world news from pipesdrums.com. The Piping Live festival launch story really got me thinking – or annoyed, maybe that’s a better word (whinge alert).

I just have to say, really, isn’t it ironic that the gem of what happens around the time of the “world” pipe band championships, namely the Piping Live festival, drew on the international angle in their press launch!? The kick-off tapped in to a global view of piping that saw the painting of faces of various well-kent pipers, all representing the countries that generally enter the world’s thing. Nice.

I love the Piping Live Fest, but really, when taken in context with the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s small view of pipe bands, I thought the whole thing seriously out of line with the way of things: the RSPBA, the organization that currently hosts the championship, has pretty much dissed the proven abilities and considered judgement of people who hail from beyond their shore.

I’m guessing the Piping Live people were canny and did their best to smooth over the RSPBA thing with their international launch. All the same, I hope the they have a line to – or maybe even some influence over – what’s going on in the RSPBA.

I imagine the continued success of their festival depends on it. Piping Live has flourished with a “world’s” that is well-supported by people from outside of Scotland – and most of those people play in bands.

M.