Pipe band drumming legend Wilson Young

Born in Carluke, Lanarkshire, Scotland, Young began his drumming career with a local non-competing Scout band. In his pipes|drums Interview of November 1991, he named John Kirkwood Sr. as the most influential instructor of his early years. He progressed to Grade 2 Wishaw Highland when he became proficient enough, and went on to join the famous Grade 1 Dalziel Highland under Leading-Drummer Billy Stevenson in 1953.

Shortly after, he completed his national service with the Royal Air Force and, during that time, played percussion with military brass bands, pipe bands, and even amateur skiffle groups.

After finishing his RAF duties, Young joined Shotts & Dykehead in what he refers to as a “fourth member” capacity in a corps consisting of Alex Duthart, Bert Barr and Davey Armit, who would emigrate to Massachusetts. At Shotts, he contributed to some of the most profound changes in pipe band drumming, as the genius of Alex Duthart took the drumming world to a new plateau.

His experience with Alex Duthart at the Shotts & Dykehead in the 1950s and ’60s gave him a vital background for his eventual leadership of the Grade 1 Red Hackle drum corps in the mid-1960s and ’70s, with Pipe-Major John Weatherston, BEM, MBE.

“I hope that all ensemble adjuidicators listen mostly to the pipes and view the drummers as supporting accompniment. After all, it is a pipe band.” – Wilson Young, November 1991

When Young was offered the position of leading-drummer with “The Hackle” in 1965, he accepted the challenge. Though the band never won a World Championship (they finished second more than once), they made several recordings that contributed significantly and historically to the evolution of pipe band music, employing pipe organ and cymbals, among other instruments, with the pipes and pipe band drums.

As a solo competitor, he won the World Solo Drumming Championship in 1967, and was runner-up in ’66 and ’68.

After Young retired from pipe band drumming in 1975, he was quickly ushered onto the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association’s judging panel, where he served for the next 40 years. During that time, he became one of the first drummers to earn accreditation as an ensemble judge and was in constant demand for small and major competitions.

In the mid-1970s, Wilson Young was coaxed into the brass band scene for seven years, after originally agreeing to a “one-off” to assist a local band. With brass bands, Young furthered his knowledge of music and percussion by playing myriad percussion instruments, from tubular bells to xylophone. Indeed, he was one of the few drummers to receive a major prize playing with both a brass band and a pipe band, even performing at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

He judged Grade 1 drumming and ensemble at the Worlds many times. His broad musical knowledge and experience informed his more liberal welcome of new pipe band percussion concepts.

Young taught actively in the UK and Canada, including as a regular instructor at the Gaelic College in Baddeck, Nova Scotia.

His acknowledged knowledge, experience and credibility led to an invitation to participate in the educational side of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association. He served on the RSPBA’s Music Board for many years and chaired the Curriculum Development section in the early 1990s. As the group coordinator of this small, specialist team, he helped produce at least three of the RSPBA’s Structured Learning publications.

He was also the nominated representative of the Music Board, reporting to the RSPBA’s National Council, the former equivalent of its current Board of Directors. Young was vice-chairman of the RSPBA’s Adjudication Panel throughout the 1990s, and in 1999 he published and co-authored One Hundred Years of Pipe Band Drumming with Australian pipe band drummer Allan Chatto.

He resided for many years in Strathaven, Lanarkshire, not far from his birthplace, and worked as a projects manager with a major insurance company in Glasgow until he retired in the late 1990s.

We extend our sympathies to Wilson Young’s family and many friends worldwide at this sad time.

We plan to publish Wilson Young: pipes|drums Interview of November 1991 soon.