60 years . . . and counting

By Iain MacDonald (Regina)

This past week, the Dartmouth & District Pipe Band contacted me and asked if I would place an ad in the program for their 60th Anniversary Concert. I got to thinking about this milestone, and what a great thing it would be for the band. As my wise nephew Alex once said, “Most rock bands break up in three years, so keeping a pipe band together for 10 is pretty great.” And then I did the math, and it landed: 2025 is also my sixtieth year of piping.

When my mom was young, she desperately wanted to play the bagpipes. There weren’t many options as a girl in Regina in the 1930s and ’40s. Some of the guys in the local militia band did some teaching, and the Regina Boys’ Pipe Band taught students, but no one would teach girls. In Regina, you could only be a piper if you were male. In later years, with family of her own, she looked into lessons for my older siblings, but there still wasn’t a lot of teaching. In 1965, a junior pipe band was formed in Regina after disbanding at the end of WW2. I was nine years old.

There was no chance I was going to go to play bagpipes because I understood that you had to wear a skirt. The band was formed in September 1965, and it took my mom until December to convince me to give it a try. Later, she told me she filled my head full of stories about pipers in Scottish history and downplayed the whole K-I-L-T thing. After a few lessons, I was hooked.

I had some early lessons from Mr. MacKintosh and then moved to Tom Ireland, who taught many young Regina pipers over a period of years. Tom was very good at teaching children, and I remember him coming to the house to give me extra lessons over Christmas holidays. He was funny and encouraging and a stickler for good technique.

During the Christmas holidays of 1966, the band held a “winter school” at the Regina Armouries, and that’s when I got my pipes. By then, I had graduated from Tom’s class and was being taught by Andy McAnsh. Andy had been a P-M in the R.A.F. during WW2, and he played a set of R.G. Lawrie pipes that had (and still have) a beautiful drone sound. So, when the band ordered pipes, they went to R.G. Lawrie, but sadly, the great days of Lawrie were over, and the sets that came ($110 each) looked just fine, but were never of great quality. Some of those sets are still playing in Regina to this day, and 60 years on, they are pretty good with the right reeds.

As the years rolled on, the instrument, the music and the activity of being “a piper” continued to give me great joy. In the 60s and 70s, there were junior bands in Regina, Saskatoon, Moose Jaw and later Swift Current and Yorkton. Competitions such as Selkirk, MB would have 25 pipe bands, and the bands played at many community events throughout the year. We took bus and car trips across the prairies for competitions and performances, often wearing full dress tunics, plaids, etc.

One of the key factors in my early development was the Summer School of the Arts at Fort San, SK. Moose Jaw piper and teacher Jim McWilliams had attended the Invermark School of Piping organized by Donald Lindsay, and he wanted to get something like that happening here. In 1966, he ran a school in Moose Jaw, and then in 1967, the Government of Saskatchewan made the old tuberculosis sanatorium available to the Saskatchewan Arts Board for use as an arts summer camp, and piping and drumming was part of the focus for two weeks each August.

That first year, Capt. John MacLellan came for a few days as a guest instructor, and for many years to follow, we had the legendary Donald MacLeod as a guest instructor. When he first came around to meet the classes that year, we were all charmed by this gentle, approachable man. He made a point of connecting with each student he met. He said something like, “We’re bound to be good friends—I’m part MacDonald, too.”

In time, that connection turned into weekly lessons in Glasgow, and a whole different piping experience, leaving a grade 3 pipe band in Saskatchewan to struggle my way into playing with a grade 1 pipe band in Scotland.

The massive influence of the summer camps and what they inspired has influenced me to continue that tradition in Saskatchewan. For the past 20-plus years, I have worked to pay it forward, bringing amazing people to Saskatchewan to teach each summer and hopefully inspiring more kids to a life of piping.

So, I’m unsure how I will mark my 60 years of continuous piping now, except by playing. I’m extremely grateful for still being here and able to play, for all the friends with whom I’ve shared the journey, and for the support of friends and family throughout my life. I look forward to seeing and hearing you all at the games.

Iain MacDonald of Regina, Saskatchewan, is a frequent and longtime contributor to pipes| and drums. This piece is from his Substack page, “Catchy Name Coming,” which we encourage readers to check out. Iain has kindly agreed to share more piping and drumming-related pieces with pipes|drums ongoing. He’s one of the world’s most significant contributors to piping and drumming, organizing schools and workshops; funding for teaching programs; leading Grade 2 City of Regina for several decades; publishing a music collection (“Along The Road”); authoring the historical novel, I Piped, that She Might Dance, about the great Angus MacKay; and operating Reelpipes.com for pipers and drummers.