Field-Marshal makes mid-section changes

The four-time World Champion Field-Marshal Montgomery Pipe Band of Belfast has confirmed that6 bass drummer John McFetridge and tenor drummer Trevor Buckley have left. McFetridge has retired from pipe bands altogether, while Buckley’s intentions are not known.

The band has announced replacement players, with Irvine Woods taking the bass and Norman “Haggis” MacLeod taking over the “lead-tenor” spot. Woods previously played with the Royal Ulster Constabulary Pipe Band and actually was a member of FMM in the 1980s. MacLeod made his name with the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band and joined the House of Edgar-Shotts & Dykehead Pipe Band in 2004, but never actually competed with the band.

Both McFetridge and Buckley had played with Field-Marshal Montgomery since the early 1990s.

“The departure of John and Trevor is accompanied by the deep appreciation and warm best wishes of their band colleagues and the FMM management team,” Pipe-Major Richard Parkes said in an advance release to Piper & Drummer Online.

The Grade 1 Best Bass Section award at the World Pipe Band Championships went to the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band.

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