Live video will capture Toronto Police on the beat and in the act

When the Grade 1 Toronto Police Pipe Band returns to the el Mocambo Club for its second spring concert on May 21st the group hopes to expand the audience of 200 to hundreds or even thousands more by offering the show for free on the Internet through live video streaming.

“Like a hundred years of other musicians we found the el Mocambo a truly great place to make and hang out music,” said Pipe-Major Ian K. MacDonald. “We’re playing our tunes in a place that sees us following in the tracks of greats. But let’s face it; the pipe band world is just that, it’s a world thing.  It’s great to have Toronto people come out, we need that, but to have the chance to offer up the show to people anywhere, even Dunblane, well we had to jump at the chance.”

The band plans to make use of Ustream, which allows anyone with a broadband connection to the Internet and a video camera to upload live video in real-time for registered Ustream users to watch.

The Toronto Police also revealed that the famous Scottish-born Canadian guitarist Tony McManus will join them for various parts of the show. McManus has adapted pipe music, even piobaireachd, for his own performances.

“Tony McManus is one of those musicians who always seems to be close and not that far away from projects that feature bagpipes or have a bagpipe sensibility,” MacDonald continued. “He loves the music and seems to infuse an awful lot of what he creates with a bagpipe flavour. For us, it was probably his interest in piobaireachd that made him a natural go-to guy when we thought about checking out musical possibilities outside the pipe band.”

McManus has recorded several CDs on the Greentrax label, and has covered, among other tunes, “Lament for the Viscount of Dundee.”

The Toronto Police return to the “el-Mo” after a show in May 2010 from which its Live at the el Mocambo – Raw  and Off the Floor recording was made.

MacDonald added: “The acoustics at the el Mocambo club are remarkably crisp and clean. We never dreamt intense pipe band sounds would sound so good indoors. Seriously, this place is amazing: sound is absorbed, yet tempered and enhanced.”