Shotts Puts on Two Packed Shows in Northern Ireland

The 2001 World Champions Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band of Shotts, Scotland, performed two sold-out concerts in Cookstown, Northern Ireland on April 28, marking the band’s first non-competition appearance in Ulster since 1988.

Held at the Burnavon Arts Centre yesterday, the events were promoted by the Tullylagan Pipe Band of Northern Ireland.

Among the competition and concert selections performed was a solo ballad by tenor drummer Hayley Alexander called “The Piper and the Maker,” a song about the band. Singing at pipe band concerts has apparently become popular since the 78th Fraser Highlanders first did it at their concert in Motherwell, Scotland, in 1994. The Simon Fraser University Pipe Band‘s recent concert in Sydney, Australia, apparently featured a band chorus.

Another highlight occurred when Shotts lead drummer Jim Kilpatrick invited pipe majors Richard Parkes (Field Marshal Montgomery), Tony Sloan (Royal Ulster Constabulary), Winston Pollock (Monkstown Mossley), Warren Robinson (Tullylagan), and others on stage and to play cowbells, shakers and congas for a finale of two reels in Calypso rhythm. The crowd went nuts.

Shotts & Dykehead will perform again in Glasgow, Scotland, before the World Pipe Band Championships in August.

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