Torphichen sponsorship up for bids on eBay

In 1985 the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band in an attempt to find a sponsor printed and distributed stickers of a practice-chanter-playing skeleton, with the question, “Who doesn’t have a sponsor?” It was a marketing sensation at the time.

Twenty years later, the Torphichen & Bathgate Pipe Band is using the modern marketplace phenomenon, eBay, to get its sponsorship query out by offering a three-year deal through an online auction with a minimum starting bid of £20,000.

The band is willing to change its name to that of the new sponsor, potentially dropping a century-old tradition of “Torphichen & Bathgate” in return for financial stability.

“We have tried many, many different companies locally and throughout the UK with no success,” said Pipe-Major Gordon Stafford. “It is difficult to make the next leap to the very top without money/sponsorship. We are therefore hoping that it maybe possible to do it this way. Although we are auctioning the band name we don’t think is too different from someone taking on a two- or three-year sponsorship deal with a band.”



Torphichen has been known to strive to be different when it comes to performances and style.

“We do like to try and be a bit radical when we can and a new idea that maybe doesn’t work is still better than no idea at all and then getting stuck in a rut,” Stafford continued.

Torphichen & Bathgate was runner-up to the Tayside Police in the RSPBA’s Grade 2 Champion of Champions table.

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