News
December 31, 2007

Two piping albums hit UK Top 100

Possibly for the first time ever, two piping-related albums reached the UK’s official top 100 chart for sales, with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Spirit of the Glen and the Red Hot Chilli Pipers’ Bagrock for the Masses hitting #13 and #94, respectively.

The CDs reached those marks during the week ending December 22, 2007, and the Dragoon Guards’ CD was the most successful pipe band recording since the regiment’s “Amazing Grace,” which achieved the #1 spot in 1972. The band was received by Prime Minister Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street in early December.

The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards' 'Spirit of the Glen.'According to band-member Stuart Cassells, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers have sold more than 30,000 copies of Bagrock. A decent-selling piping CD will generally realize about 2,500 copies sold.

The annual recordings of the World Pipe Band Championships are thought to reach between 10,000 and 15,000 sales, although neither the RSPBA nor Monarch Recordings have ever divulged audited numbers nor provided any proceeds to the artists featured on the CDs, as is legally required.

In November Universal Music announced that it had signed the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards to a £1 million deal with the regiment.

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0 COMMENTS

  1. Sorry Iain! It was last week. The chart was updated on Monday and we went out again! Out as quick as we were in! We have dropped to 102 this week I believe. Cheers Stuart – RHCP

  2. I wondered if that was it. Funnily enough, they have an archive of the Top 40, but not the Top 100. Well, congrats all the same on the week in Top 100, and on the impressive sales number reported in the story.

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