Wednesday - Glasgow Worlds

Alarm at 7 a.m....  alarm off at 07:00:02. We made breakfast and showered up for the day. The drummers headed up for their morning 8:30 practice in the Mckay penthouse.

The band once again congregated at the pub patio for the morning practice session. The usual warm up tunes to get the drones settled and chanters adjusted (although after J.P.'s work yesterday there was not a lot required). Nice initial sound playing through the dorms.

Pipers warming up in the brilliant sunshine.

Drummers going through a set.

The drummers came down and joined up for several sets of tunes before the MSR practice took hold.

The band moved over to the adjacent parking lot to go through the  MSR several times. Lots of tourist came and took pictures during the sets. After the final MSR set the entire band formed up and marched through the parade tunes with Ajay on bass.

All together

MSR Practice in a local parking lot.

More parade practice.

The local roads have some great eye candy on them... not quite London but close.

Road Candy

A few comments from J.P. on sound and some minor maintenance items to attend to later in the Troy Repair Facility. A couple action items from Colin regarding the weekend (bus departure times, uniform selection etc) and the band was dismissed.

We headed back to the dorms to plan the rest of our day. Kris was now in London doing the run to the Express then to Euston to catch the Virgin Train to Glasgow.

Alberta's North Stratton

We walked over to George Square to listen to North Stratton from Alberta. It is a great feeling to see all these Canadian bands over to compete. We are well represented. This is Val Nichol's band and we had played together at Big Rock P. B. back in 94 when we went to the Worlds. Had a quick visit with Val who is recovering from hip surgery so not playing. Her daughter Heather plays tenor in the band and the resemblance is obvious.

 We walked up Buchanan Street around the bend to Sauchiehall and over to the National Piping Center. We enjoyed a delicious BBQ burger and a cool drink. We enjoyed the musical entertainment as we waited for the McCallum Bagpipe presentation.

Stuart Liddle come out and gave a great performance playing a set of McCallum pipes. He was followed by several other widely known professionals with some playing a new plastic chanter reed. Sounds was good and I see a market for certain playing abilities.

Plastic chanter reed... the future??

We walked around through the main pedestrian streets of Buchanan Street and Sauchiehall then headed back to the dorms with the usual stop for some groceries at Aldi. (They know us by name now)

We relaxed at the dorm for a couple hours then walked down to the Central Station to meet Kris's bullet train. He looked well rested but we grabbed a cab back to the dorm to let him get settled in. I bolted down to the store to grab a couple small pizza's for dinner.

We left him to his own devices and joined some of the band for the Shotts Concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.  It was a full evening of music and everyone enjoyed the band's performance, piping solo's and drum salute. A great mix of other non traditional instruments made the music all the more memorable.

Shotts Concert... very good!

We all headed back to the University dorms and had a little social in the Mackay penthouse. Lots of chat about everyone's travels. Paul & Sue took Ajay to Sterling via train to show him around the sights.

Both band sections (pipers and drummers) have individual practices set for 08:30 in the morning with everyone coming together at 09:30 for a full band practice.... only 2 more practice days left!!

We walked a lot today and my feet are screaming at me for bed rest so I am calling it a night. I will have this edited in the morning to check for the usual mistakes.