Bands bang the drum to battle exodus of pipers

Smaller groups face having to fold or merge with neighbours to keep a core of pipers and drummers in certain areas.

Dornoch Pipe Band has already had to pull out of competitions because of a lack of musicians, and the 81-year-old Ardgay and Bonar Bridge Pipe Band in Sutherland has trouble raising enough numbers to go on parade. It will hold an extraordinary general meeting this week to discuss its future.

The tune is becoming a depressingly familiar one across the country as small groups struggle to survive.

Ardgay and Bonar Bridge secretary Graeme Mackay said a full complement would consist of up to 16 pipers and drummers. But his group has just four regular adults supplemented by youngsters from Sutherland Schools Pipe Band. The group doesn't even have any members from the Ardgay and Bonar Bridge area any more.

"We have a lot of young talent coming through here, but often they head off to college or university or to jobs elsewhere and fail to return to the area. That is another generation lost to the band," said Mackay.

"It's an underlying problem facing all committees across the Highlands. There were more people here in the past. Somewhere like Lairg has lost about 100 jobs in the past 15 years. There are fewer people, and many have retired from piping.

Mackay said groups such as the Caledonian Pipe Band in Golspie and others in Bettyhill and Tongue were facing similar difficulties.

"I don't know whether in future we would be merging the bands into one and pooling the resources. It might be an option and one we should consider.

"It may be that we have to take a break for a few years and restart in five years' time to see whether the numbers are back.

"But it would be a shame, after 81 years of hard work by many people in the community, to see it disappear."

Inverurie Pipe Band, formed in 1957, has also been making appeals for new members. Originally 19-strong, it now has on average six or seven pipers and three drummers.

Piper and band president Dougald Robertson said: "Most of our members are now mature in years, and attracting youngsters is a major problem.

"We tend to get them very young but then other interests kick in and we lose them. At the moment we have no one younger than 25. It's hard work and the interest can fade quickly."

He added: "If young people don't learn at school they have to be really keen to go to a club at night. I genuinely believe that if there was tuition at school as part of the curriculum the band would benefit."

Bob Stevenson, secretary of the Graham of Montrose Band, believes mergers are inevitable.

Last month he began an appeal to revive the band, formed in 1995, but has struggled to maintain numbers over the years.

Stevenson said: "Bands should co-operate more because they are too fragmented. I was thinking of forming an Angus band as Forfar were down to about five at one point and Arbroath was struggling.

"A number of bands are facing the same issue of recruiting. Merging bands may be one way of dealing with it, otherwise everyone ends up struggling."

He believes some youngsters also feel it is not "cool" to be in a pipe band. "There is a lot of peer pressure on kids," he said. "The cool factor kicks in and they probably look upon the whole piping activity differently from the way kids did previously. The tradition aspect of it all is lost on them."

Gordon Hamill, vice chairman of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, said the situation is "patchy" across Scotland with growth areas where piping and drumming are encouraged in schools, including Argyll and Bute, Kintyre, the Highlands and North Lanarkshire.

"A lot of schools are teaching piping and drumming and there is a growth in juvenile bands, but that is not across the country unfortunately," said Hamill.

He said cost can be prohibitive in starting or sustaining a band, with uniforms costing about 600 per member and instruments taking the outlay to well over 1,000 each.

He added: "I can think of very few mergers in the last ten years. There is usually a strong independence among bands who never want to give up their name. It's like football teams – some would rather go down than merge."