Bagpipes at 60’s Up

It made my Scottie blood proud to hear the sound of bagpipes swirling around the the hall during our 60’s Up meeting this morning.  Peter was our speaker, and we knew him as Peter the Bus Driver.  He had driven our bus full of members on several trips over the last few months since we had joined 60s Up.  But we never knew he was a talented musician.  His talk was about his adventures overseas with the pipe band.

Peter the Piper

Peter’s bagpipes are “Horn McDougall” and are over 100 years old.  With silver and ivory fittings they are very special indeed, and worth a pretty penny.  Although he belongs to two pipe bands, the City of Wellington Pipe Band, and the Pipes and Drums of Christchurch City, his talk was about the latter, and the many overseas tours this band has undertaken.

With invitations for the band  to perform in such far flung countries as Dubai, Nova Scotia, and Switzerland, Peter has certainly seen the world.  He told us about his time at the Edinburgh Tattoo, undoubtedly the most famous Tattoo in the world.  (Yes, we are biased, but it was the highlight of our trip to Scotland some years ago, the land of my maternal grand-dad).  The band also played for the Queen at Windsor Castle, and Peter related that each evening a different member of the royal family was in attendance, so they had to be on their best behaviour.  The band’s next adventure is a trip to China.  Peter finished up by playing us another tune – the sound of bagpipes is such a wonderful stirring sound, I always feel.