Someone buy this guy a pint!

Bagpipes, Music, pints!, Piper, Wedding, Wedding music

If you’ve not seen it yet there’s a story that popped up over the weekend of an angry bride demanding a refund after calling him unprofessional for drinking a pint. That was bought for him by the best man. That was blackcurrant and lemonade.

It’s pretty crazy and understandably the piper, Craig Lawrie, a Scottish wedding piper that’s been doing this for a while was having none of it. I know if I see a piper at a wedding I’ve no problem with him having a cheeky pint of juice to cool down. For Craig it’s probably a happy ending, he’s ended up getting a fair bit of free publicity out of the argument, you can find the story from the Daily Record here. To be fair it’s a wee overreaction by the bride and I’m sure when she thinks about it in the future the event will have in no way had a negative impact on her big day, she even went out of her way to praise the piper initially before requesting a refund!

My question to you reader is simple, would you by a Scottish piper a pint whilst he was playing bagpipes at your pals wedding? Let us know in the comments below! Maybe buy Stuart a pint too if you see him!

The Highland Heavy Games in Belfast

Bagpipes, Festival, Music, Piper

Yesterday in Belfast the last day of the 2015 Maine Celtic Celebration took place with several athletes competing in the Highland Heavy Games. There included games involving having to throw large stones and throwing heavy weights attached to chains. Not to mention tossing cabers and Scottish hammers. Big lads eh?

There was pipe band music to be found throughout the day which is always appreciated as you can find here. Pipers taken the day off playing wedding music to share their talents with an new audience is always a cool thing.

Whilst I didn’t make it myself I read that something called the New World Cheese Roll Championships took place which sounds crazy and interesting. Apparently different age groups chase rolls of cheese down a big hill, assuming the first to get to it is the winner. Are there videos of this event I hear you cry, to which I say of course there are, albeit I couldn’t find any from specifically yesterday there are tons of cheese rolling videos to be found on youtube.

It looks mental.

Anyhow it looked like a fun day out for families in Belfast and I really loved that bagpipers were doing there thing. More information about the event can be found here!

Did you catch any Scottish pipers (or any pipers really) this week? Let us know in the comments below! Did you have anyone play at your wedding? Any Scottish wedding piper stories are always appriciated!

Piping Live! Festival

Bagpipes, Glasgow, Piper, Piping Live!, Piping Live! festival

The Piping Live! Festival is held every year in Glasgow by the fine folks at the National Piping Centre, it’s about to go into it’s 12th year and has been described as the largest bagpipe festival in the world! It’s running this year from the 10th till the 16th of August and is going to bring something unique and special to the city of Glasgow with performances all around the city.

For instance on the first day there’s tons of performances occurring down at the city’s George Square which definitely has the potential to be memorable. There will also be performances for all the public at Buchanan Street, here’s a cool photo just next to the Buchanan Street steps:

These one’s seem to be free and there are several more, all reasonably priced, occurring over the week. For more information you should 100% check out the Piping live! website (the events page specifically) which can be found here. While you’re at it might be worthwhile to give them a wee follow on their twitter feed @GlasgowPiping.

Curiously there are several stories on the website stating that the festival already kicked off back in the Springtime which means that people have been able to enjoy performances around the city for a lot longer in the build up to the festival proper in August.

The artists in attendance make up an exhaustive list of the who’s who of piping in Scotland and around the world including performers from New Zealand, Columbia and Belgium!

We’re definitely going to make our way down to a few of the performances as this is a unique opportunity to catch a ton of bagpipes! Overall the organisers expect 50,000 people to enjoy the 200 events and 8,000 performers (!) that make up the festival! Can’t wait!!

Wedding entertainment: Some statistics.

Bagpipes, Music, Piper, Wedding, Wedding music

I was looking at wedding music statistics today (as you do) and found these one’s to be pretty shocking. Statistics I found on the St. Louis Bride and Groom website, taken from sources such as USA Today and The Knot suggest that almost 100% of brides they spoke to would, if they could do things again, spend more money when it came to choosing the entertainment for their wedding. 72% of those brides said they would spend a significantly larger amount of time choosing their musical performers. Finally 81% said that the main thing they remembered about their reception was the entertainment they chose.

Choosing a Scottish wedding piper for your wedding can be a time consuming business but these statistics definitely show that it will be time well spent. Don;t leave it until the last minute and don’t underestimate the importance of getting a really good piper to play. We can recommend Stuart (who can be found here: http://elitebands.co.uk/scottish-piper ) however if you have anyone you’d like to recommend make sure to do so below in the comments!

More famous songs covered on bagpipes.

Bagpipes, Music, Musical Covers, Piper, the Flinstones, Wedding, Wedding music

Here’s another collection of songs you are probably familiar with that you wouldn’t expect to see covered on bagpipes and certainly wouldn’t expect to see on a blog about Scottish wedding pipers!

The Flintstones theme song

Do they still show the Flintstones on TV? I have vivid memories of watching it as a kid along with about fifty other Hanna-Barbera shows that used to cheaply fill up kids television.

I’m also old enough to have begged my dad to take me to see the 1994 movie complete with Agent Dale Cooper as the villian and the terrible B-52s cover of the theme. It doesn’t take much but the video below is certainly a more enjoyable cover than that one ever was:

(And for comparisons sake here’s the B-52s version. I’m very sorry.)

If I can make some requests I’d like to hear some more kids TV show themes covered, in particular Thundercats, The Pink Panther and Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. MAKE IT HAPPEN INTERNET!

Game of Thrones theme

I’d like to do some research and see if any Scottish pipers actually show up in the show. Living in Glasgow I’ve seen half the cast out drinking over the years, I’ve seen the actor that plays Sandor Clegane on a few occasions, he’s intimidating looking man!

Game of Thrones is a good show to do a bagpipe video for, the theme fits and the success of the show means that you can rack up the youtube hit count. This is a pretty cool video in my opinion so be sure to check it out!

Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah

We’ll finish with one I never thought I would see, a cover of a song that depending on your vintage you may know from Leonard Cohen (the writer of the song,) Jeff Buckley or Alexandra Burke. Or from 5 years of terrible X-Factor auditions.

Hopefully Leonard got a nice retirement check out of it all.

Personally I’m a big fan of the original Cohen version without all the historic of the X-Factor cover but your mileage may vary. I think the band covering it are from Russia but I’m not 100% sure but, well, it’s something different right?

Have you seen any cool cover versions done on bagpipes? Let me know in the comments below! Also check out the Elite Bands pipe major here: http://elitebands.co.uk/scottish-piper

Piper Spotlight

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Check out this piper, he’s the Elite Bands Pipe Major, Stuart! This Scottish wedding piper looks the part and is one of the best Pipers we’ve come across in Scotland and is available for weddings, functions and corporate events. Check out this video of Stuart performing solo here:

With a little bit of exploring on YouTube we also found this 10 piece pipe band also available through Elite Bands. This tartan wearing ensemble perform at weddings, functions and corporate events and give an amazingly traditional feel to any Scottish or Scottish themed day or evening. We’re big fans, can you imagine having this at your wedding? It would add a special, prestigious moment to your big day!

Both of the Pipe Major and the 10 piece pipe band can be booked through Elite Bands website, specifically through the band checker which allows the booker to know instantly whether or not the act will be available for the dates they are looking for! Elite Bands can be found here: http://elitebands.co.uk and more details about the Piper can be found here: http://elitebands.co.uk/scottish-piper

What do you guys think? Send us some videos of your favourite pipers in the comments section below.

Wedding Piper Scotland

A blog about Scottish Wedding Piper s and everything else Piper related

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