Disastrous Dunbar 2017 for Tweedvale Pipe Band

Tweedvale Pipe Band travelled to East Lothian on Saturday 13 May to take part in the thirty fifth annual pipe band contest at the Hallhill Centre Dunbar, traditionally the first outdoor pipe band contest of the new season in the RSPBA Lothian and Borders area.

Tweedvale were entered in two competitions at Dunbar, the Grade 4 MSR contest and the Grade 3 contest. Grade 4A MSR contest came first with Tweedvale drawn to play 4th out of 7 bands playing their MSR set of “Donald McLean’s Farewell to Oban”, “Men of Argyll”, “Molly Connell”, “The Keel Row”, “Lexy McAskill” and “Captain Lachlan McPhail of Tiree”. Whilst the band had been sounding reasonably good in practice and final tuning, when it came to the actual performance it was a different story – it’s probably best to quote from our Facebook post made immediately after the performance:

The consensus of opinion is the that performance was horrifically horrendous with lots of note errors and nerves very evident. We are entered in the Grade 3 event which is also an MSR, but whether this happens is being debated. We’ll keep you posted.

Youtube user ThereIsOnlyOneStuart  recorded a video of the performance which is presented here for your “entertainment”:

In the event the band did compete in the Grade 3 contest but it was pretty evident that no-ones heart was in it and whilst it was better than the Grade 4 effort it proved that much work has to be undertaken to get the band up to contest speed. The band played 3rd out of 14 bands in the Grade 3 contest.

When the results were announced Tweedvale found itself well out of the prizes, coming 5th out of 7 bands in Grade 4A and 11th out of 11 bands in Grade 3.

Dunbar was the first of three pipe band contests in May for Tweedvale Pipe Band. Following on from Dunbar was the first major of the season the British Championships at Paisley. The weekend after sees the band heading to West Lothian to take part in the pipe band contest at Bathgate on the last Saturday of May.

Details of the Day

Contest venue – Hallhill Centre Dunbar.

Tunes played:

Grade 4A MSR – P/M Donald McLean’s Farewell to Oban, Men of Argyll, Molly Connell, The Keel Row, Lexy McAskill and Captain Lachlan McPhail of Tiree.

Number of Pipers – 10.

Number of Side Drummers – 3 in Grade 4.

Number of Bass Drummers – 1.

Number of Tenor Drummers – 3.

The full results of the Dunbar Pipe Band Contest Grade 4A MSR contest can be found here.

The full results of the Dunbar Pipe Band Contest Grade 3 MSR contest can be found here.