World Pipe Band Championships In Glasgow: The Pinnacle Of Piping
The annual World Pipe Band Championships return to Glasgow Green this weekend. Bands travel from near and far to compete – Canadian piper Zephan Knichel explains why.
For two days each August, there is very little green to be seen on Glasgow Green. Instead there are all of the colours of the rainbow, picked out in tartans from around the country and the world as around 8,000 pipers and drummers descend on the city.
The World Pipe Band Championships that we know today have been going since 1947. The competition, affectionately known as the Worlds, regularly attracts more than 220 bands and regularly receives entries from over 15 countries.
There are a range of different categories for competitors, including for juniors and adults, and for individual drummers as well as bands. But the Grade 1 Pipe Band Competition is the top class in every sense of the word – the winner is crowned world champion.
Scottish bands have always dominated – the most successful being the Strathclyde Police Pipe Band (now the Police Scotland and Federation) with 20 wins. But in 1987, the previous Scottish monopoly was blown open as the 78th Frasers from Canada became the first non-Scottish band to take the title.
Only four bands located outside of the United Kingdom that have won the Grade 1 World Pipe Band Championship.
One of the most successful overseas bands is the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, based in Vancouver in Canada, which has seized the title six times. Coming to Glasgow is a massive operation for the band – each year they bring between 40 and 50 musicians along with family and friends, financed both by the individuals, the band and grants.
“It’s quite a large undertaking,” says Simon Fraser piper Zephan Knichel. “But the band is first and foremost a competition band. We go to the world championships in Glasgow every year as it is the pinnacle event for competitive pipe bands.”
Simon Fraser piper Zephan Knichel shares with us why piping is his passion and what makes the Worlds such a special event.
For Zephan, the journey will be longer than for most as he will be travelling from Hawaii. He relocated after his wife Samantha took up a job there. Practice sessions are over Zoom – he is far from the only long-distance band member.
“Over the history of the band we have had out of town players from all over the world, including Scotland, USA, New Zealand, France, and Australia,” he says.
Long distances are hardly unusual for the band, which has performed in world-class venues including Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House. But Glasgow Green remains a special place. “We all really love coming to Scotland. It is a beautiful country. For most of us, we have come over year after year and have made some great friendships with other musicians from Scotland and around the world.
“For a first timer, the rain can be a bit of a shock, but we are all more than used to it!” says Zephan, who started playing when he was 13 and has been with the band since 2014.
“For many members of the band winning the World Championships would likely be a high point. We played a concert at the Royal Glasgow Concert Hall two days before the World Championships. Talk about a receptive audience. They were all pipers and drummers!”
That Glasgow Skye Association Pipe Band‘s ‘Pre-Worlds’ concert, in 2015, is still talked about in piping circles. This year’s concert was headlined by the current World Champions Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia Pipe Band.
The Simon Fraser University Pipe Band have strong links to Scotland, as well. “There was quite a lot of Scottish immigration to British Columbia and there is quite a strong piping and drumming scene as a result,” says Zephan.
The university itself, to which the band is affiliated, is named after the famous Canadian explorer, a descendant of the Frasers of Lovat.
Zephan’s own pipe playing, however, is just “coincidence”. Having been persuaded by friends to try band practice with the Air Cadets, he had a less than successful stint with drumming before trying the pipes. “It was the first time in my life I was really good at something. I absolutely fell in love with the sound and music of the pipes,” he says.
His links to Scotland are very much more immediate and personal. He also competes as a soloist, allowing him to travel around Scotland.
“I love exploring new places and seeing the beauty Scotland has to offer. I actually proposed to my wife Samantha in 2018 on the north coast of Scotland. We stayed in a small crofter’s cottage on the coast about 30 miles west of Thurso. That is and will always be my favourite Scotland memory.”
