Glasgow - Wednesday - Practice

The word of the day is "Rain"  

While laying in bed, the day started off nicely with a text message offering me a hot coffee... have to like that! 

The drummers took over the kitchen again for their morning practice so I finished drying some dishes and listened in on the session. It was good to see the unison these guys have and the overall focus and commitment as well. 

I followed the drummers out to find a chunk of parking lot for the morning session.

Drum practice.

Tuning the drones.

Gord's a true BAGpiper

The drummers practiced with their pads until 10:00 as there is a curfew on playing between 7pm and 10am. With school still going on here, this gives the students some “quite time”. 

The rain was coming down so everyone had rain capes on. It can’t get much worse than this on the day so it was good to get acclimated to that possibility....  it is Scotland after all. 

Interesting tidbit.... Chelsea’s Grandmother Betty Jeffrey had past away many years ago and Chelsea recently received several things passed down from her aunt who had kept them all these years. One item of particular note was a drum pad that Betty had won for Solo Juvenile Drumming in 1948.  Betty went on to marry Robert Gavin Hardie who formed R.G. Hardie in 1950. He was with the famous Muirhead and Sons Pipe Band who held the Worlds #1 Pipe Band title for six straight years. 

Jack and Andrew Lee put on a lunch time recital at the National Piping Center. Kelly and I had purchase tickets long ago so off we went. Most all the others were going over to the Todd Bar at Strathclyde University to watch the "Drumming for Drinks" competition.

We enjoyed the recital as these two players are very accomplished. Andrew started the set with Jack joining him midway then finishing off with a solo performance. So clean and crisp on a well tuned instrument.

Kelly went off to grab a few necessities and I went back to the dorm to get the Drumming For Drinks live stream going on my laptop. On the way I ran into Alex MacIntyre from Edmonton and we had a quick chat...  didn't recognize him without his beard!! 

We relaxed in the kitchen and enjoyed the online show. This was a show comprised of various ad-hoc drumming recitals all trying to take the grand prize of £500 and some great prizes.

A quick nap to recharge and we were off to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for the Scottish Power Pipe Band Concert. 

The place was packed and the show was as expected, very good although not as heavy on the pipe's and drums as I thought it would be. An ensemble performance to start off playing several sets then a couple solo pipers performed to the roar of the crowd. Then a stunning Piobaireachd set with piano accompaniment. The drum core finished the first half with a huge fanfare including some neat stick work.

We grabbed a drink and then settled in for the second half. It was basically a bagad style of music that was a bit overpowered at times. I think a more band oriented approach with perhaps some MSR's and light music would have met the expectations of the crowd. All good though as one has to be open to the variety of music presented. 

 Back to the dorms for a short social and it was off to bed.