Inverurie Pipe Band
Provost John D. Smith of Inverurie Town Council suggested at a Council meeting that it would be good for tourism if Inverurie could have a Pipe Band. This was approved and was reported in the Inverurie Advertiser.
Those interested were asked to leave there names at Johnstone Still - the local butcher at his small shop next to where Sinclair's the jeweller is now.
At a meeting in the small hall, Inverurie Town Hall it was agreed to form a pipe band with support from the Town Council
And so in 1957 Inverurie Pipe Association was formed.
The first band practise was on Monday 22nd April 1957 in the Banks of Ury Hall - the venue and practise night for quite a number of years.
All bands wore No1 uniform and it was agreed that the band would wear the Leslie tartan (Ancient Leslie) as the area had a long association with the Leslie Clan and also as Kintore. OldMeldrum and Huntly bands wore the Gordon tartan.
Hugh McPherson, Highland dress outfitter came up from Edinburgh and measured everyone for our uniform (I think he also supplied 6 set of pipes and possibly some drums. The total cost was £1000 a lot of money then and the Council provided the loan. It was said that we would never manage to repay that amount but fundraising took place.
Mr Chinn from the council was treasurer and Tibby Burns secretary. They often came to practise nights ,as did Provost Smith who took a keen interest in the band.
The band got great support with tuition being regularly provided by the Cruickshanks from Bucksburn - Old George as we called him (the father); Donald who owned the Propellor garage in Bucksburn and his brother William (Bill). Also Syd Ross from the Meldrum band frequently helped out.
We didn't have TV then so I practised hard and got my 1st set of band pipes on 10th October that year - as recorded in my mum's diary. The first performance was in 1958 - I think we played from the Town Hall to Kellands pleasure park for what was then the annual Inverurie Gala weekend. There were 12 pipers, 8 drummers and a Drum Major.
We then started going round all the local dance halls at weekends during the winter months playing and taking a collection to help repay the council. (Saturday night dances then). Often a couple of halls in one night. I remember going over the Suie hill in the hired bus with the snow piled higher than the bus at the sides of the road. - we got winters then.
One of the halls we played at was the Keithhall Public hall. We marched up an down and when Drum Major Harry Thompson put up his mace to stop that sequence of tunes, the point of the mace stuck in one of the wooden cross beams in the hall requiring him to give a quick tug to bring it down.
After a couple of years Pipe Major Alex. Ross retired from the band and Charlie Barron became pipe Major. I bought Alex Ross's pipes - (the ones I still have) for £22 - the chanter was spliced so the band provided a replacement.
We played at a lot of local gatherings and a couple of times at Union Terrace Gardens , which was a good paying job.
The Inverurie British Legion Remembrance Sunday parade involved playing down the street to a different church each year. St. Andrews Church ; West Church; St. Mary's Church; The Baptist Church and the Congregational Church.
I had a Morris 8 car (cost me £20 from Shepherd's garage - across from the Legion). When travelling down from my home in Keithhall to the remembrance parade in 1959 the car was misfiring quite a bit but I managed to get to Inverurie. After the parade and at least I pint, I wired a button between the offending spark plugs and came up the road like a dream. Unfortunately after passing the old manse at Keithall and coming down the hill my steering rod fell off just as I was negotiating the bend. The car mounted the grass verge - the wheels locked to the side and performed a complete summersault finishing approximately 20 yards further down off the road, back on it's wheels and on top of the dyke.
Around half of the band worked at the Inverurie Locomotive Works and it came as a major blow when in the early 1960's it was announced that most of the work there would cease and the Works was earmarked for closure. This led to all who worked there fairly quickly leaving the band to find employment elsewhere. They were quite a close knit group and hardly spoke to us country bumpkins. The Locos closed in 1969.
The band struggled on for a few more years, especially with a shortage of drummers but we often linked up with the then Insch & Rothney pipe band (mostly the McCombie family) as they had drummers but were short of pipers. Local piper David Low and then Peter Fraser being Pipe Majors. Peter was often away training to be a dentist ( which he eventually gave up) and returned to work with Cowie the butcher before starting his own butchery business.
As he was often away I would take the band practice and led the band for it's first competition at Oldmeldrum sports - finishing 3rd out of 6 bands. However I left the band in 1970 due to a person matter involving my then wife and the Drum Major and the band folded the following year.
A few years later Norman Masson from Daviot, who had learned and been playing with Turriff Pipe Band decided in 1975 to try and get the band going again. Dave Conn who was the local boy scouts leader had also been teaching learners the pipes and it was from there that the band reformed with Norman as Pipe Major. (I think the Council had stored the uniform).
I had attended practices with Bucksburn pipe band and later joined the Oldmeldrum Pipe Band. It was later taken over by the Gordon's T. A. band from Aberdeen as they had found nowhere to practice. They started competing a lot and I left.
Norman had tried me a few times to join Inverurie but in the spring of 1978 he pleaded with me to help them as they were short of numbers, just for the weekend - so I agreed to help. The rest is history. This was for the Garioch Arcade - which was a display of local produce, gifts and crafts which started on the Friday evening and then ran all day Saturday and Sunday.
The band has had many ups and downs during my time. David McLeod - an ex army player took over from Norman in the middle 80's and the band increased to 15 pipers. - the bigger the band the more likely to have problems. Around 1998 after a very slight disagreement with members he suddenly handed in his uniform and left the band. Norman later had to stop as his father had passed away and he took over the running of the farm.
Ian Wink took over as Pipe Major but then moved to Ellon as he was working at St. Fergus and joined Buchan Pipe Band. The band was more or less finished but then George McPherson (a traveller for Daun's auto services - again an ex army piper joined and stirred things up quite a bit. He managed to get a group 5 young lads learning (Marcus Davidson was one of them). I think it was around 1989 that John Baillie and Stewart Hay joined and Peter Fraser came back into the band. We started playing at National Trust properties - Castle Fraser, Leith Hall, Drum Castle and Fyvie Castle.We also started competing quite a bit including quartets at Powis Academy and local competitions - OldMeldrum, Turriff,Mintlaw and Aberdeen Highland Games. Sometimes we beat Kinloss but most times they beat us. I also remember one time travelling to Hawick to compete.
George having contacts in the motor trade managed to get a £3000 sponsorship through Stevensons Motors Port Elphinstone and also got a second hand fiesta for £1000 to raise money through a raffle. It was quite a struggle but we did manage to sell enough to make a small profit.
George was all for upgrading the band and it was around 1990 that he wanted the band to change away from No1 uniform. He had contacts with Pipe Major -Robert Mathieson - Shotts & Dykehead who at that time had the Pipe Box shop in Aberdeen. George loosened the pipe band purse strings and spent £9000 in one year - mostly with purchases from the Pipe Box. Robert Mathieson also came out a few times to our practices and once set the quartets up at Powis. The sound he got from one quartet was amazing - even the judge got up and walked down the hall and they would have got 1st place had not George's tenor drone came off when he struck up which he quickly replaced. They got 2nd.
Again around 1994 when the band was going well - When playing at Castle Fraser - George gave Drum Major David Rae instructions when marching up an down - where to halt the band - only for George to decide to stop the march earlier - leaving David Rae to walk further down and when turning found the band stopped some distance further up.
David was furious and threw his mace over the top of a group of spectators - narrowly missing them. He then had a confrontation with George. At that time there were several couples and friends of George in the band and they all left.
It was around this time that John Wallace joined the band and became Pipe Magor as George had resigned but stayed for one more season with the band. John, along with the late Bill Grant upped the tuition and we continued to compete at the local pipe band competitions. In 2005 David Webster joined the band and around a year later John Wallace left and David became the new and present pipe Major.
As you know the band has performed all around the North East and beyond. Including Braemar Gathering; Taste of Grampian; Aberchirder Flower Show; OldMeldrum Sports, Invercauld House, Nairn games, Keith show as well as Inverurie Rememberance Sunday and St Andrews Day parades.