Wick's 100-year celebration with 100 pipers
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
WICK RBLS Pipe Band has plenty to celebrate as its centenary celebrations get under way.
This Saturday, the band will march through Wick as part of a massed pipe band event with well over 100 musicians coming from Germany and Switzerland as well as Thurso, along with former Wick band members and specially invited guests.
"We have a new committee and everyone's mucking in for the massed pipe band event on Saturday – it's a lot of work but I'm pleased to say it's all going well," said the Wick band convener Colin Mackay.
On Saturday (July 6), starting at 6.45pm, the bands will leave one at a time – at two-minute intervals – from the bottom of Sinclair Terrace to Bridge Street and then into the Market Square. They will be parading in front of Wetherspoon and Sam’s sofa shop. A ceilidh will follow in the Assembly Rooms.
As part of this year's celebrations, the Pipe Band Hall in High Street has been spruced up with a lick of paint, all the guttering cleaned out and an unsafe chimney removed.
A new sign has been created as a voluntary contribution by Royal British Legion Scotland stalwart and talented painter Alex Paterson.
"It was soldiers coming back from World War I who started up the band in 1919 so there's a direct connection with the military before the Legion got involved," he explained.
"You can see that I've painted in the date it was established for the hundredth year celebration."
Alex's attention to detail may be missed by some as they pass through the portals of the pipe hall but if they glance up they will see a meticulously painted set of bagpipes flying by and a ghostly drum being beaten in amongst the fine flourishes of the surrounding letters.
The old trooper added that he was proud to contribute something for the centennial year and how the signwriter's art is really "a dying trade".
"The last time I did the sign for them was about five or six years ago and I've got other work going on at the moment too," he said. "I'll keep on going as long as I can, though."
The hall was originally part of the Old Parish kirk for Sunday school and other church events but came up for sale in 1994 and, after much financial wrangling, was purchased by the band the following year. The Wick pipe band is one of the few in the country to own its own hall.
The band's history includes high points such as trips to Germany and Switzerland to represent the town as well as low points at which it nearly ceased to exist.
The continuity of the band has been largely down to a small group of dedicated individuals teaching piping and drumming over the years.
Strangely, the founding father of Wick Pipe Band was a man who did not play pipes or drums. Robert Murray is credited with quickly organising a pipe band for the armistice commemoration in November 1918.
Murray organised a more experienced band the following year to celebrate the signing of the peace treaty at Versailles in June 1919 and on Saturday, July 19, the band paraded through Wick. Headed by a Boys' Brigade brass band, the 12 pipers and drummers are now officially recognised as the first civilian pipe band in the town – the Wick Pipe Band had come into existence.
"We're not just a pipe band," Colin Mackay added. "We do a lot of things for the community as well. We give a platform for young people to come in and learn a musical instrument and to learn a bit of discipline in their lives. I think that's why we've lasted so long, in fact."
