The History & Archives committee of The Pipers’ & Pipe Band Society of Ontario has recently digitized approximately 35 hours of VHS videotape. The recordings come from a box found in the storage facility used by the PPBSO to house society documents, files and equipment. The intention is to ensure, over time, that digitized files are made available to all members.
Among the first recordings to be made available is the grade one pipe band contest from the July 30, 1988 Glengarry Highland Games at Maxville, Ontario. The whole of the nine-band grade one contest is now available on the PPBSO’s youtube channel.
The contest at that time was especially noteworthy due in part to the large nine-band entry. On top of that, three continents were represented with bands from as far away as New Zealand and Scotland. In addition, the 1988 Maxville grade one contest was the first to feature the participation of a reigning world champion pipe band (the 78th Fraser Highlanders).
Canterbury Caledonia travelled almost 15,000 kilometres to compete at Maxville!
Enthusiasts will enjoy seeing and hearing pipers and drummers making music of not-so-long-ago and comparing sounds then with now. Among the many things of note in this series is the novel performance introduction presented by the Scotsaire Pipe Band.
The contest can be viewed on the PPBSO channel or here, by clicking the links of each band and following the order of play as it happened on the day:
Final overall results that day:
78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band
Vale of Atholl Pipe Band
Toronto & District Caledonia Pipe Band
Clan MacFarlane Pipe Band
Toronto Police Pipe Band
Scotsaire Pipe Band
Best drum corps: 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band
Members can expect to see more recordings from a cross-section of grades to be published over the coming weeks and months!