Battlefield Band at the 1981 Philadelphia Folk Festival

[Burgkatzerl]

Hello everybody! Is this a sort of online-tree-pissing-contest about the Olympic piping games???? Weird way of relating to music. Anyway: I love this tune and it is so beautifully played - so why don´t you just all lean back for a while, relax and enjoy ; )

Yours Burgkatzerl

[4WildGuesses]

I had the great pleasure of meeting Duncan through his sister Tina (Morton Mains Farm, Edinburgh 1980). Duncan's father was once a bagpipe judge and he forbade Duncan from playing the complete pipes until he'd learned & practiced on the chanter for 7 years!

He is an amazing piper ... and really nice guy

[4WildGuesses]

I had the great pleasure of meeting Duncan through his sister Tina (Morton Mains Farm, Edinburgh 1980). Duncan's father was once a bagpipe judge and he forbade Duncan from playing the complete pipes until he'd learned & practiced on the chanter for 7 years!

He is an amazing piper.

[Albainn1]

Mike Katz is an outstanding Piper but so is Duncan MacGillivray and i love both their styles equally! However, you can't forget Duncan MacGillivray and his contribution he's made, not only to the Battlefield Band, but to Piping and Scottish music in general. He was the first Piper, and one of the few Piper and whistle players around in those days, to join the Batties and pathed the way for bagpipes in traditional music and the road it has taken today!!! So don't ever forget his pioneer movement!

[Albainn1]

I know both these Pipers very well and am very fond of both of them! Mike Katz is an outstanding Piper but so is Duncan MacGillivray! To say Mike is better than Duncan would be like saying Lynyrd Skynard is better than Paul McCartney. You just can't compare the two! Their both outstanding players of their instruments and they wouldn't like to hear this also because i'm sure their very good friends also so watch what your saying apologeticsman! Cos you don't know what your talking about!!!

[Albainn1]

Haha, apologeticsman, you talk out of your arse, Celticcailleach is absolutely right! You don't have a clue about Piping or Scottish music at all! I'd love to see you put yourself on YouTube with your pipes, sound like a flock of dying goats through the streets! You'd be horendous and an absolute reject on the camera!! I know your entitled to your own opinion but lets face it, you don't know shit!! And your opinion is worthless because you don't know shit, so go dig yourself a grave!!

[apologeticsman]

Contrary to popular Scottish opinion, it is possible for an American piper to meet or even surpass the level of skill that people in Scotland have. It's not as though Scotland possesses some magical piping energy that only Scots can draw from, it is an instrument, and just as with any instrument, it takes time, talent and dedication to master. Americans have all of those factors well in hand

[banjostead]

Well said!!!!

[WolframvonderLaue]

Hello Everybody,

sorry, but music is NOT sports. It´s not a competition, but something to enjoy and to make life more beautiful and lovely. So I think, it is awful, to always compare the msuicians and say who is "better", "faster" or whatever.

Why don´t you just enjoy.

Or if you don´t enjoy: just listen to something else and stop critizising everything and everyone.

Apart from that, I like to say: I love the battefield band and have always loved their concerts - they make me cry every time.

[apologeticsman]

Musicians are selling a product, you listen to what you like, & disregard what you do not, just as with any other product. It is a competition when it comes to bagpiping, & since the instrument itself is very simple & not prone to being tweaked or amped. the only criticism that can be made is of the piper him/herself. The man in this video is an excellent piper, but he is not as good in my OPINION as the one they have now. The above commenter just can't accept that I feel that way.

[Albainn1]

Are you kidding?? The 81' piper is just as good if not better than Mike Katz. If i recall, his name is Duncan MacGillivray, and he's a legend in the Piping world! Nobody will ever fill his shoes!

[apologeticsman]

@Albainn1 ok, that's your opinion, mine differs. It is not something to get upset about.

[apologeticsman]

the '81 piper was not as good as Mike Katz

[celticcailleach6]

@apologeticsman Who do you think you are to say something so absurd as that?! Clearly,you're a thick-headed,arrogant man of no respect and very little intelligence.You really know nothing about Scottish traditional music or the legendary musicians who have done so much for it.Duncan MacGillivray is a world class piper,a winner of the Northern Meeting Gold Medal who has shaped the world of traditional music to such an unbelievable extent.And you give a dim-witted comment like that...you twerp!

[apologeticsman]

@celticcailleach6 it's called an opinion, and I am entitled to mine just as you are to yours. I must say your reaction to a simple assertion that Mike Katz, their current piper is better than the one they had in 1981 is way overkill. Mike is a legend, and is better than the piper in this video, and as far as what i know about piping, I have been doing it professionally for 15 years, and know more about it on a bad day than most people do on a good day.

[celticcailleach6]

@apologeticsman Why don't you let your head return to its normal size, or is it always that inflated? Your arrogance is appauling! There are pipers who have been playing proffessionally for over forty years, let alone fifteen, who wouldn't dream of saying something so cocky and egotistic as that. Are you jealous or something? Keep chasing that dream, boyo...it's a good bit ahead of you!

[apologeticsman]

@celticcailleach6 BTW, it only takes 7 years to be a good piper, so after that, it's just a matter of improving speed, which anyone can do. The pipers who have been playing for 40 years are no better than the ones who have been playing for 15, just faster. You seem to have a chip on your shoulder already, and it was not due to anything I actually said. Maybe YOU are the one in this video playing the pipes? If so, Mike Katz is better than you, sorry mate.

[diogg]

Am going to see them tomorrow night (27th Nov) in Glasgow - Alan Reid does not look like Manfred Mann these days.... :-)

[pepemordor]

Alan Reid is the only remaining member

[killiekentman]

i saw them about that time in the 80s and ive just bought the new dvd, its brill. still as good today as they were then, thanks for posting this great band. Ray

[capt777737]

I haven't seen these guys since about 1974 in our high school in our Wyoming small town of 3000 people.

They brought down the house. and they're still kickin ass.

I wish they'd come back.

It'd be an honor to jam with them.

[xwydyf]

74th Highlanders' Farewell To Edinburgh, The Cup Of Tea

[northwoodshippie]

CindySW, was this during the time when they sang The Yew Tree? That song touches my heart like not other, and so SEE them in a video doing that song would be awesome!

[tramplibrarian]

The Yew Tree was on Anthem for the Common Man, which was recorded after this lineup broke up. This group recorded Home is Where the Van Is and There's A Buzz and then broke up. They reunited this year for a one-off at the Celtic Connections Festival, which I'd love to see a film of.

[CindySweetwater]

This was when Battlefield Band was comprised of: Alan Reid on keyboards, Ged Foley on guitar, Brian McNeill on fiddle and Duncan MacGillivray on pipes. I thought the sound was surprisingly good for a tape of that era. This is just wonderful, and thank you Banjostead! I didn't think there was anything available from those times. Any more? (she says hungrily?)

[danbencsik]

Banjo where do you get all these finely produced videos from the folk festival? Are ayou a volunteer? and whatever the bagpipes are supposed to overpower, that is their essence!

[colindominy]

The band sure gets into it here - especially the fiddler, all non-stop action !! A nice collage of toe-tapping celtic-style music. I feel the bagpipes over-power the other instruments throughout the medley, justa touch too much. But, hey, the enthusiasm and beat of this band are obvious to all, and theirs is a quality performance here.

[cheerydavie]

Now this a right guis tunes