Firstly both City of Auckland Pipeband and City of Sails Pipeband have new tunes in there medleys, some which are challenging. On top of that I was asked to learn the tunes for a tribal band called Clan Celtica for a gig end of August.
On top of all the practice, there was looking after the shop. It was supposed to be a rental here or there, but ended up being quite busy from start to finish. It required at least a couple of hours each weekend day and at least one visit during the week.
Clan Cameron
During this time the clan annual dinner was held, which I was organising the entertainment for. This required Originz, a solo piper to do a piece and pipe the haggis, and also included a five minute piece played by myself at the start of the night. The following pictures show a clan crest trophy which I carved for Originz, this is because they get people to the annual dinner. This was Originz third performance, it was very good, and well received by the audience.
Over the last couple months was also the build up to the Clan Celtica Performance, it was a paying gig and the most I have been paid for a gig playing pipes. The owner of the shop was the piper and asked me to take over while he was away. I took the challenge and a challenge it was, I have played in front of crowds before but not as the lone piper amongst drummers. There breaks upto a part long which are hard to get back in if not aware where the drummers are. I had 2 practices on the practice chanter and pads with Frankie, the main drummer, and 2 practices with the band. The band practices were long and draining but where necessary.
The performance went ok, there were a few too many errors where I was concerned, but the audience did not notice to that level. I still need to work on things if I want to continue with the band, next gig is in a couple of weeks, but is likely to have 2 pipers.
