PIpe band returned to Balmoral bonnets

[OC Richard]

One of the topics in the pipe band world people were talking about in Scotland (at Perth and the Worlds) was the 78th Fraser Highlanders, a Grade One band from Canada, switching from Glengarries to Balmorals.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0jk19st

In my band at least there was a split of opinion. What side you were on depended on how long you've been in the pipe band scene.

The people like me who started in pipe bands when everybody wore Balmorals loved the old-school look of the 78th Frasers.

The people like our Pipe Major who started in pipe bands when everybody wore Glengarries hated the Frasers' new look.

That's the thing: civilian pipe bands the world over jettisoned their Balmorals and Feather Bonnets in the 1980s (along with their tartan hose, buckled shoes, Prince Charlies, Montrose jackets, military style doublets, horsehair sporrans, spats, crossbelts, plaids, and all the rest) and by the 1990s all the bands who weren't living under a rock had adopted the new black Glengarry/black Argyll jacket/white hose/Ghillies look.

There have now been generations of pipe band people for whom that look is the only look pipe bands have ever had, and many believe that that's how pipe bands have always dressed. They don't realise how recent it is nor how innovative it was when it appeared.

Not that that outfit was new! There are Victorian photos of men, both pipers and non-pipers, wearing Glengarries, black Argyll jackets, and Ghillies. It's just that it never caught on as pipe band dress, not until around 1990.

In any case the 78th Frasers might be starting a trend. I asked my Pipe Major at the Worlds "over/under: 2.5 bands wearing Balmorals next year at the Worlds?" and he without hesitation said "under!"

My guess is "over".

We've already seen dozens of bands the world over switch from black Barathea with silver buttons to tweed with staghorn buttons for their waistcoats and jackets. White hose are long gone, and black hose are rapidly joining them in the (temporary) dustbin of history.