David Barnes returns to Polkemmet

David Barnes has returned to the Polkemmet Pipe Band of Whitburn, Scotland, with the aim of returning the group to its most successful years when he led the band in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Also returning is James King as leading drummer. King worked with Barnes as lead tip at Polkemmet previously.

Under Barnes’s tenure, Polkemmet won the Grade 1 Scottish and European championships and finished as high as second in the World Pipe Band Championship.

Davey Barnes is the son of the late Johnny Barnes, who led the Polkemmet Colliery and Whitrig pipe bands in the 1960s, ’70s and early ’80s.

James King is best known for his work with the Dysart & Dundonald Pipe Band when it won the 1976 and ’77 World Pipe Band Championship. He also led the band’s drum corps to a world title.

Polkemmet was relegated to Grade 2 in the 1990s. Until this year, Polkemmet was led by Steven Young. David Barnes was Pipe-Major of Dysart & Dundonald from 1994-’97, and was briefly Pipe-Major of Australia’s Queensland Police in the late 1990s.

p|d

What do you think? We always want to hear from our readers, so please use our comment system to provide your thoughts!

Do you have news? Be sure to send your information to pipes|drums. We can’t report what we don’t know about! Please remember to support the businesses that advertise and make the not-for-profit p|d possible.