The 23rd annual pipes|drums New Year’s Honours

2023 Pipe Band of the Year

Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia

Pipe-Major Ross Harvey and McQuillan freely shared their plans and hopes for the 2023 season with pipes|drums, and the rest has indeed become history, culminating with Boghall’s first Grade 1 World Championship win on August 19th, as the pipe band world universally applauded.

Panellists’ comments:

• They finally have ditched the title of being the best band to have never won the worlds.
• World champions Finally.
• They had the whole package. Fairytale ending.
• A half-century of working towards a goal they might have deserved several times before, but finally achieved, it was a dream year for them. What’s not to like?
• The major contest wins add the magic piece to a band that has always been known for excellence in teaching, concerts and promoting pipe band music. Their “Vloghall” segments over the season were also brilliant and a reminder to all about why pipe bands can be such an uplifting experience.
• Boghall came out of the gates strong with a new drum sergeant and a pipe corps that has steadily improved over the last few seasons. Winning the first major, the quartets, the piping and overall, in the medley on Friday of the World’s, and winning the World’s with a commanding lead overall, it’s hard to see another band competing for a more successful season. On top of this, they had never won the World’s and hadn’t won a major in a decade, so it was a pleasure to see some new faces in the prizes. Their professional video series following human interest storylines had me rooting for them during their dramatic and successful season. Boghall’s steady commitment to their juvenile bands is yet another reason for an overdue New Year’s Honor.
• For winning the World’s . . . at last. And for being the band that has consistently strived to bring on juveniles in their teaching programmes in both piping and drumming, never failing to field an up-and-coming band alongside their Grade 1 band.
• If you keep knocking on the door then . . . 50-odd years in the making.

Also nominated (in alphabetical order)

Coalburn IOR – The Grade 3A band from South Lanarkshire, Scotland, captured the RSPBA’s Champion of Champions title in the grade once again, but for about 20 years they’ve been a model of consistency and deserve to be recognized. Teaching, community, excellence: Coalburn is in it for all the right reasons without necessarily wanting anything else.

Dollar Academy (Juvenile) – Like other school programs in Scotland, Dollar is a machine, producing a Grade 2 quality band from pupils, most of whom started on their instruments when they enrolled at the academy. Another model of consistency.

Field Marshal Montgomery – Perennially outstanding at the peak of the heap, FMM enjoyed another stellar year, narrowly missing capturing another World title. Under new Leading-Drummer Gareth. McLees, the Field Marshal corps won the Champion of Champions title for drumming.

Glasgow Skye Association – The world welcomed GSK to the competition field, starting back in Grade 2 under interim Pipe-Major Kenny MacLeod. The Skye regularly featured in the major prize lists and paved the way for new leadership to take the Glasgow-based pipe band institution into the future.

Inveraray & District – It’s impossible to think of a band winning the Grade 1 Champion of Champions title as having an off-year, so we won’t. Stuart Liddell and Steven McQuirter guided the Argyllshire-based group to another excellent year.

Simon Fraser University – The band’s “Generations” pre-World’s concert at Glasgow’s SEC brought down the house, and the band went on to have an excellent showing at the World Championships, including the drum section winning the World Pipe Band Drumming prize for the second straight year.

Tullylagan – Northern Ireland’s well-established Tullylagan enjoyed another excellent season, this time for the first time in Grade 3A. The band’s teaching program puts back into the system and the community. The band celebrated its centenary in 2023 and released a music collection by their own pipers.