For the AFPPD, formal occasions like police graduations, funerals and other ceremonies are par for the course. Even playing before 8,500 people every night for a month at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo is an occasion that band members are well acquainted with. Indeed, the AFPPD has played the Tattoo five times over the past 15 years.
Climbing on stage at rock gigs, however, is something else again. Half a dozen AFPPD members took up the opportunity recently to test themselves in just such circumstances, supporting the hugely popular folk-rock band Skerryvore on their second Australian tour.
Skerryvore has been voted Scotland’s best live act on no less than three occasions. Their shows have a serious following, and the AFPPD players were in for a very different experience when called up on the first night at the Crowbar, in Leichhardt, Sydney. Nothing quite prepares you for the noise and the lights – let alone the cheers that went up from a crowd obviously thrilled to see traditionally kilted pipers and bass drummer Dom Andersen-Strudwick join the eight popular musicians of Skerryvore for three numbers.
Pipe-Major Inspector Steve Ladd led the band into the fray and was pleased with how members acquitted themselves in the unusual surroundings, including playing one of Skerryvore’s hits at something north of 120 beats to the minute!
Unique sound
While the AFPPD were only on stage for a few minutes, it was at the very climax of the show, and the interest in the police connection to the rock stars was the subject of many, many discussions from crowd members when the pipers and drummer came off stage. All AFPPD players (PM Ladd, drummer Dom and pipers Joel Wilson, Jen Hamer, Carole Took and myself) mingled with the crowds over the course of five gigs at Leichhardt, Wollongong and three nights at the Cobargo Folk Festival, where Skerryvore headlined. It was priceless community relations.
Skerryvore have gone from strength to strength since beginning as a ceilidh (party) band playing traditional party music on the west coast of Scotland and are now celebrating 20 years of their unique sound with a new album, their sixth, called Tempus. The nucleus was the Gillespie brothers Martin (bagpipes, tin whistle, vocals) and Daniel (accordion, vocals) from Tiree in the Inner Hebrides plus songwriter, lead singer and guitarist Alec Dalglish and Fraser West (drums) from Livingston in West Lothian. Numbers have doubled as the sound has grown, with Craig Espie (fiddle), Alan Scobie (keyboards), Jodie Bremaneson (bass) and Scott Wood (bagpipes, tin whistle, vocals), who also doubled as the sound engineer for the Australian tour.
As though the brush with the world of rock and roll was not enough of a shock for AFPPD players, the calibre of Skerryvore’s pipers was more than enough to intimidate. Scott has previously played with Strathclyde Police Pipe Band (21 times world champions) as well as the phenomenally talented Red Hot Chilli Pipers.
The Skerryvore gents could not have been more generous nor kind to their AFP “guesties”, who all agreed it would have been harder to have had more fun.
Text courtesy of Andrew Fraser
Pipe Sergeant, Australian Federal Police Pipes and Drums (AFPPD)
Main photo:AFPPD on stage with Skerryvore. Photo: Rona McMillan.