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I was born in Edinburgh in 1954, into a piping family. I was not aware of the piping tradition in the family until I was about six years old. My Father had given up playing because he had been forced to play when he was young, by his tyrannical Granny! When she died, he gave up but, it was not for long. He was asked to join the local band again after being away on national service, getting married & starting a family. The band was called Arniston pipe band. He soon became Pipe Major and great success was to follow with the band, under it’s new name Bilston Glen pipe band.
It was here that I started my piping career, being taught by my fathers uncle. He could be a bit bad tempered at times and I had more than a few whacks on the fingers with his practice chanter when I played something wrong. If he was still alive and used these tactics today, he would have been jailed! I soon progressed and joined the band ( I was fed up getting whacked!) and enjoyed the success and progress the band made, going up through the grades to become one of the best bands in the world.
During all this, I developed an interest in piobaireachd (pibroch), the classical music of the bagpipes, going back hundreds of years. I was instructed in this discipline by Captain John A. MacLellan, Director of the Army Bagpipe School in Edinburgh Castle. Without wishing to sound boast full, I achieved a lot of success as a solo competitor.
I started teaching for the first time when I was sixteen. When a youngster wanted to learn with the band, he was passed on to me because my father was too busy with the band.
In 1974, the band was disbanded and, my father was asked to become pipe major of the lothians & Borders Fire Brigade pipe band. The band had a long history, but were best known, mainly because they were terrible! Starting in grade four ( the lowest grade at that time), they started to win prizes, won the grade four World Championship and were upgraded. I then joined the band. The same thing happened in grade three. We were then upgraded to grade two and were soon one of the top bands in that grade. By now, my father was getting fed up with the pipe band life and retired. This was 1979. I went on to play with the 153rd rgt Royal Corps of Transport, mainly because we were paid to be in the band!
In 1985, I was asked to take over as pipe major of The Lothian & borders Fire brigade pipe band and was there for five years, enjoying plenty of success. The band was disbanded in 1989 because of government cutbacks! We should have gone on to become one of the best but, these things happen. I still see a lot of the guys, some of whom are my best friends. I was then asked to help out a band who were our rivals. Unthinkable you may think but, we were all friends, so I joined up, with another pal. Within two weeks of our joining, it was time for the British championships in Aberdeen. The band had not won anything all season but, that day, we came first. By a long way! Perhaps we helped to inspire a little confidence in the rest of the band. Who knows. We went on to have a great season. The next year we were Champions of Champions and were up-graded to grade one. This band is called Torphichen & Bathgate.
At the same time as I joined that band, I became the head bagpipe tutor at George Watsons College, one of the premier private schools in Scotland. They had a proud pipe band tradition but had never had any success. In our first season we won Scottish, British, European, Cowal champions, fourth place at the World Championships and were crowned Champions of Champions.
We were now the band to beat in the juvenile grade. I was the head tutor there for five years and only left because I had an offer to join a “Celtic Rock” band. I toured all over the world with this band playing a brand new type of music fusion, combining old and new instruments with a hint of musical styles from different cultures. We were very successful and became very popular playing at many festivals, movie premiers, sporting events and cultural events. We had numerous appearances on tv and radio. I gave that up in 2000 to concentrate on private tuition and develop my internet tuition. The tuition programme that I have created has proved to be very successful and I continue to add to it whenever I think of something extra that I think might be usefull. I have also developed on-line tuition using video conferencing. This too, is becoming more and more popular because it is just like getting personal tuition from me, face to face, except that we are separated only by a monitor.
I have told you all this to let you see, how much of an influence the bagpipes have on my life. My life is the bagpipes! I want to pass on everything that I have learned over the years to everyone who is interested, no matter what age or sex you are. This is for everyone! The prices that I charge are for admin, production costs and materials only, so that I can make tuition available to many more people who may be in a less fortunate position to me.
I have played in many countries, USA, Canada, South America, China, Japan and all over Europe.
I am a devoted family man with three children.
I live with my partner, Tresi and our two youngest children, Cerys (8) and Aron (9).
Chris , my eldest boy is 25 and enjoys working overseas, USA, Italy, Cyprus, Spain.
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