history. Started in 1969 by four student friends in the Battlefield area of Glasgow, over the years the Batties have met with huge success at home and abroad with their unique take on traditional Scottish music. Always at the forefront of innovation, they were among the first folk bands to incorporate electronic synthesisers into the idiom and (most importantly to my mind!) were pioneers in including the Highland Bagpipe in a folk band setting. Traditionally, the Great Highland Bagpipe (to give it its full Sunday title) was thought alternatively to be far too noble an instrument to lower itself to be played along with other, lesser instruments or to be too wild and out of tune to be played with more refined instruments! However, the Batties found a way and have had some top pipers in their ranks over the decades including Duncan MacGillivray, Dougie Pincock and


Iain MacDonald. We are, of course, ever looking to push the boundaries and now feature twin bagpipes in many sets - always handy when you’re looking for that extra gear.


After forty years, changes are inevitable and over the years, many members have come and gone. Indeed, there have been so many changes in Battlefield Bands line-up over the years that change has actually become a key feature of the band and, as strange a modus operandi as it may seem, is in many ways an essential part of the bands musical workings. If the bands banner is Forward with Scotland’s Past then each member over the years has acted as a standard-bearer, carrying the


music forward over their lifespan with the band and eventually passing it on to new members to come in and take onwards in their own direction. When the last original member (Alan) left, it raised an interesting philosophical question as to whether the band was still Battlefield Band (see The Ship of Theseus or alternatively Triggers Broom). We would hope that the current sound proves the argument that Battlefield Band has gone on to be something far bigger than any individual member and that, however different a direction we might take it in, we are still continuing to forge the same path started in 1969 in Glasgow. As Alasdair would put it: slightly altered but the same general thrust!


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