Clanadonia
Pounding Celtic drums, skirling pipes, wild clansmen. This fairly livened up my Friday lunchtime foray into Princes Street. The beat of the beat of the drums was hypnotic and the pipes stirred the blood of this Scotswoman, and a fair number of French, Italian and American visitors beside me in the crowd, judging by their reactions. Evidently the whole world is Highland at heart.
The band is called Clanadonia, and of course every Celtic tribe nowadays has its own web page.
Standing forlornly on the edge of the crowd was this lone busking piper, who had come to the prime spot outside the National Galleries only to find the territory occupied already by this wild lot. There's no way he could have competed against the din, but he stayed and appreciated for a while before moving somewhere quieter. The wooden case holds his bagpipes, and is the traditional carrying case.
They look very authentic! The only thing that spoils the atmosphere is the BHS shop in the background...
ReplyDeleteI prefer the drums if I had to choose between drums and bagpipe. Really groovy looking band.
ReplyDeleteGreat shot, in front of BHS in Princes Street. Now for some extremely bizarre reason, that makes me miss Edinburgh!
ReplyDeleteThoroughly modern Celts. That's a lot of tatoos - are they of the Celt design. They must be very entertaining - it really shows in the photo.
ReplyDeleteWell that looks like a fun way to spend lunchtime! Was it actually warm enough for those two fellas to be shirtless? I think a lot of us are "Highland at heart," as you put it. I'd gladly listen to a piper and/or Celtic band any time. Here in Indianapolis we have the Gordon Pipers who perform frequently during the month of May at the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway. www.500gordonpipers.com/history.htm
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comments. Of all the shots I took I decided to post the one with BHS in the background because I liked the contrast between wild Celts and 1950's British gentility (and sad to say, our Edinburgh BHS is stuck in a time-warp). Lots of the crowd are wearing coats, but it probably was warm enough to be performing shirtless, because these guys were expending a huge amount of energy. I'm sure the tattoos are of Celtic design - probably deeply meaningful.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Gordon Pipers link, Lindy. I visited the site - interesting.
I would have loved to hear them play.
ReplyDeleteWhen we lived in Scotland I learned how to play the bagpipes. I was never very good at it so didn't keep it up, but I sure had fun learning. An old piper in Montrose taught me. :-)
great photos!
ReplyDeleteI think I've seen them hanging around Glasgow, but I've always just missed their set and they're packing up! That's a great action shot!
ReplyDeleteI like street bands .. not all of them are good, but the ones that are, have always been a treat for the passerby
ReplyDeleteJust saw them last week in Edinburgh at the Fringe. We wet back several times to catch them and bought the CD. Awesome group !
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