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History of Pipe Bands in the River Plate
Early history of pipes in the River Plate
The history of pipe bands in the River Plate (all of them: St. Andrew's Society of the River Plate, SAPA, Highland Thistle Pipe Band, Southern Cross Pipe Band, Riverside Pipe Band), need to acknowledge their origins in the band started by Robert Dunsmore (Dunnie) Ross in 1955.
Just to get into the mood, a little history is in order. In 1806, a British expeditionary force, under Lord Beresford, took Buenos Ayres. The troops included a battalion of the 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot (later Highland Light Infantry or HLI), which (presumably) had, if not a "formal" pipe band, several pipers and drummers. This would have been the first "performance" by a pipe band (or pipers) the inhabitants of Buenos Aires were subjected to (not a happy occasion, since they were being "conquered". The task force was eventually defeated by the locals, which I believe does not figure in the Regiment's records, but their colours are proudly exhibited in a church in downtown Buenos Aires). There have also been accounts of pipers appearing here and there since then. They were either itinerant Scots or Scottish settlers, but the art left or died with them.
In 1825 a group of Scots emigrated to Argentina and settled in Monte Grande, today one of the Southern suburbs of Buenos Aires. For reasons that would take up too much space to detail, this settlement did not prosper and finally dissolved. Many moved farther South to Chascomús (about 100 Km from BA) and most of the rest moved to Buenos Aires where they took up sundry activities. To meet the needs of these Scots, the St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church was founded in 1829, the St. Andrew's Scots School in 1838 (still going strong) and the St. Andrew's Society of the River Plate in 1888. The community grew and there are reports of pipers present at some community events since then, but there wasn't any "organized" piping. There are also accounts of pipers in Patagonia, where there were many Scottish settlers (although it is sparsely settled). I once met a farm hand in Santa Cruz Province in Patagonia (actually he was a foreman) whose surname is Fraser, only he pronounces it "Frassser" (the Spanish sound with the "a" as in "at"), who said he remembered a set of pipes hanging on the wall in his grandfather's house. Apparently his great-grandfather had played, but no one continued the tradition.
In 1931 a British Exhibition was held in Buenos Aires to promote British products, and, apart from royalty, the Pipes & Drums and the Military Band of the Cameron Highlanders, came and performed every day for the duration.
Around 1933 a pipe band was formed composed entirely of Scots who happened to be working in Buenos Aires, and performed at several community events, but it did not last long and soon disbanded, as many of its members either returned to the UK or moved elsewhere.
The first band
So we arrive in the late 1940's. Several pipers, Scots who had moved to Buenos Aires sent by the companies they worked for or in search of a better future, happened to be in Buenos Aires at the same time. Naturally they all became members of the S.A.S.R.P., participated in the Society's activities, and played at the Society's events, but not as a band – they would just play together. By the late 40's four can be accounted for: Robert Dunsmore Ross, Willie Ross (no relation and former Pipe Major of the Black Watch), Forbes Grant and Robert Barclay. According to reports, Willie Ross was against starting a Pipe Band since he believed that two or three pipers were all that was needed for the local scene.
Robert Dunsmore Ross (Dunnie) was born in Glasgow, Scotland on 29th September,1903. He was the 9th of 10 children. His elder brother emigrated to Argentina more or less at the time he was born, which probably induced him to learn Spanish at school. After WWI he worked as an office boy for a while, but finally joined the Seaforth Highlanders (hence the kilt he used in MacKenzie tartan pleated to the line) where he joined the band. After a hitch in the Army, and with jobs hard to find in the U.K., he wrote to his brother in Argentina regarding chances here. With a positive response, and speaking good Spanish, he emigrated in 1926. A year later he was joined by his sweetheart (then 19) to whom he was married the day after she got off the boat. He worked for many years for J.F. Macadam & Cia., mainly in the textile machinery department, and later had his own firm in the same line of business. He died in 1975. He had two sons, Gifford Dunsmore, who lives in Australia and Martin, who was a bandmember in 1960 and later between 1965 and 1968, who now is retired and lives in Bariloche.
Alfredo Micucci, of Italian descent, and a very clever craftsman, had seen bagpipes in pictures and movies, and although he was attracted by the sound, he wanted to make a set to hang on the wall in his room (he was then around 16 years old), but needed to see a bagpipe up close to be able to do so. He had become friendly with Ian MacLennan, with whom he played rugby, and whose father (Jock) was a member of the St. Andrew's Society and knew Dunnie Ross well. Ian, through his father, arranged a meeting for Alfredo with Dunnie Ross so he could get to see a bagpipe. Ross convinced him that he would not be able to do a good job if he didn't learn to play them first, and offered to teach him. So in 1950 Micucci was not only the first piper to have learned in Argentina, but also the first piper not from British (let alone Scots) origin. He had the fortune of getting additional tutoring from Willie Ross (reputedly an excellent piper) and from one Mr. Stewart (who didn't play with the rest of the pipers) who introduced him to piobaireachd - but as something to avoid. He got "hooked" on piobaireachd and has studied it through books, recordings, etc. to a point where he has acquired expertise (though he does not play any more) and great knowledge. It was Stewart who gave him the MacKay piobaireachd collection, whose value is as much historic as musical.
After the amount of pipers available were reduced by Willie Ross retiring to Great Britain and the death of Barclay, around 1954 Dunnie, who had always wanted to start a band, and reportedly had set aside a fund to that end while president of the Society in 1947, finally started teaching a group of boys which in a short time dwindled down to 4. Mr. Jimmy Lees, who had learned drumming in a Boys Brigade before the War, taught side drums. And the big day arrived. The first performance of the Saint Andrew's Society of the River Plate Pipe Band occurred in October of 1955 at the Gathering of the Clans organized by the Society, which was held at the “new” grounds of the Buenos Aires Cricket and Rugby Club in Don Torcuato, one of Buenos Aires' Northern suburbs. Members: Dunnie Ross(PM); Alfredo Micucci, Alec Fraser, William (Billy) Murchison and Jackie Murchison, (pipers); Jimmy Lees (LD), R. Copnal (SD), A. Rowell (SD) and Robin Fraser (BD). Alasdair Lean, Mike Allen and Paul Allen, who were learning the pipes at the time, were allowed to march with their practice chanters under their arms.
The SASRP Band circa 1957
Front Row: A. Micucci, W. Murchison, D. Ross;
Second Row: A. Fraser, D. Andrews, A. Lean;
Third row: unknown, J. Cowan, A. Mowatt.
Drummers: J. Lees (LD), R. Fraser (BD), R. Copnal (SD)
Over the next few years Dunnie Ross taught several new pipers, and so John Cowan, David Andrews, Ronnie Smink, Alec Mowatt and Arturo Carstairs joined (though Carstairs never actually played). Drummers were also trained: Mike Allen (he didn't finish learning the pipes), Paul Jackson and Alan Smink on the SD and Eddie Ault on the BD.
Around 1961-1962 Dunnie Ross retired for health reasons, leaving Alfredo Micucci as PM, and Jimmy Lees retired shortly after, where Mike Allen took over the LD.
Alasdair Lean started teaching, and slowly some new pipers appeared. Paul Jackson started on the pipes but, in spite of being very good, did not leave drumming for a while, since he was also an excellent drummer.
In November 1963 the Pipes & Drums of the Royal Scots visited BA as part of a show with the Military Band of the Irish Guards, which ran at the Luna Park for several weeks. Band members were "all over" the Royal Scots, taking in everything they could: tunes, orders, drumming (drooling over the drums – it was the first time they saw plastic drumheads and top snares), drill, etc. It boosted enthusiasm and gave the band new momentum. Tenor drums were introduced, just for the twiddling (Julian Cattaneo and Donald MacGillivray), a new piper (myself) came in, and Mike Allen moved to DM. while Paul Jackson took over as LD and Alan Smink on the other SD.
On 31st May, 1964 the Centro Gallego de Buenos Aires organized a "Festival Céltico” which was held at the Luna Park, where several Galician groups (including pipes, of course) performed. The rest of the Celts present were a Portuguese folk dance group (Portuguese Galicians), a group of singers and a dance group of the Cross and Shamrock Society (Irish), and us. We marched down Corrientes Avenue from the "Obelisco" to the Luna Park, and marched in in grand style – it was special for us since the Royal Scots had been playing there just a few months earlier – and our show included the newly incorporated circle which we had copied from the Royal Scots. We also played for a group of dancers from Zulmara Solari's studio. I believe it was the first time we did that.
Still, the band uniform was makeshift. Kilts of any tartan – your own, if you had one (greens were preferred)-, socks and tie to match (more or less), white shirt, Balmorals for the pipers (some plain, some diced) and Glengarries for the drummers (also some plain, some diced) – there were not enough bonnets of the same kind to go around – and full hose, as close to the tartan one used as possible, and spats. Up until 1963 a short short white jacket with chrome buttons (waiter style) had been used. As from 1964 a khaki military-style short jacket was introduced, while a white cutaway jacket, which had been made for the production of "The Pirates of Penzance" by the Gilbert & Sullivan Society, (and which we referred to as "bum-freezers") was adopted as the "dress" jacket (to be worn at the Caledonian Ball, for example). Later on the head-dress was swapped: Glengarries for the pipers and Balmorals for the drummers (varied as available - some diced, some plain). Sporrans were horsehair for the pipers and anything for the drummers. The Drum Major had a more elaborate uniform which included a full doublet and a beautiful badger's head officer's sporran. The uniform remained this way for many years.
Bagpipes were also varied, most of them quite old, of different makes and ages, all with their original chanters, so tuning was hell. Paul Jackson and myself, who played together a lot, developed the use of tape on the chanters at a time when that was "not done", with pretty good results. One of the things learned from the Royal Scots was that matched chanters were needed to be able to tune properly. One must keep in mind that it was very difficult to get magazines or any sort of literature on pipe bands, techniques, tips, etc. Even music books were hard to come by. We would "pounce" on any Pipe Band records (33 1/2 rpm vinyl) and would play them at 16 rpm to learn tunes and grace notes – it worked beautifully. A set of 8 matched Hardie chanters with matching reeds (considered best-in-class at the time) were finally purchased by the Band in 1966. As the SASRP would not give us the necessary funds, funds were collected in other ways, including several pipers buying their own. The result was impressive. To begin with, tuning was now possible, and the tone improved tenfold. An interesting thing to note is that at the time chanters were sold with a sole (ours were the cheapest - plastic). If you wanted one without it (to fit your old chanter's sole on it, for example) you had to order it specially.
Side drums were rod tension with leather parchment drumheads and a single snare at the bottom and sounded like beating on a pan. Tenor drums were mixed: one was a "normal" rod tension one, the other an old rope-tension snare drum without the snare. It didn't matter much since they were not played. The bass drum was rope-tension. Some time between 1968 and 1970, the bass drum was practically destroyed in a rather amusing incident (though the Society's Committee and the Pipe Major were not amused) and was replaced by a rod-tension drum loaned by the British Legion. Only in 1970 four new Premier Royal Scot SD's were purchased. With this the band now sounded more like the real thing.
SASRP Band circa July 1964 (Caledonian Ball)
Drum Major: M. Allen
Front Row: A. Micucci, R. Smink, A. Lean;
Second Row: D. Andrews, P. Allen, C. Cattaneo;
Third row: J. Cattaneo, G: Vartparonian, D. MacGillivray;
Fourth row: P. Jackson, J. Dannevig, A. Smink.
In 1969 the Society finally decided to buy proper uniforms, so as not to be put to shame by SAPA, which was founded in 1967 by Alasdair Lean and funded by Zulmara and Carlos Solari, who had full dress uniforms. Even though most of the band members were in favour of wearing kilts and plaids in the Mackenzie tartan with the Seaforth Highlanders Sett (large squares – the tartan Dunnie Ross wore), the Society, mainly influenced by Jock MacLennan, decided on Royal Stewart and black doublets (as a matter of fact, Ronnie Smink and Alfredo Thompson had bought their own kilts in the Seaforth Highlanders sett sort of anticipating the future uniform). At the time imports were severely restricted, so with the help of a friendly customs broker, the stuff was brought in at a minimum cost. The band now sounded pretty well and also looked good. The only problem was that the doublets were made of rather thick woollen cloth and were terribly hot.
One must note that until the early 1990's Argentina had a closed and regulated economy, where imports were banned, so apart from instruments and uniforms (which were one-time purchases and could be addressed with the help of customs broker friends who knew the "ropes"), stuff like reeds, bags and such were truly hard to get (and pay for - prices for us were exorbitant). To make matters worse, we often received second class stuff - "send that to the South American Indians, they won't tell the difference," seems to have been the position of some shops. We did know the difference, but it was easier to try and make the rubbish work than attempt to get a replacement or a refund. Drum supplies were a bit simpler, as we could get them from music stores that sold percussion supplies for both military bands and rock or jazz bands.
Band membership fluctuated. There was a "core" group of 5 pipers (Alfredo Micucci, Paul Jackson, Ronnie Smink, Paul Allen and myself) and 3 SD (Alan Smink, Ian Thurn, Eddie Makin), which increased to 6 pipers when Alfredo Thompson joined (taught by Paul Jackson), but soon was back to 5 when Paul Jackson emigrated to Canada in 1970, but the band never managed to "break" the 6 pipers - 6 drummer (3 SD, 2 TD, 1 BD) limit for several years. Mike Allen continued to be our DM, but the nature of his work - flight attendant (they were called "pursers" then) for Braniff - made him miss most shows. There were some changes in the drumming section: Johnny Vilsinskas, while Eddie Makin left. In 1970 Alfredo Micucci retired for health reasons, so Ronnie Smink was appointed Pipe Mayor and I was then Pipe Sergeant. During the following year the band was down to its lowest: we could hardly muster 4 pipers.
Slowly we started to grow again, Guillermo Santana and Leslie Thomson joined (taught by Alfredo Thompson), and soon after Jan Hermanns and Andy Duff. A welcome addition was an itinerant Scot/Australian, Douglas Gifford, who played with us during his stay in Argentina. Then Jorge Villemour (for a while), and Victor Portnoy as a SD, and later, mainly thanks to Ronnie Smink, who took time off his lunch hour at St. Andrew's to teach some boys, Cyril Ayling and Hugh Herscovich (pipers) and their classmates Jimmy Arnott, Christian Söding and Jorge Gandolfo, and his brother Diego (drummers) and later Andrew Kidd (who had gone to St. John's and not St. Andrew's). For a while, then, we had a good sized band: 12 pipers, 4 SD, 2 TD 1 Bass Drum and a Drum Major. This lasted, more or less, until the split in 1982, when the HTPB was born.
The making of SAPA
Since being appointed Pipe Mayor, Alfredo Micucci had to deal with Alasdair Lean. He was an excellent piper and very good teacher, but a rather difficult person to get along with. He was second in command (being the Sergeant Piper) and would criticize Micucci whenever he had a chance. His relationship with the rest of the band members was not so good either. Finally by the end of 1964 things came to a head over a rather insignificant issue. There had been a show at the Alvear Palace Hotel where a small group went, in charge of Alasdair, to play and where I played the tenor drum (I thought it was fun, so I didn’t take my pipes) much to Alasdair's disgust. The affair finished rather late and next morning we had to play for the Drumhead Service at the Belgrano Athletic Club. As would be expected, my pipes were not working properly so Alfredo Micucci told Paul Jackson, who Alasdair wanted to make his debut as piper, (and Eddie Makin - the new drummer - his debut) to give me his pipes and play the drum instead. Alasdair protested, but Alfredo pulled rank, so Eddie's debut was left for a later date. After the show there was a memorable row – shouts and insults galore – and Alasdair shouted his resignation and stomped off in a huff.
Even though some of the junior members thought it had been just a momentary disagreement, the thing stuck and Alasdair did not come back. We later found out that he had made several attempts to get the Society to get rid of Micucci, but the Committee stood by him.
In 1965, Alfredo Micucci was sent to Perú by his company. In his absence Paul Jackson took over as PM. In August of that year, we were approached by Zulmara Solari, a renowned dancing teacher, who had received an invitation to go to Rio Hondo to an International Folk Festival. A group of us finally went (4 pipers and 2 drummers) with a group of dancers (first time dancers and pipers as part of the same group), and Zulmara was our "manager" for the show. This Folk Festival was repeated in 1966, with a similar group. After this, as she was the "representative" of Scottish folk at the International Folk Association which had been formed, she began to have a say in Band affairs. When Alfredo Micucci returned from Perú, he took exception to the role Zulmara had taken in the Band and he told her so in no uncertain terms. The result was her taking distance from the Band (and vice-versa). During 1967 Zulmara offered Alasdair Lean the financing he needed to start a pipe band (pipes, drums, uniforms, etc.) and so in October of that year SAPA (South American Piping Association – a rather presumptuous name, eh?) was born.
SASRP Band 1965 (Río Hondo International Folk Festival)
R. Smink, C. Cattaneo, A. Smink (D).
How the pipes went to Uruguay
In the early 70's Ralph Ayling moved his family to Montevideo to escape the terrorist threat in Buenos Aires, and once there joined the St. Andrew's Society of Uruguay. Cyril, who already played the pipes for SASRP, was encouraged to start a Pipe Band in Montevideo, which he did, and so the first Uruguayan Pipe Band was formed. Cyril taught the first pipers, and the drummers got tuition from the SASRP drummers, especially Ian Thurn. There was a lot of goodwill between the two bands, which later continued with the HTPB, as this sort of relationship is more personal than institutional. The Southern Cross and Riverside pipe bands owe their existence to this first band.
THE HIGHLAND THISTLE PIPE BAND
And so we come to the beginning of OUR band. For many years the relationship between the Band and the SASRP Committee was dual. On the Committee's side, the Band was, in general, taken for granted, in spite of Alfredo Micucci and Ronnie Smink's presence at the weekly committee meetings (the Pipe Major was an "ex-oficio" member of the Committee, which meant he could express his opinion, but did not have a vote). On the Band's side, most members did not know who was on the Committee, and in general didn't care, as their main interest was the actual playing. Depending on who was president of the Society, the relationship varied according to how well the President and the Pipe Major got along.
Over the years, however, and in spite of this, the band, thanks to Ronnie's initiative, started getting more involved in the Society's activities, to a point where several of the Society's events were organized by Ronnie and run by the Band. Proceeds were handed over to the Society who would then include them in their charity donations. The band members started to actively help at all Society events, either in the organization or as stewards, helpers, etc.
One of the main problems the Band encountered was the funding of basic items (reeds, bags, parchments, drumsticks, etc.) which were often purchased by Ronnie Smink, who then had to practically beg for the refund. So soon the system was reversed. After an event organized by the Band, the funds needed for replacement items were retained and the balance (together with the detail of the event's accounts, which included the amount retained and for what) was handed over to the Society.
The Band had always been quite autonomous, partly because the Committee never showed much interest in it and partly because the band just did "their thing". In 1981 the Society's president, Edward Kesting, had had some words with Ronnie over several matters, and seemed to resent the Band's independence. During that year he went putting pressure on Ronnie to submit the Band's actions to the Committee's control, and in doing so also started a slander campaign against him on account of the way he managed the Band's funding. The pressure increased during the summer months of 1982, especially while Ronnie was away on holidays, when it was directed at the band members who were still in Buenos Aires, including meetings with Committee members, etc. By March things were really nasty as the Committee informed band members that Ronnie was no longer the Pipe Major (Ronnie was still away and did not find out till he returned). So at the end of March, the band resigned en masse, with the exception of Leslie Thomson, Victor Portnoy and Ian Thurn.
On April 2nd, 1982, in a most disagreeable atmosphere, (and coinciding with Argentina's armed forces landing on Malvinas) band members handed in all the gear they had in their possession which was Society property (uniforms, bagpipes, drums, etc.) at the lobby of the St. Andrew's School building. After that, we all went to Dickens's Pub (next to the York cinema in Borges) and got mildly drunk on Tom Collins, and decided to continue as a band. That was when the Highland Thistle Pipe Band was born.
Our name has its story too. Once we decided to continue, as most of the band members at the time were former pupils of the St. Andrew’s Scots School and as we still strongly resented having had to resign, we thought of calling ourselves the St. Andrew’s Pipe Band (I guess we also felt it would be nice to bother the Society). Also, we decided to have a Caledonian Ball in June or July, which was considered by many to be rather risky since the Malvinas war was still raging. As a matter of fact, most of the British community had suddenly gone into a Very Low Profile mode, the BCC now was renamed as ABCC (ARGENTINE British Community Council), everyone spoke Spanish in public and social activity was practically nonexistent. Anyway, an ad was put in the Buenos Aires Herald announcing that the St. Andrew’s Pipe Band was organizing a Caledonian Ball, etc. etc. A few days later Ronnie received a “Carta Documento” (a legal document used to inform the receiver of something and letting it be known that ignoring its contents could result in legal action) from the St. Andrew’s Society demanding we desist from using “St. Andrew’s” in our name and “Caledonian Ball” for the party, as the Society claimed it had a legal “ownership” of both (which proved that we had managed to bother the Society). We didn’t want to get into any legal tussle, but also Ronnie wanted to get the ad in the Herald as soon as possible so as to not lose the initiative, so he quickly started to think of a name and the words “Highland” (related to the bagpipes) and “Thistle” (Scotland’s national flower) came up at once, so he wrote “Highland Thistle” for the band and “Thistle Dance” for the party. And it stuck.
In the period at the beginning of 1982 that finally led to the rift, during a chat Alfredo Micucci had with a group of the Band, he stressed the importance of institutions with the metaphor that the branch cut off the tree will die while the tree will continue to thrive. He had good intentions, but our first reaction, as we planned our next move on the fatidic April 2nd, was to say "crecemos de gajo", which means "we grow from a cutting – the branch will grow roots and thrive". We asked Guillermo Santana, who was studying Gaelic, to translate it to Gaelic, and that is how our Motto "Urfashaid sinn as à a’buhn", which appears misspelt on our badge, was born.
Deciding to start a band and actually doing so are two different things. Luckily we had tremendous support from Ralph Ayling, Cyril's father, without whom we may not have been able to pull it off. The first thing was getting instruments. Most pipers had their own sets, but there were several who did not. We were able to get at least four sets from different people who either had an old set belonging to some relative, or who had started learning and never finished. Drums were another problem. We managed to get some "Colombo" drums at Radaelli (a music shop in downtown BA) which, although not very good – rod tension but with single snare on the bottom parchment, were OK to start with. So we had our first practice at Jimmy Arnott's house in San Isidro. Later we moved practices to St. Andrew's School in Olivos. A few months later we ordered new drums: 4 sides two tenors and a bass drum.
The next problem was dressing the band. Some members had their own kit (kilt, sporran, socks) and we managed to get loans of kilts, sporrans, socks and bonnets for everyone and had spats made by a seamstress. So we were practically back to the 60's: kilts of any tartan, socks as near a match as possible, any sporran and any bonnet, worn with white shirts. With this attire we played at our first show – the St. Andrew's Scots School Family Day at Punta Chica. Thanks to Ralph Ayling, we were able to order a full dress uniform consisting of kilt, plaid (drummer and piper), sporran, belts (cross and waist), brooch, hose tops and bonnet (Glengarry – w/feather) and a mace for the Drum Major. We had white jackets made by the seamstress who made our spats. The tartan chosen was Mackenzie (finally), in the Seaforth Highlanders sett with the kilts pleated to the line. The order was delivered to Ayling's office in Montevideo to coincide with the band's visit for the Montevideo Caledonian Ball, organized By the St. Andrew's Society of Uruguay, with whom we had a very special relationship – mainly, as mentioned before, with their band members, where we wore them for the first time.
During our first year the Society put pressure on many people (including several schools) to try and avoid our growth, luckily (for us) to no avail. Ronnie continued to teach pipes in St. Andrew's School, so we continued to grow. At our peak, we had 16 pipers, 4 side drummers 3 tenor drums, bass drum and drum major and about 15 dancers. And we never looked back. Numbers have varied over the years as members dropped out and new ones came in, but the main feature of our band is the camaraderie. One can feel the "good vibes" whenever band members get together, be it a practice, a show or just an "asado". Even during shows a lot of witty chitchat goes on until the show starts, even during tuning-up. Then everybody sobers up and concentrates on the show. The results have always been remarkable.
Over the years since 1982 the "market" for pipe bands sort of split up, so that the three local bands "catered" mainly to one of the portions, thus SAPA played mainly in the Southern Suburbs, the SASRP at Society do's and a other shows mainly in BA city, while HTPB had most of their shows in the Northern Suburbs, and we kept Uruguay (as mentioned above, we had a specially good relationship with their Band Members) and Paraguay (where we – really Ronnie Smink - had an excellent personal relationship with the Damas Británicas) for several years (Uruguay was eventually taken over by the SASRP band when the “friendly” Committee was replaced by one friendlier with the Society, while the Asunción Caledonian Ball was reduced in size and, due to changes in the economy, the Damas Británicas were not able to pay the travel expenses even of the smallest group).
With the Celtic Boom, there started to be more shows in theatres and pubs, where groups made up of one or two pipers, guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and drums joined Irish music groups in giving a larger audience a taste of the pipes. This eventually evolved into shows where a whole band was on stage. This type of show did not appeal to either Ronnie or myself, so we discouraged it a bit. Even so, Eddie Hussey and Oscar Llobenes formed one of the first groups (two pipers, guitar, bass, keyboard and drums) to play at pubs and Celtic shows, but that's another story.
The Band has participated in the three South American Pipe Band Gatherings organized to date and is a member of the Scottish Pipe Band Association of South America.
At the end of 2005 Ronnie and I decided to retire from "active duty", although we still play occasionally as guest pipers, and Oscar Llobenes took over as Pipe Major. We are glad to see that the spirit has remained unchanged. The music and style has undergone some change, mainly a more "modern" style, so to speak, which is natural with a younger Pipe Major, but the general excellence, both musical and in discipline and drill, is the same and the camaraderie is as strong as ever. This is what has always been our “trade mark”: friends doing what they enjoy doing together.
First Thistle Dance, September 1982
Top Row: Jimmy Stewart (Guest Player from Uruguay), Andy Duff, Richard Beller, Andrew Murchison, Calú Ingham, Hugh Herscovich, Andrew McQuillen, Charlie Cattaneo
Middle Row: Ronnie Smink, Alfie Thompson, Cirilo Ayling, Marcelo Rubertoni (GPU), Jimmy Callander (GPU), Guillermo Santana Mackinlay, Javier Olivera White, Jan Hermanns.
Front Row: Jimmy Arnott, Christian Söding, Andrew Kidd, Danny Stewart (GPU), Diego Gandolfo, Jorge Gandolfo, Steven Hesse, Jens Schmidt Liermann (GPU)