Greentrax Recordings

The Pipes & Drums 1st Battalion The Black Watch - The Ladies From Hell (CD)

CDTRAX162 (released September 1998)

category: piping

The Black Watch Pipe Band has a worldwide reputation. Each year they embarked on a tour of the US and Canada which attracted in excess of 200,000 spectators - they have even outsold the rock band Oasis at the Motors Stadium, Vancouver, Canada! This album was recorded on location at Fort George Barracks, Scotland, shortly after the pipe band returned from its annual coast to coast tour of America and Canada, which consisted of 57 shows in 55 cities.

The Black Watch has been the senior Highland Regiment in the British Army, and was raised as a result of the troublesome times after the 1715 Rebellion. After the Jacobite rising of the 18th Century, the bagpipe was banned by the Hanovarian Government as 'an instrument of war' and even its possession was a capital crime. The Black Watch can claim a large part of the credit for the continued existence of the bagpipe, for it was the pipers attached to the first independent companies who kept the instrument and its music alive in Scotland for many years.

Originally there were only a few pipers in each Highland regiment because the pipe was played simply as a solo instrument. However, pipers began to play together and soon, with the drums, they formed the bands to play for ceremonial parades and which are now popular throughout the world.

The Ladies From Hell was a nickname given to the kilted regiments by the Germans during World War II and a pipe tune of the same name was later composed by a former Black Watch piper and is included on this album.

'A rousing collection of high quality piping and drumming.' (Scots Magazine)