Andrew Brian, Highland Wedding Bagpiper

I have been playing the bagpipes for over 30 years and started when I was 9 years old. I have had the privilege to travel all over the world and play at many events and functions. I take great pride in the standard of my turnout and playing and believe that I must always strive to deliver my absolute best at all times, my playing at your event becomes part of your memories and I can't afford to supply a bad memory for my clients.

Where it all began!

I had wanted to learn the bagpipes from the age of 6 and finally got to start learning the bagpipes at 9 years old with a local band. It was here that I was taught the basics and developed my passion for the Great Highland Bagpipe. I spent many happy years with this band learning my craft and travelling around the country to play with the band. At the age of 17, I decided to join the army and I became a member of the world famous pipes and drums of the 1st Battalion The Black Watch.

What came next?
During my time in the army I was lucky enough to travel all over the world playing with the band as well doing my day job as a soldier. I was extremely lucky to have chosen one of the army's premier pipe bands to serve with and recieved world class instruction from them which further developed my skills and abilities. As an army piper I was chosen to take part in many high profile events, the highlights of those events would be playing for the Royal family and various other international heads of state at official functions, the Edinburgh military tattoo, North American tour and the hand over of Hong Kong to name but a few. During my time as an Army piper I passed the class 1 pipers course which was a pre requisit for being put forward for the army Pipe Majors course. Being an army piper in one of the worlds premier proffesional pipe bands gave me an excellent grounding in performing at many types of events and I believe my experience allows me to provide my clients with an unrivalled service.

After the army.

After leaving the army, I returned to the band that had taught me and very soon after I was asked to be their pipe major. The band had suffered over the years and was not in a healthy state, we set to work to rebuild the band. Over the next few years I strted to teach new pipers and the membership grew steadily and we managed to get the band back on the competition field. I have played at most of the official major championships, including the World pipe band championships, the European championships and the British championships and was keen to take my band to these events, we managed to attend some of the major championships as well as many local competitions and we were able to pick up aprize or two along the way. As well as playing in competition with the band, I also attended local solo piping competitions and was lucky enough to have held the North West England solo piping championship. Afterr 8 years with my childhood band, I decided a change was required and was asked to teach a local cadet band, some of my cadets went on to play at high profile events themselves and some even followed in my footsteps to take up a piping career in the armed forces. Shortly after getting involoved with the cadets I was invited to be Pipe Major of another well known local band, although I am no longer the Pipe Major of that band, I still take an active part in the teaching and direction of the band.

My experiences from the age of 9 allows me to confidently provide a professional service to any event type. Having experienced this high level of performance, I am able to offer a professional service from the standard of turn out to quality of playing for your event. I pride myself on providing a quality performance every time, I have a number of tartans in both full dress and less formal options. I am confident that whatever the occasion I can provide a performance to suit.

Below is a selection of some of the countries I have visited to play my pipes and some of the high profile events I have taken part in:-

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo (1996, 1997, 1998, 2014)

Kenya (1996)

Tour of New Zealand (1997)

Piping for the Normandy veterans on their annual return to France (2012, 2013, 2014)

The Basel Tattoo (2015)

The Berlin Tattoo (2016)

The Malta Military Tattoo (2017)

Tour of North America (1994, 1998)

The Hong Kong Rugby sevens (1996)

The Hand over of Hong Kong (1997)

Kirklees Festival of Remebrance (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016,2017, 2018)

Contries I have played in:-

All over the UK

America

Canada

Denmark

Germany

Hong Kong

New Zealand

Kenya

Malta

Switzerland

France