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Gordon Rogers

(Organiser/Executive)

I started my Piping with Andrew Burnett in Cambuslang where I was taught with the 150th Kirkhill Scout Group. This was taken further when I moved to Dundee and became a member of the Mackenzie Caledonian Pipe Band. My early Piping style was given special attention by Pipe Major James Grimmond and hard earned pointers from Willie Dickson and Willie Barrie.

All that bullying made sense when I sat in the British Legion Club in Arbroath and listened to John McDougall having a practice in their empty lounge. At that point I styled myself on John's clarity of play combined with the other lessons.

With the Mackenzie Caledonian I enjoyed the hard work of the early 1960's followed by the successes of the later years as we saw success in Grade two at all of the major Championships.

In 1967, in Dudhope Castle, Dundee, I started teaching younger learners prior to band practice and these lads later formed into the successful Novice and Juvenile bands of the early 1970's.

By this time I had joined the Police force and was playing in their band, before becoming the Pipe Sergeant for five years and then Pipe Major for a further eight.

During the final years in the Police, I took the chance of taking all of the R.S.P.B.A. examinations and then going on to instruct at national courses. After retiring from the Police my full attention is now on school teaching full-time and tutoring other players in my spare time both home and abroad.

The Pipes and Drums of Tayside Police

1980's

Back row: Bruce Abbott, Ronald Hastie, George Miller, "Berty" Hunter.

Third row: Frank Donald, Stewart Stirling, Kenny, Gordon Dickson.

Second row: "Jock" Ogilvie, Keith Leask, Thor Drever, Duncan Ellwood, Kenny Leask.

Front row: Pipe Major Gordon Rogers, William "Stewart" Davidson, Pipe Sergeant Freddie Duncan, Stewart Robertson, Tom "Faither" Deas, Drum Major Duncan Brooksbank.

Some coaching going on during a visit to Courtney Canadian Legion Pipe Band in 2001