Live ‘back’ in Ireland 87 Concert

05 January 2017

30 years ago, the soon-to-be World Champion Pipe Band, Toronto-based, 78th Fraser Highlanders performed and recorded the now-legendary “Live in Ireland” concert.

An all-star cast of guest players along with many of the original performers are once again coming together, for the final time, to celebrate the music of that extraordinary mid-August evening in Ballymena, Northern Ireland.

The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association, Northern Ireland Branch (RSPBANI) are proud to announce that the “Live ‘back’ in Ireland 87” show will be staged on Saturday, 25th February 2017 at Belfast's Waterfront Hall. Tickets will be available from Monday 21st November 2016 on the Waterfront’s website, 
http://waterfront.co.uk/what-s-on/all-events/live-back-in-ireland-87/. People wishing to buy tickets in person should do so from the Box Office which is located in the Ulster Hall, Bedford Street, Belfast.

Music from that seminal concert, and subsequent recording, will be performed and celebrated - including composer Don Thompson’s evergreen piece, “Journey to Skye”.  

The band will be led by Pipe Major Bill Livingstone and Leading Drummer J. Reid Maxwell along with a large group from the original Ballymena team including Michael Grey. Among those guests joining the cast of the show are  Glenn Brown (Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia), Stephen Creighton (St Laurence O'Toole), Ian Duncan (Vale of Atholl), Stuart Liddell (Inveraray & District), Ian K MacDonald, Sean McKeown (Toronto Police), Steven McWhirter (Inveraray & District), Duncan Nicholson (Glasgow Police), Richard Parkes, MBE (Field Marshal Montgomery), Alen Tully, Terry Tully (St Laurence O'Toole) and Ross Walker (Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia),

Pipe Major Richard Parkes MBE remarked: “I was among the lucky ones who attended the great Ballymena concert; this music in many ways stayed with me and certainly had an influence on my own pipe band thinking. I’m genuinely excited to be a part of this project.”  

RSPBANI Marketing and Communications Committee Chairman George Ussher observed: “The concert in 87 was one of the defining events in pipe band history and the reprise concert in Glasgow drew a huge crowd with many traveling over from Northern Ireland for the event. The opportunity to run this concert, in the 30th Anniversary year, ‘back in Ireland’ where it all began, with many of the original cast, was too good an opportunity to miss. This is the last chance to see this show and we hope that people will grasp this opportunity.’’