Northumbrian Piper

[John2]

.....except he wasn't (I don't think) because this was taken at an event on Preston Docks. However I think what he's playing is a set of Northumbrian Border Half-Long Pipes - but I can't be sure. John K ?

 

[Alan Clark]

The definition of a gentleman.......Someone who can play the bagpipes, but doesn't.

 

[John2]

 

[Elines]

Non-photographical point ... and may be because he wasn't in Northumbria .

I know only two things about Northumbrian pipes:

(1) Kathryn Tickell is an expert

(2) they are blown with bellows, not the mouth, which might explain why they don't sound as awful as Scottish bagpipes.

(and, no, I am not deliberately trying to offend as many people as possible in one post )

 

[John2]

Thanks Elines. There are images on Google that purport to be of Northumbrian pipes that have a visible mouthpiece but your right, mostly they have a bellows in addition to the Bag. To be fair, I have no idea whether those in my image are Northumbrian but having gone nearly cross eyed looking on the internet, I did find one image Northumbrian Border Half-Long Pipes that looked about right i.e. with that characteristic long pipe at the bottom of the bag but they could equally be continental. It's all guesswork on my part but what I was really hoping for was some comment on the image rather than the pipes.

 

[Elines]

….what I was really hoping for was some comment on the image rather than the pipes.

Fair point.