Governor Macquarie Memorial Pipe Band backs up Paul McCartney on Sydney gigs

On Monday and Tuesday night Ian and three other Hawkesbury residents, part of the Governor Macquarie Memorial Pipe Band, walked on stage to back up Paul McCartney on his hit single ‘Mull of Kintyre’, released 40 years ago last month.when Paul was with band Wings.

But this week was the second time he’d come close to Paul McCartney. Growing up in northern Ireland, he got a trip to England as part of his school’s rugby team in, he thinks, 1961.

“When I was a kid I played rugby and was billeted at Liverpool,” he said. “We went to the Cavern as we were told there was a really good band there, but we couldn’t get in. The Beatles weren’t known at all at that time. We were just schoolkids. Paul is actually the same age as me.”

Playing on the song ‘Mull of Kintyre’ which features bagpipes, had an extra meaning for Ian as well. 

“If you look north east from northern Ireland [where he grew up] towards Scotland you can see the Mull of Kintyre,” he said., “You knew it was raining there if you couldn’t see it.”

But impressing his grandchildren that he’d played with Paul McCartney was never on the cards. “I asked them ‘what do you know about the Beatles?’,” he chuckled. “She said ‘never heard of them’.“

He said he couldn’t believe the stamina Paul had on the two nights. “He performed for three hours non-stop,” he said.

Also performing with Ian were Steve Kerr from Richmond, Ezra Wolfinger from McGraths Hill and Clare Adamson, 15,  from Bowen Mountain.

Musical director of the band (which many will remember under its previous name, Hawkesbury Nepean Valley Pipe Band) Barry Gray, said it was a wonderful experience. A former Beatles fan himself, he first met Paul in 1993 when he played on Mull of Kintyre with Paul’s tour then. “I was starstruck – I’m not sure if anything came out of my mouth at all, but he was very easygoing,” he said.

He said Paul runs his tours like a machine with more than 100 people backstage. “He puts the right people in the right place in every possible job. There were no mishaps at all.”

Barry said in what was a really special moment on the second night, Paul interviewed Barry’s grandson, a drummer in the pipe band, on stage.

Barry has also been John Farnham’s piper for 25 years when he performs ‘You’re the Voice’.  “And I drag the band in too for the experience, at the Sydney gigs”, he said. He’s also performed with Bryan Adams and Andre Rieu.