Yearbook

Band History

The Madison Pipes and Drums was founded in 1997 as a registered student organization of the University of Wisconsin Madison, under the name of "The Badger Pipes and Drums", by three pipers who had been playing together for several years. Ewan MacPherson, Bill McInnes, and Richard Worthington had originally been part of a group called the Highland Bagpipe Association some years before, but that group had seen most of its members graduate from the University and move out of the area. With the addition of a few more pipers who stumbled upon the trio rehearsing around the University campus, and Bill's son Rob as a drummer, the Badger Pipes and Drums were formed with Ewan as Pipe Major. The first official performance by the Badger Pipes and Drums was at the Mazomanie Wild West Days parade in September 1997. You could tell it was official because they all had matching neckties.

Over the next year, the Badger Pipes and Drums began playing in area parades and at other community events, adding slowly to their uniforms and to their repertoire. Ewan graduated from his PhD program at the University and moved to Michigan in late summer of 1998. Richard took over as Pipe Major, but unfortunately developed medical problems and was forced to retire from piping shortly after.  Graduations continued to take away as many members of the band as were added, and by March 1999, Bill McInnes had taken over as Pipe Major and the band was less involved with the University.  Toward the end of the relationship with the University, there was a small kerfuffle over a t-shirt in which Bucky Badger’s football was modified to have drones and a chanter. The University didn’t like it so much. There was a letter about copyright infringement. Sadly, the letter has been lost, but the original art on which the t-shirt was based still hangs on the wall of a local restaurant, Erin’s Snug Irish Pub!

The band continued as the Badger Pipes and Drums, playing local parades and community events, and competing for the first time in the quartets competition at the winter Chicago Highland Games in March 2002.

Piper Jim Harrington, a former Open soloist and P/M, found the group and joined in the summer of 2001. In recognition of his experience, Bill recommended him as Pipe Major in the spring of 2002. The band officially cut its ties to the University and changed its name to the Madison Pipes and Drums in August 2002. Jim began actively teaching students and took the band to their first Grade V band competition at the 2003 Chicago Highland Games, then to their first win at the Grade V level at the Wisconsin Highland Games later that year. During 2003, Alastair Wark found the group and brought great experience as a highland snare drummer, actively recruiting and teaching drumming students. Alastair "unfortunately" finished his PhD at the University during the summer of 2004 but left the drum line in the capable hands of Ethan Kister. More or less…there was a fortunately brief gap between Alastair and Ethan that (despite it being suggested) did NOT end in a drum-off.

Jim departed the band in late 2004 and Adam Borger, formerly of Clan Donald Pipes and Drums, took over as Pipe Major early in 2005. Under Adam and Ethan’s leadership, the band placed very well in Grade V and moved up to Grade IV. The ambition to be a mango farmer, an ill-fated spiritual journey, and ensuing money laundering charges saw Adam depart the band for Buffalo, NY in 2009. He came crawling back and was forgiven his transgression in 2013, though we still keep a close eye on him. 

2009 to 2012 were a rough few years for the band. Numbers in the snare corps dwindled, capable pipers moved on, and while newcomers kept the numbers up it was pretty clear that the band was either going to request a move back to Grade V or be told to do so. Early in 2012, the drum corps breathed its last and the then Pipe Major David Bradley decided that if there was still to be a band, someone was going to learn to play the snare drum. How hard could it be? (He soon found out.) Chris Brand, an Open solo piper and the former Pipe Major of Flint Scottish took over as P/M while David worked on reconstituting the drum corps. A couple of game new recruits later, and the band was able to compete again that same year having only had to miss the early season games.

Under Chris’s direction Madison Pipes and Drums returned to Grade IV in 2018, where the band continues to compete today.