It seems an age now since those weekly meetings in or around 2004 that led to the inception of the Inveraray and District Pipe Band and set them on course to this point. When a small group of kids initially descended on a primary school in Inveraray to learn to play pipes and drums, it probably never occurred to them that they were embarking on a journey that would take them to the top end of Grade 1 or the stage of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall in just a few short years. It may have come as a surprise to others as well...

But IDPB- since the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association first gave them their unique affliation number 666 in the summer of 2005- have never failed to tower above expectations. Any ascent- or voyage- is punctuated by milestones or markers along the way, but what must stand out as unique among pipe bands is IDPB’s early success in the 2006 National Lottery awards and, shortly thereafter, thirteen (out of a possible fifteen) major RSPBA titles over the seasons 2007-2009 in Grades Novice Juvenile, Juvenile and Grade 2, including the World Championship in each of those grades. Harnessed by these achievements, the band was lifted to a new terrain, Grade 1, after the end of the 2009 season: the fastest rise from the Novice Grade to the top flight in pipe band history.

It didn’t take long for them to acclimatise there either. A top-six placing in a major event came at the end of their first season in Grade 1. A fourth place at the World Championships followed the next year and the band have consolidated their position at the crest of the pipe band movement ever since.

Perhaps, though, what is most interesting is not so much the band’s history of moving upwards, but their ability to think laterally when it comes to the music. Without compromising their identity or authenticity, IDPB brought to their Ascension concert on 14th August 2013 not only a stellar cast of supporting musicians, but performed a barbershop quartet arrangement, pushed the boundaries further with their trademark soaring harmonies and introduced yet so many other innovations too numerous to mention. Perhaps it was a result of this trailblazing approach that, in the run-up to the event, the Twitter sphere went viral and the band again entered the record books, this time with the fastest sell-out of the Pre-Worlds concert to date. A rapturous audience of over two thousand people winged their way to the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall for what was for many the most uplifting of pipe band shows to date. This recording affords that audience, as well as those who couldn’t manage along, another opportunity to share in a performance by a band at the pinnacle of their presentation and also serves as a chronicle of the best of the band’s music to date.