Local pipe band joins Paul McCartney on Hamilton stage for unforgettable performance
CBC
Only two months with the Paris Port Dover Pipe Band and 19-year-old Rowan Paniccia says she's already played the gig of a lifetime.
She was one of the 28 band members on stage with Paul McCartney at Hamilton's TD Coliseum Friday. The pipe band played bagpipes and drums alongside the 83-year-old music legend for the Wings' hit Mull of Kintyre.
"I never would have imagined to have been offered to play with Paul McCartney," the bagpiper said.
As thousands of fans sang along, Paniccia said she focused on playing. Only when the song ended did she breathe, relax, and look across the cheering crowd.
"It's just a great feeling knowing what we did, and in front of how many people?" she said.
The sold out show not only launched the newly renovated TD Coliseum, but also marked McCartney's final Canadian stop on his Got Back tour.
Mull Kintyre was one of more than 30 songs he played Friday.
How did the Paris Port Dover Pipe Band end up on stage with McCartney?
It's a bit of a secret, said Gord Black, the pipe band's founder, but it might have to do with a personal connection to McCartney's keyboardist.
This was the Scotland-born bagpiper's fourth show with McCartney — the other three taking place in Toronto beginning in 2010. Black said he and the pipe band wrote the Mull of Kintyre sheet music for bagpipes and drums.
Other pipe bands have joined McCartney on stage over the years, too, including the Ottawa and Winnipeg police pipe bands in 2013.
On Friday, Black, the pipe major, squeezed 28 band members on stage, not wanting to leave anyone out including the youngest musician who is 12 years old, he said.
"It really is a once in a lifetime thing for them," he said.
He said during rehearsal they were "bang on" and excited.
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