While there were just enough bagpipers to go round all the Central Otago and Lakes District Anzac services yesterday, a few more young people willing to take up the pipes would be welcome.
Drum major of the Queenstown and Southern Lakes Highland Pipe Band Clifford Hiscock, of Alexandra, said the band's 15 members, and members of the two other Central Otago bands were spread fairly thinly on Anzac Day.
‘‘It's a real problem ... everyone's everywhere.''
Mr Hiscock, a professional piper with 40 years' experience, was looking after Wanaka's dawn service, civic service and wreath-laying service.
Other pipers were spread from Millers Flat to Hawea.
‘‘We need another Braveheart movie because it really promoted the movement,'' Mr Hiscock joked.
‘‘You can't get the commitment from young people these days, because it's pretty much a year and a-half of hard slog to get on the pipes and be able to play a tune well enough to have people listen to you.
‘‘And they say it's seven years to make a piper after that.''
Mr Hiscock said young people had so many more interests available to them than he had.
He took up the pipes after being introduced to them by a neighbour when he was ‘‘an impressionable'' 11 or 12-year-old.
‘‘I just decided that was me.''
He learned the pipes as a boarder at John McGlashan College in Dunedin.
‘‘I learnt sweet little else but I learnt the pipes. Don't tell anyone that.''
Mr Hiscock described the physical effort of playing the pipes as ‘‘a bit like running up a hill''.
He became drum major of the Queenstown Lakes band after a fall made playing the pipes difficult.
However, he now plays the pipes again, anywhere, any time, any occasion.
‘‘It's a community band. You put on the hat that fits best for the parade you have on the day.''
And Mr Hiscock says there is nothing in the slightest bit anti-social about being a piper.
‘‘I still remember my old man saying to me once, ‘why do you want to learn the bagpipes for? You can't take them to a party'.
‘‘But it was one of the few times my dad was wrong.
‘‘You can wind up a party with these things.
‘‘You can make a party out of nothing.
‘‘They're a great social instrument.''
