Angus John MacLellan

• Genres: World

Biography

An influential figure in Scottish music, Angus John MacLellan received his early piping instruction from his father, as does many a good Scottish lad. Going on to become one of the most important bagpipers of the century, this artist should not be confused with John Angus MacLellan, another important bagpiper. Angus John MacLellan was known for his virtuoso playing ability, complete knowledge of the Highland bagpipe traditions, and for the particularly audacious professional move of playing as a member of a pipe band when he had already established a reputation as a soloist in the difficult pibroch tradition.

His decision to join the famed Glasgow-Strathclyde Police Pipe Band was an unheard of thing to do for a player with a spare room full of prizes and trophies, the equivalent of Charlie Parker lining up to play third alto with the Boulder High School Stage Band. The piper proved his critics wrong, not letting his glorious involvement with one form of Scottish music interfere with his beautiful interpretations of the pibroch repertoire. When the day was over, MacLellan had successfully reinvented the notion of what a Scottish bagpiper could be.

When he was 11, MacLellan's family moved to the Isle of Bute, where the boy began studying with piper Alex MacIntyre, credited as a great influence. At 16, MacLellan joined the Merchant Navy and traveled around the world. He finally got off the boat in 1962 and joined the Glasgow Police as a constable. This would be the year of big happenings within that organization's pipe band. The brilliant piper Iain MacLellan joined the force and the band simultaneously a few weeks later, giving the group two players with the same surname whose piping was high quality. Around the same time, pipe major Donald MacLeod relocated to Glasgow to work for the bagpipe manufacturers Grainger and Campbell. He would have a huge influence on MacLellan's solo career.

It all added up to something of a convergence of piping talent in Glasgow, a huge step in that city's steady stroll toward status as the world's center of bagpiping. While with the police band, MacLellan played under director Angus MacDonald until the late '60s when Ronald Lawrie took over duties in the top spot. MacLellan was appointed the new pipe sergeant in the '70s and remained in this position until his departure from the police department in 1990. During his tenure with the organization MacLellan was a great influence on what were surely the prime years for this group. It won a total of 11 world championships, including a remarkable run of six consecutive wins in the '80s.

The Glasgow police department has undergone scrutiny for various scandals over the years, these accusations of corruption obviously overshadowing MacLellan's fairly innocent habit of garnering extra bagpiping lessons from his mentor, MacLeod, while on his beat as a police constable. It was only natural, since the bagpipe firm's shop was conveniently located in the middle of the younger piper's patrol. From early 1962 until MacLeod's death in 1980, the two pipers met almost daily to swap musical knowledge. As a result, the younger man became something of a depository for Inverness musical traditions while running up an impressive solo competitive record.

He did equally well in the areas of pibroch and so-called light music, which could be defined as just about anything other than pibroch, a genre some listeners feel is the heaviest music on the face of the earth. In 1973, MacLellan won the gold medal at the Argyllshire Gathering performing one of his favorite pieces, "Glengarry's March." He won the Inverness gold medal in 1976 playing the tragic "Lady MacDonald's Lament" and over the years has nabbed most of the top prizes at the Scottish Pipers' Association, the Uist and Barra, and the Highland Society of London competitions. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi