Our skeleton logo

Have you wondered about the skeleton in our logo?  There’s a tale or two to be told… and it’s definitely fun, not spooky!

Back in 1984, the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band had the honour and privilege to fly out to California to play at the Santa Rosa Highland Games. We flew out and had a stop at Minneapolis St Paul airport where we had to go through Customs into America – at about 5.00am. There were not many other folk going through Customs at that time, just the band. Some of us went through and could watch on the monitor what was coming along the moving table. In those days it was wooden boxes for the bagpipes and as the boxes went through, we could see what was inside the pipe boxes; things like a bottle of seasoning (not allowed these any more), small implements like scalpel blades (not allowed these either now!!) and any other interesting contents in with the pipes. Then we had some hat boxes with feather bonnets and some of these also had some intriguing contents along with the bonnets.

So, we are watching these things come through then we see this rather odd skull like shape- who has taken a skull on holiday?! It then proceeded through with moving fingers playing a practice chanter and our Pipe Sergeant, Gordon Duncan emerged from the exit side! The lady viewing the official Customs screen was a bit perplexed; the bandsmen though it was hilarious.

Gordon would be arrested for doing anything like this now but in 1984 it was a bit of fun and nonsense. He apparently repeated this stunt a few times with other groups he played with.

There were many fun antics on that trip and not just by Gordon. Good folk, good music, good fun and great memories.

To complete this logo story, when we returned from Santa Rosa the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band had a wee competition for a new logo for the band tie. Two of the entries were:

Neither design won for the tie, however the skeleton came in handy in the search for a sponsor- as the Vale of Atholl became Scotrail Vale of Atholl Pipe Band after this.

A part of history which was such fun.

Gordon himself loved the daft skeleton logo and the design became a tattoo to several of those closest to Gordon as a mark of love and respect.

And so, it seemed appropriate for it to become part of the Gordon Duncan Memorial Trust.