Veteran piper celebrates surprise 100th birthday party

Bob McFie goes to the National Piping Centre in Glasgow every Friday.

As president of the Veteran Pipers' Association, he joins friends for a weekly "dram and jam" session.

But this week his friends had a surprise in store for his 100th birthday.

A new composition written by fellow piper George Johnson, named "100 cheers for Bob Mcfie," was performed for the first time in his honour.

"I had a suspicion that something would be going on, maybe an extra bottle of whisky on the table" he said.

"It was a surprise and I like surprises."

Bob has been playing the since he was three years old and has taught hundreds of pipers and written several tunes over the decades.

Born in Glasgow in 1926, he was first given a chanter by his father.

By the time he was nine, Bob had surpassed his dad's abilities.

"I was told I was a child prodigy," he said.

"I didn't know what prodigy meant, it was a swear word for all I knew."

Growing up in 1930s Glasgow with high unemployment made it easier for him to practice.

"There were only three people with jobs on our street," he said.

"Two were footballers and one was a postman.

"So you could practice all you liked because no one was up for work in the morning."

One of his first public performances was at the Empire Exhibition in Bellahouston Park in 1938.

He said it brought back happy memories as it "got him off school for a day".

Fifty years later, he also performed a number of times at the Glasgow Garden festival and also composed a theme tune for the event entitled "Strathclyde Heritage".

Bob said he did not know how many tunes he has written, although one of his many publications contains 134.

The first tune he wrote for his grandmother - "Euphemia Morris" - was written while he served in the army during World War Two.

He also said he lost track of the number of young pipers he taught in 30 years at the College of Piping.

Bob has not been able to play for the last two years.

"I'm not strong enough to play the pipes the way I want them," he says.

"Others said they can weaken the reeds, but if they don't sound like I want them to I don't want to play at all."

He said he is now happy to listen to others perform.

"I play the pipes because I like it," he said.

"It's fun, that's the answer."