Reading this thread made me envisage a notice saying something like:

"Removing portions of pipe, for musical or other purposes, is a serious offence.

Solomon Islands Water Authority'

If there really is such a notice, and if anyone out there has got a copy/picture of one, they could make an old man very happy by e-mailing it to me.

I would love to pin it over my desk as a constant reminder that. however hard the system tries to paint everyone and everything grey, the native lunacvy of real people bubbles out (through the missing bits of pipe I suppose!)

Another thought has struck --- Why don't the organisers of the Edinburgh Tattoo invite the Solomon Islands' Massed Water-Pipe Band?