In 1962 during the Seattle World's Fair, a lot of musicians of various kinds found work. A bagpiper in the Keith Pipe Band got a regular job playing the pipes at a pub. After playing there a couple of evenings, somebody told him that he had to belong to the A. F. of M., the musicians' union. He went to the union office to sign up, and the fellow there practically threw him out. Nothing in the books about bagpipes. Piano-players, guitar-players, drummers, Swiss bell-players, all kinds of stuff -- but no bagpipers listed. So the piper went back to the pub and told them that apparently he didn't have to join. In fact, they wouldn't let him join.

He started drawing crowds. There was a newspaper article about him. One of the local TV stations did a story about him. Then, a guy came down from the union and chewed him out for not joining the union. The union guy was so rude to the piper that the piper told him to go stuff it.

The union brought pressure on the pub. The piper wrote some letters and made some phone calls and got an official ruling on bagpipes. It seems that according to somebody important's definition, the bagpipes are not a musical instrument, they are an implement of war.

The piper didn't have to join the union.

(This is a true story. It happened here in Seattle in 1962)

Don Firth