Colin Murphy

Colin Murphy | Highland Piper | North West

Colin Murphy is a Highland Piper with over 30 years experience.

He has been a member of a number of High Class Manchester Pipe Bands and played in many competitions in England, Scotland and Europe.

Colin Murphy – Highland Piper - has played at numerous functions including Funerals, Weddings, Football Matches.

Concerts (Rod Stewart and Bay City Rollers amongst others), Burns Night Dinners, New Years Eve, Corporate functions.

Also Town & City parades.

Colin charges very reasonable rates and can adapt to individual needs.

He is based just outside Manchester but is willing to travel.

Bagpipes are a class of musical instrument, aerophones, using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. Though the Scottish Great Highland Bagpipe and Irish uilleann pipes have the greatest international visibility, bagpipes have been played for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, the Caucasus, around the Persian Gulf and in Northern Africa. The term “bagpipe” is equally correct in the singular or plural, although in the English language, pipers most commonly talk of “the pipes” or “a set of pipes”.

A set of bagpipes minimally consists of an air supply, a bag, a chanter, and, usually, at least one drone. Most bagpipes have more than one drone (and, sometimes, more than one chanter) in various combinations, held in place in stocks — sockets that fasten the various pipes to the bag.

The evidence for Roman and pre-Roman era bagpipes is still uncertain but several textual and visual clues have been suggested. The Oxford History of Music says that a sculpture of bagpipes has been found on a Hittite slab at Eyuk in the Middle East, dated to 1000 BC. In the 2nd century AD, Suetonius described the Roman Emperor Nero as a player of the tibia utricularis. Dio Chrysostom, who also flourished in the 1st century, wrote about a contemporary sovereign (possibly Nero) who could play a pipe (tibia, Roman reedpipes, similar to Greek aulos) with his mouth as well as with his “armpit”.

Fill in the Colin Murphy | Enquiry Form below with all the details about the event you’re planning and we’ll get back to you asap.