| After the loss of Peter to the call of the distant northlands, the Band soon found itself down to three bodies for a while, as Kim went on maternity leave. At this point the legendary piper Chris Ormston was recruited to the ranks. As well as the Northumbrian smallpipes he’s best-known for playing, Chris plays four other types of bagpipes, so the variety of sounds available to the Band was greatly increased. One of the hallmarks of the Border Directors for many years was the twin Border pipes of Matt & Chris. There was even a short era in the mid-90s when a rash of Strip-the-Willows broke out featuring Chris’s highland pipes, backed by Mr Seattle’s stratocaster. This was not for the faint-hearted in the audience. With Kim back in active service in time for the stratocasting times, the Band ranged far and wide. As well as extensive giggery in North-East England, they ranged from Portsoy near Fraserburgh to Portpatrick in the SW of Scotland, and into the Far South – London, Cambridge, Sussex, Mytholmroyd & other exotic places. |
The CD Border Directors was released in 1999, half the tracks recorded by Keith Mills at BBC Radio Newcastle for broadcast there, & the rest in John’s studio. For the Millennium the Band name was officially changed to the Border Directors.
In 2003 the Border Directors crossed the Channel to play a couple of concerts in Germany (including at the Steinenhaus, Solingen’s only official Cornish pub, though not a pasty was in evidence), plus a barn dance across the Rhine in France, in Strasbourg. A later foreign expedition was via Geneva to a French chateau [sorry, this program won’t do a circumflex accent…] for an Anglo-Tunisian wedding, featuring some amazing catering and the world’s loudest Moroccan disco, whose lasers radiating from the many windows were a great danger to passing civil aviation.
Border Directors 