Loretto perform with Macca!

It’s not often you get a chance to play with one of the world’s biggest musical artists, but the Loretto School Pipe Band have been called upon for the second time by Sir Paul McCartney.

The former Beatle, listed as the ‘most successful musician and composer in popular music history’ by the Guinness Book of Records, has sold over more than 100 million records in the UK alone. He asked Loretto School to help him out at a recent concert in his home town of Liverpool on 20 December, after having previous experience working with the band when he played a concert at Glasgow’s Hampden Park Stadium in 2009 in front of a crowd of 50,000.

Members of the Loretto School Pipe Band came onto the stage to play with Sir Paul when he performed the famous Wings’ song, Mull of Kintyre at the Echo Arena during the performance. The young band, which consisted of included 11 pipers and 7 drummers. The youngest pipers were a group of five 12-year-old boys, who are in their first year of the seniors at Loretto School. They were also being joined by three young pipers from Loretto Pipe Majors, a local pipe band based in East Lothian. The band though only found out about the concert appearance four days before the event, making sure they spent the weekend practicing for their impressive cameo.

Loretto School's Pipe Major and Instructor, Colin Pryde and Kenny Hutchison, Head of Music at Loretto’s Junior School - both Beatles fanatics, adapted the original Mull of Kintyre single to produce the musical arrangement that the pipers and drummers worked with.

Colin said: “We were overwhelmed to be asked to perform with Sir Paul again and it was a real honour for us to accompany him in Liverpool, his home town. Mull of Kintyre has only been performed a handful of times on stage and we feel very honoured to have been involved twice. We have a number of new young members who have joined the band this September and they couldn’t quite believe that this once in a life-time event came their way. Christmas is coming early this year for the Loretto School Pipe Band!”

Click here to see a fans' video of the appearence.