Pipers who bagged a hit
QUESTION Who played the bagpipes on the Wings hit Mull Of Kintyre?
Mull Of Kintyre was written in tribute to the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland, where Paul McCartney has owned his High Park Farm since 1966. The song, a Christmas No 1 in 1977, was Wings’ biggest hit in Britain.
McCartney contacted the local Campbeltown Pipe Band to play on the song and invited the band leader, Tony Wilson, to his farmhouse to discuss the best arrangement.
A month on, McCartney gave Wilson a cassette he and wife linda had recorded. A week later, the band went to High Park Farm where McCartney had converted an old barn into a recording studio.
Seven pipers and seven drummers played on the recording, though many more appeared in the video, shot on Saddell Beach near Campbeltown.
The band later travelled to london to appear on Top Of The Pops and on Mike Yarwood’s 1977 Christmas Show.
They also appeared at Wings’ last uK concert at the Glasgow Apollo in November 1979. The musicians hid under the stage and, to a loud welcome, appeared as McCartney finished Yesterday.
In 1978, the Campbeltown Pipe Band released an album called Mull Of Kintyre, featuring McCartney’s song and various pipe standards. They continued to be booked for high-profile engagements including the wedding of Stella McCartney on the Isle of Bute in 2003.
Sadly, the death of leading drummer Campbell Maloney and members moving away meant the band, latterly known as the Campbeltown Ceann loch Pipe Band, were forced to call it a day in 2012. Its last major performance was for the BBC’s One Show in 2010.
Michael Fraser, Inverness.
QUESTION Have any U.S. Presidents visited all 50 states?
FrANKlIN D. rOOSEVElT was the first President to visit every state in the union during his 12-year stint from 1933 to 1945, though at the time there were just 48. Alaska and Hawaii didn’t become states until 1959.
Dwight Eisenhower was the first President to serve all 50 states, but he failed to visit them all.
In 1971, when richard Nixon met republican fundraisers at a Delaware estate, he became the first President to visit all 50 states while in office.
After Nixon’s resignation, the rest of his term was completed by his vicepresident Gerald Ford, who didn’t have enough time to visit all the states. Jimmy Carter also fell short during his one-term presidency, failing to reach Vermont and South Dakota. Vermont became one of only four states that ronald reagan (with Maine, rhode Island and Delaware) missed. Even so, all four voted for him in 1984.
George H. W. Bush became the first President since Nixon to visit every state, as did Bill Clinton, although only just. Before he visited Nebraska, republican leaders there took great pride in the fact: ‘We have the distinction of being the only state in the union never visited by Bill Clinton since he’s been President,’ said Governor Mike Johanns in 2000.
George W. Bush notably visited every state except Vermont, home to a heavy, if symbolic, push to impeach him.
Barack Obama visited his 50th state, South Dakota, in May 2015. Senator John Thune, a republican, wasn’t bitter about being his final stop: ‘The President has clearly saved the best for last, and we welcome him to our great state.’
Si Parker, Reigate, Surrey.
QUESTION What is the shortest putt to be missed when attempting to win a golf tournament?
FurTHEr to the earlier answer, in the 1978 Open Championship Hale Irwin had a putt on the 14th hole of the third round that hung on the edge of the hole.
Once he realised it wasn’t going in, he waved his putter towards it and missed the ball, costing him a stroke, and he later lost the championship to Jack Nicklaus by one shot.
However, in the 1990 u.S. Open, he holed a massive putt on the 72nd green to force a tie with Mike Donald. He beat him in a play-off by one shot the following day.