Ed Arnold

Coming from a Scottish family (on my mother’s side!) and being brought up with Scottish music and holidays in Scotland I always loved the bagpipes as a child. Nobody in the family played and I was encouraged to learn them at the age of ten. It was seeing a bagpiper player at our hotel in Aberfeldy whilst on holiday that did it. My mother saw how interested I was and in no time bought me a practice chanter and asked her friend Alec Maclean (ex Pipe Major of The Seaforth Highlands and Nottingham Police Pipe Band) to teach me. Within a year I was playing with the Seaforth Higlanders in Mansfield and eventually I went on to compete in Grade 4 with Ashbourne Pipes and Drums at competitions all over England and Scotland. I played the bagpipes for many years with Ashbourne and eventually took a break from the pipe band world and went on to promote myself as a solo bagpipe player. I’ve since played at 1000’s of weddings, parties, corporate dinners, Burns Nights, Hogmanays and funerals, etc. I have appeared playing the bagpipes on TV in ITV’s ‘The Dales’ and ‘The Lakes’ for weddings featured on the shows. I have also appeared in newspapers such as The Sheffield Star, The Derby Telegraph, and The Yorkshire Telegraph. I have been interviewed on Radio Sheffield several times and most recently Sheffield Live. I have played at weddings internationally including Lake Bled, Slovenia and Dubrovnik, Croatia. Major events I’ve played at include the IIFA (Bollywood) Awards at Sheffield Arena where I played on stage in front of 12,500 people. I’ve piped at various football games including Derby vs Hearts and Derby vs Crystal Palace. I featured in a promotional video for the Rugby League’s Magic Weekend. I played Flower of Scotland for Neil Abel on the icerink before his Sheffield Scimitar’s testimonial match. For three years running I piped amateur karate competitors into the awards ceremony at the AMA International Karate Championships at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. I have also played at several bike races including the 2013 Hit The North Bike Race in Whitefield, Manchester. Most recently I had the honour of leading the Hull Kingston Rovers onto the pitch in tribute to the late Frank Milward. I also piped at the National Railway Museum in York as part of the fund raising events for the renovation of the Flying Scotsman. Once the project was completed I was asked back to play at the Launch events. I offer a first class professional piping service and my testimonials reflect this. Thus clients use my services time and time again and I get no end of bookings through word of mouth. I’ve been the official New Years Eve bagpipe player at The Thorpe Park Hotel in Leeds, and Napoleon’s Casino in Hillsborough, Sheffield and I’m booked by the Loch Fyne Restaurant in Sheffield every year for Burns Night as well as Loxley Park Residential Home in Sheffield and Valley Lodge in Matlock. I am also the first choice bagpipe player for a large number of funeral directors in Sheffield, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham.