Oddbean

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/entertainment/music/ladies-bagpipe-band-breaks-up-after-100-years-because-girls-are-more-interested-in-social-media/ar-AA1tnT5q?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=8e4a32ddb3054444b962b1be2887c809&ei=10 For almost 100 years, the ladies of the Dagenham Girl Pipers travelled from Las Vegas to Singapore performing in front of everyone from Elvis Presley to Queen Elizabeth II. But the east London women’s pipe band has said it is now splitting up because they are no longer able to recruit young girls to their ranks. Now down to just a handful of members, the band will play one last time for a Remembrance service on Nov 10 alongside the Royal Naval Association. Appropriately, it will take place in Dagenham, where it all began back in 1930. Denise Morrison joined the group when she was nine, following in her aunt’s and sister’s footsteps, and has racked up around 40 years of playing. She said girls these days were “more into social media… rather than the discipline of a band”. “I think it’s really sad that we’ve come to times where girls these days are not really interested in that kind of thing any more,” she said. “I think the youth of today are not really interested, there’s lots of other things out there – devices, TikTok.” The band was the brainchild of a congregationalist minister called Joseph Graves. Long fascinated by the bagpipes, he arrived in Dagenham in March 1930 and chose 12 girls from his Sunday school to form the world’s first female pipe band.