For one local eight-piece pipe-and-drum band, last night wasn't just any Robbie Burns Day bender, but an all-night bar-hopping tour of six Duke pubs. We tagged along to bring you this report and video of the roving revelry.
Yesterday marked another Robbie Burns’ Day, a holiday dedicated to the legendary Scottish poet and ladies man. It’s a great excuse to eat some hearty Scottish fare and sip a scotch or two.After all, it’s almost February—shouldn’t all those healthy/sobriety resolutions be out the window by now?
For one eight-piece local pipe-and-drum band, Robbie Burns’ Day is also a good excuse to catch up, have a few drinks and play some tunes. Or make that a lot of tunes—this crew of six pipers and two drummers (mostly from Toronto’s fire department and police force) spent last night performing at all six of Imago Restaurant Inc.’s six Duke pubs. “I see these guys once a year,” said 49-year-old Bill Shikatani, who’s been piping on Robbie Burns’ Day for 18 years. “When we get together we are always shocked that another year has gone by so fast.”
The Duke of Richmond pub (#DTN) warmly welcomed the band at the start of the evening, when Burns’ “Address to a Haggis” was recited. Mike Maehle, 50, a library assistant, reported that he’s addressed at least 20 haggises in his day—this, he tells me, is no easy feat. But, as Maehle admits, “If you’re really into it, nobody notices if you mess up the lines.” Maehle could have rhymed off any line of Scottish poetry and the crowd would have been just as pleased with his theatrical delivery.
Each band-member, whether they be true Scotts or simply along for the ride, has been piping or drumming for an average of 10 years.
“I joined a band because of a girl,” said Danny Funchion, 30, sporting a unique ginger beard. “That [relationship] lasted seven weeks and I’ve been drumming for 13 years now.”
Funchion and the other band’s drummer, John Matthews, 57, stole the show with an impressive drumming duet at the Duke of Devon. Matthews, the eldest of the bunch, didn’t break a sweat—maybe it was because he was only one week away from retirement. “Thirty-five years on the force,” pointed out another piper and police officer, Brian Urkosky, 30. “Can you believe it?”
As the band made its way uptown to the Duke of Kent (#MID), the mood turned from corporate to casual, inside the cozy, and busy as always, Yonge/Eglinton pub. The usual ex-pats crowded the bar, unwilling to recite Burns’ poetry but pleased to be there just the same. At the Kent, the band played a rendition of “Amazing Grace” that almost brought one lassie to tears. Mike Chantler, 38, teased her fiancée, Janet Wilson,41, about welling up over the song; the tartan-clad couple then discussed their upcoming wedding over a fine haggis dinner. The traditional dish of ground meat—sometimes a combination of beef and lamb, spices and oats, cooked inside a sheep’s stomach—can make any Scotsman feel patriotic. “I’ve never been to Scotland,” said Wilson, sporting a navy-and-green tartan hat, “but I still feel such pride.” It’s sentiment that many local Scottish descendants feel on Robbie Burns’ Day.
But marriages, retirements and dead poets weren’t the only reason to celebrate on a chilly Wednesday evening. The pipers, jokingly called the Dukes of Hazard by Funchion, started taking requests. While enjoying a pint and fish-and-chips at the Duke of York (#ANX), Maehle couldn’t refuse a birthday request from the jubilant crowd of drinkers. “This was my first Robbie Burns’ Day,” said birthday boy Chris Ramnarine, who turned 27; the Trinidadian native had no clue about the celebration until coming to Toronto. He was delighted to have “Happy Birthday” piped to him in front of a packed house. With so many causes for celebration, the same message applies on January 25: Feel the love and feel the Burns.
