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Piper plays on despite Rundle Mall ruckus

Jul 29, 2013

It takes a particular kind of person to play the bagpipes. It takes another type altogether to bring the pipes to Rundle Mall and play on in the face of complaints from shop owners and council requests to move on.

Oliver Matters, 19, is that kind of person.

“They sort of suit me,” he says of the pipes. “They’re big and loud and slightly obnoxious.

“They’re great fun to play – if you’re busking in the mall, you could be guitarist number 4531, or you could be the one bagpiper.”

Matters has been playing in the mall for the last several months, always decked in blues, kilt, and white dress socks with red tassles fluttering in the wind.

He came to InDaily’s attention when he posted on the Adelaide page of internet forum Reddit. Am I liked? he wanted to know. Or am I merely a loud annoyance?

The thread quickly attracted a bunch of comments, both supportive and critical of the piper-poster who goes by Cheskak on Reddit.

After agreeing to talk to InDaily, he arrived for our meeting at an east-end coffee shop wearing fingerless gloves and with a long plastic sword strapped to his hip; he was taking it to a medieval combat practice session he’d booked for right after the interview.

“They’re big and loud and slightly obnoxious.”

Matters says he got into bagpipes at school. When a teacher came to his classroom to spruik for new members for the pipe band, his hand was first in the air.

“Since then, it was sort of, ‘Oh my God, bagpipes, I love this, I’m not doing anything else’. I do do other things, but …”

Matters was always been keen to take the pipes to Rundle Mall, but until March, busking bylaws specifically banned them.

Undeterred, he checked the bylaws regularly – until a rules change dropped the restriction. And he was in.

Last Friday, when InDaily filmed him, Matters could be heard halfway along Rundle Street.

He had set up on the eastern side of the mall, and made his way through several tunes, including “Scotland the Brave” and a jaunty version of “Waltzing Matilda”.

He grins: “You’re a bagpiper, you have to have a sense of humour about yourself, and a slight arrogance – I’m louder than everyone; look at me.”

He plays with his big black pipe-bag sitting in front of him, open for donations, but says he’s not playing to make money.

“Basically, it’s just going out and playing the pipes and being all, ‘hey, everyone, bagpipes – bet you haven’t heard this before’.

“It’s great fun. You get people coming up and talking to you all the time … I’ve lived in Scotland, it reminds me of home… all that sort of stuff. Occasionally they throw coins in, too, which is an added bonus.”

While he claims he has support from most mall shoppers, he faces strong opposition from some of the strip’s shop owners.

Last Friday he was approached by a council staffer, and very politely asked to move on.

“People like it. The shops don’t tend to,” he says.

The bylaw requires him to move every half hour; Matters moves every 25 minutes.

It must require a thick skin, to play on despite the opposition.

He grins: “You’re a bagpiper, you have to have a sense of humour about yourself, and a slight arrogance – I’m louder than everyone; look at me.

“The people walking up and down the mall, punters, they love me. Ninety-five per cent of them really, really like me. I’ve had one person in the entire time I’ve been playing say, ‘If I pay you, will you stop’. And then I stopped, he said, ‘hooray’, and I started playing again.”

Would he have stopped playing if he had received only negative comments on the online threat?

He thinks for a moment, then shakes his head.

“Nah.”

Oliver can be contacted on Facebook. He is available to play at events including weddings and funerals.

Should the bagpipes be allowed in Rundle Mall? Send letters to [email protected], including your full name. The editor reserves the right to edit letters.

 

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