The Pipes and Drums of Geneva was founded in 1976. Their first public appearance was a procession through the "Old Town" of Geneva. It was the start of the Clefs de St Pierre festival which raised over one million Swiss Francs for the restoration of the cathedral.

In the early 1970's, Charles Forman offered lessons to a few Scottish friends, as his services were being continuously solicited for weddings, funerals!, and for any occasion with a Scottish connection. In this way he hoped to build up a group of pipers, perhaps never imagining that they would become numerous enough to form a band.

In the end, with the support of a few experienced pipers and drummers from Scotland, Canada, and New Zealand a band was formed. For this first outing Eric McIntosh, who was working in Reading in England for a year, travelled to Geneva and brought with him the Pipe Major, a drummer, a bass drummer and the Bass Drum all from the Reading Pipe Band, to provide reinforcements for this very important occasion.

From this small beginning, the Pipes and Drums never looked back. Although the numbers have never been very large, with around a dozen active members at any one time, there have always been new members passing through Geneva to replace those who have left. In addition, the band offers free lessons every Monday night and several new pipers from Switzerland and France have been trained and appear regularly in public with the band.

The band is not sponsored in any way, and every member buys his or her own kilt, and also their own set of pipes. The band was however able to purchase two side drums and a bass drum thanks to a gift from the British Government for supporting cultural activities, and to the fee for playing at a Rod Stewart concert in Lausanne.

The tradition of the band is to remain a friendly group which meets and practises every Monday night throughout the year. Although we do not feel up to competition level, we try to play correctly with all the grace notes, and one or two of our younger members have followed courses at the College of Piping in Glasgow where they have surpassed their mentors here in Geneva.

Among some of the great moments for the band were playing at various European and World Curling Championships, and at the Winter Olympics in Grenoble. The Pipes and Drums are in great demand throughout the region and refuse more invitations than they can accept given their relatively small numbers. Members of the band play regularly for the brotherhood of Whisky Tasters in France and Switzerland at venues all over France and in the cantons of Geneva and Vaud. The Pipe-Major had the honour of welcoming Phil Collins to Geneva and has just performed An Orkney Wedding (with Sunrise) by Peter Maxwell Davies at two concerts with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. A dozen of the band members have participated to the Millenium March organised by the Marie Curie Cancer Care in Edinburgh in August 2000. 8500 pipers and drummers were there !

As the founder members age, it is great to see many new young pipers coming to take their place. We hope the tradition can be maintained for many more years to come.