rgouetteIf’n ye look at ma post agin ye will see I am referring to the You Tube Posters but its too late the noo cos ye have shot me…
. 
ochone!
I concede
I’ll close out only with “the poor lad”
With regards to the piping/performance mishaps and very near mishaps, here is a list of mine:
Played GHB at a friend’s wedding at a several hundred-year-old church in one of the pueblos in New Mexico. The doorways are very short, and I am tall. I “curtsied” when I went in, but knocked the bass drone top off. I was able to reach up, put it on quickly and tune it, then played a 6/8 march not-too-badly…
Played uilleann pipes at a graduation ceremony at the University of New Mexico. I blew the chanter top across the stage prior to the gig while tuning, then put a bit more hemp on it, with no problems during the performance.
Agreed to play GHB last minute for some dancers at the University of New Mexico “Pit” arena during half-time at a men’s basketball game. I pretty much blew my lip out rehearsing with the dancers before the gig, but was able to pull the tunes off if front of the 9000+ crowd.
These were all near-miss crashes, and all learning experiences to be sure.
Mine have been many a mishap..one stands oot tho when I was playing in Kilburn London and I put a bit too much pressure on a closed bag to test it and the inlet valve frae the bellows flew aff across the room and hit a woman on the back o the head just as she was aboot to take her drink which promptly fell over her lap.It was with some difficulty that I got ma valve back. 
Does that count as shooting someone?
Uilliam
They talk about 10,000 hours of practice being necessary for mastery of an instrument, but I half wonder if there isn’t another 5,000 hours or so of playing in public that’s required after that …
Poor fella. There but for the grace, indeed! My worst wedding moment was probably when, at the height of a bridal procession, I tripped over the organ’s electrical cord and unwittingly kicked the plug out of its floor socket. The bride was halfway down the aisle, everyone was crying happily, and then … NOTHING.
That was the day I learned there is no screwup so loud as absolute silence in the midst of “Lohengrin.”
Besides that one, I’ve seen/been part of so many wonky public-performance moments I don’t even keep track anymore. Just a month or two ago my chanter end-cap blasted off and shot a fiddler in the knee (but darnit, I was aiming for the banjo player 
). The usual hilarity ensued.
I was aiming for the banjo player
Slow air to no air: I was playing an uilleann pipe solo in a big choir concert a couple of weeks ago when my chanter popped out of the bag. 
There have been many other such happenings over the years (this is Greater Upper Winterlandia after all); I have suppressed the memories.
t
ok ok I’ll chime in as one who has played both GHB and Uilleann pipes way before I had a ‘right’ to publicly.
I played a piece at a church gig on the uilleann pipes, and was so nervous and inflated the bag so full of air a short way into it, that the chanter would only issue a singular high-pitched note.
I did let air bleed off, but not after I had pretty much blown the tune.
ah well..
You know that silence can enhance the musicality of a piece by adding dramatic emphasis!! 
Perhaps we should adapt that old saw to “piping means never having to say you’re sorry (though your pipes might be).”
I must admit that, while I find it frustrating when my pipes have their Tonya Harding moments, it’s so nice to get to blame the instrument for a change. After Lord knows how many years playing flute (it’s always the player’s fault) and riding horses (you’re never thrown from a horse, you always fall off) I love being able to say “Damned humidity!”
Well said Cathy!!