Western Australia Police Pipe Band (artist) • The Paul McCartney Project

About

The Western Australia Police Pipe Band (WAPOL) is an Australian competitive pipe band organization based in Perth, Western Australia associated with the Western Australia Police. […]
The original Western Australia Police Band was a brass band between 1902 and 1925. The WA Police Pipe Band, now commonly known as and referred to as WAPOL, was formed in 1966.
The band won the Grade 2 title at the World Pipe Band Championships in 1998, and was promoted to Grade 1 at the end of the season. It is currently the only Australian competitive pipe band, sanctioned in competition by the Western Australia Police.
At the World Championships in 2004 the band qualified for the final and came 11th overall.
As of August 2016, WAPOL are the current Australian and South Pacific Grade 1 champions, having won this biennial national competition in 2012 and 2014 and are also the reigning WA Grade 1 Champions.
In 2004, the WA Police allowed civilians to become members of the police pipe band alongside officers, and as of 2019, most members of the WA Police pipe band are civilians, and therefore not police officers. […]

Our WA Police Pipe Band is happy to support up and coming artists like this lad from Liverpool. We think he’s got a lot of potential! Were you there to hear Mull Of Kintyre?
From Western Australia Police Force Pipe Band | Facebook

From ‘Surreal’: WA police pipe up at Paul McCartney’s Perth concert (watoday.com.au), December 4, 2017:

A lot of last minute emails and plenty of phone calls enabled the WA Police Pipe Band to play a memorable part of Sir Paul McCartney’s Perth show at the weekend.
The Beatles legend played to 23,000 adoring fans at NIB Stadium on Saturday night. Towards the end of his epic three hour set, the WA Police Band appeared on stage with the 75-year-old music legend to perform Mull of Kintyre. But it wasn’t so easy to arrange.
On Monday, WA Police Band Sergeant Ian Stewart revealed on 6PR Mornings with Gareth Parker how the offer to do the gig came about very late in the piece and required a lot of organising.
“It was certainly a surreal experience,” Sgt Stewart told 6PR. “We got a phone call last Friday asking if we were available, and at that point we weren’t. We were booked up to do many gigs that week, we were also doing the Christmas pageant. So there was a lot of logistics, a lot of phone calls, a lot of emails. We did the rehearsal in two takes, Mr McCartney was very happy and that was it, done.“
Incredibly, the pipe band members managed to perform in the Christmas pageant and do the concert on the same night. “We all did the Christmas pageant…walked from there down to Police HQ, got on the bus and right around to NIB (Stadium),” he said.
Asked what it was like to be on stage with McCartney, Sgt Stewart said: “It was a huge honour to be on stage and share that moment with a living legend of the music industry.” […]

From Meet the Perth teen who wowed Sir Paul McCartney | Community News (perthnow.com.au), December 7, 2017:

Drummer Nisha Whittome (14) took to the stage with the WA Police Pipe Band on Saturday night at nib Stadium to play Mull of Kintyre. “It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” she said. “It was so special.”
The Peppermint Grove resident and PLC student plays in her school pipe band, the Perth Metro Pipe Band, and featured in the WA Police Pipe Band to celebrate 100 years of women in policing.
It was a busy night for the teenager, who also played in the Christmas pageant before heading to the stadium to perform for 23,000 people alongside a Beatle.
“I was so nervous, I was thinking ‘I can’t mess this up’, it was so important,” she said. “Afterwards I was ecstatic.”
Nisha said she will definitely continue with pipe bands, and hopes to head to Glasgow with the Perth Metro Pipe Band next year the World Pipe Band Championships.
WA Police Pipe Band OIC Sergeant Ian Stewart said it couldn’t have been a bigger occasion for Nisha to make her WA Police Pipe Band debut. “She did a fantastic job, not only in front of the 150,000 at the Christmas Pageant, but on stage with Paul McCartney too,” he said. “I mentioned to Mr McCartney at the rehearsal on Friday night that this was Nisha’s first time playing with the band and that she was only 14, so for him to give her a special mention at the end of the performance was brilliant. Bearing in mind most of the Police Pipe Band are either current or former world champion pipers or drummers, Nisha came in and was a natural and fitted in brilliantly, she is certainly a talent for the future.”
Sgt Stewart said the call came through from Mr McCartney’s team a week before the concert, with a great deal of planning and logistics going in to preparing the performance.
“To get the full impact on to the audience, it was to remain a secret, so not many people outside of the WA Police Force executive knew about the invite to perform,” he said. “The whole experience on the night was pretty surreal, standing backstage only a few metres away from a founding member of The Beatles.” […]