Top Scots bagpiper says he is regularly groped and 'upskirted' by women at performances

Asking a Scotsman what he is wearing under his kilt is often considered a light-hearted joke.

But a leading bagpiper has complained that it constitutes harassment and said women use it as an opportunity to grope and upskirt those who wear traditional Highland dress.

Willie Armstrong, a member of the popular Scots band The Red Hot Chili Pipers, says women take indecent photographs of him at gigs and suggested that double standards are at play.

Taking part in a discussion on ‘upskirting’ on BBC Radio Scotland, Armstrong, 55, said: "It's the constant 'are you a true Scotsman?'. They are basically asking you if you are wearing underwear or not.

"If you reversed that behaviour and I was to say to a woman, can I ask what you are wearing underneath your dress, it would be a whole different ball game.

"I just get weary of the whole thing."

Upskirting, which was banned in Scotland in 2009 and in England and Wales last year, is the practice of taking images or videos under a person’s clothing without their consent. Women wearing skirts and dresses are usually the victims. 

Mr Armstrong, who once had to stop a performance after a woman took a picture underneath his kilt and passed it around the table, said he believes other pipers have similar experiences, but their concerns are often laughed off or dismissed.

"I had to stop and tell her to delete the picture, that it isn’t acceptable.

“I keep thinking, imagine I'd done that to her - I would be arrested, and rightly so. I don't find it funny - and I know other men do find it funny.”

He added: "A lot of the time you just accept it because we are who we are. But it's not just me, it's every member of the band it has happened to.

"I remember playing at Ayr Town Hall. I came off the stage, the crowd go crazy, and in trying to get back to the stage I don't know how many times there were hands up my kilt. I'm trying to play my pipes but I'm also trying to protect my own dignity."

But the behaviour has been “constant” even since he was a boy, Mr Armstrong said, and at one point in his career was experiencing incidents “almost every week”.

"I just think if this was the other way around it would be all over the papers, and rightly so, and people would be having a hard time trying to understand why that behaviour would be deemed acceptable in 2020 and it’s just not."

Dawn Waddell, band secretary of the City of St Andrews Pipe Band, said that it’s unfortunately common for members of the public to “take liberties” with pipers and that that women, especially at functions like weddings, can adopt a “ladette” behaviour and “don’t take it seriously or think it’s a problem”.

“It’s really irrelevant what you’re wearing, it’s the fact that your personal space is being invaded and under this umbrella people take liberties,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

“Pipe bands, especially when they’re out playing and out marching are often seen as a free for all,” she added. “There’s this kind of culture that if you’re out in the public arena then you’re public property.

“We’re under siege sometimes when we’re out on parade and there are crowds of people and media and cameras.”