'Ode de Toilette': Pipe Band in New Hampshire Salutes Empty Toilet Paper Shelves

The New Hampshire Police Association Pipes and Drums group were forced to make do with a performance in Walmart after their highly-anticipated tour to Ireland was canceled because of travel restrictions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Members of the group had spent two years fundraising to get to Ireland as part of the band’s 25th-anniversary celebrations, where they were to take part in various parades and memorial services.

“We were devastated when we were forced to cancel and lost a considerable amount of funds in the process,” the group’s pipe major, Officer Daniel Wood, of the Manchester Police Department, told Storyful.

As a way of switching the band members’ minds from “panic mode” and allowing them to “laugh” a little, the band performed a special rendition of Amazing Grace in front of empty shelves in the toilet paper aisle at a local Walmart in southern New Hampshire.

The band called their performance, “Ode de Toilette: The Great Coronavirus Walmart Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020 Bagpipe Tribute.”

“The overall reaction was very much enjoyable,” Wood said.

The video shows shoppers stopping to watch and film the performance. Credit: @nhpapipesanddrums via Storyful