Editor’s Notebook: Bands Under Threat/ Big Rab Show/ Angus MacKay/ Talk Piobaireachd

The well-documented concerns of the audience at last summer’s Worlds is not the only matter which seems to have been passed over by the RSPBA Board of Directors at their October meeting. What about the demise of two of our Grade 1 pipe bands, Johnstone and Closkelt? Did this merit any air time at all? There is a line in the minutes which tells us that one enlightened director did…

More Must Be Done for the Audience at the Worlds

From our reports this week it is clear World Pipe Band Championships took up a large part of the discussion at the recent RSPBA Board of Directors meeting. But supporters and members of the public are angry that a number of issues that affect them don’t seem to have been given any airing. If they were, then they certainly were not minuted. Mr J Nicholson spoke for many who contacted…

Reaction and More RSPBA News

Correspondent Ian Forbes has commented on yesterday’s disappointing news regarding the 2026 Major Championships. Ian writes: ‘If it is confirmed that, in a sad repeat of this year, there will only be four Majors for 2026, then it will represent a substantial failure by the RSPBA and its Board of Directors. ‘Alternative options and models for financing the Majors have been highlighted previously on Piping Press. ‘These included self-funding by…

2026 Majors Confirmed and Other RSPBA News

The recent meeting of the Association’s Board of Directors confirmed the following Major Championships for 2026. It looks like, as with 2025, there will only be four: The 2026 Championship venues and dates are: • British – 30th May, Ingliston• European – 27th June, Perth• Scottish – 25th July, Dumbarton• Worlds – 14th/15th August, Glasgow Green Next year’s playing requirement details are being withheld until final confirmation of the number…

History: A Look at two Piping Books from the 19th Century

Thanks to the kind offices of Niall Macdonald, great-grand son of the late Neil Angus of that ilk, I have been loaned copies of two interesting, early piping books. I always enjoy a browse through this material. It lets us see how the music, and the writing of it, has developed, and it shows how the early scribes endeavoured to put an oral tradition down on paper. The first is…