All eyes tomorrow on the British Pipe Band Championships. If you are not already on Twitter then you may like to sign up and receive the RSPBA’s feed @RSPBAHQ. That way you will get the results as they are announced by Chief Executive Ian Embelton on the park.
Failing that check out the RSPBA’s Results summaries from 6.30pm onwards. I will be reporting from the competition in these pages from Monday.
The weather forecast is overcast with rain and a maximum temperature of 65 degs F and a minimum of 41: waterproofs, capes, woollens, stout footwear. Remember there is no parking on site but a short walk or shuttle bus from the designated car parks will get you there. Admission is free. Once more, here are the travel details:
Before we leave Paisley, notice of a new trophy for the recently instituted Novice B category. It has been donated by the 214th Glasgow Co. Boys Brigade Ex-Members Association and is a very apt addition to the RSPBA’s trophy cabinet given the huge contribution this BB company’s pipe band made to the movement over a 50 year period from 1945 onwards. Here is a communication from the Association’s Secretary: ‘We have posted something new on our website entitled ‘214 provide a legacy for future Pipe Band Winners’. The 214th GCBB may have technically ceased in 1994, but the 214 name continues to impact on the piping world in various guises. You may view the latest post here.
RSPBA Adjudicator Harry Stevenson has kindly offered some assistance to our correspondent Mrs Smith who inquired after some information regarding WW1 pipe music. Read Harry’s letter here.
Harry has researched many of the tunes and the stories behind them and will be performing them at the Blackthorn Piping Society in Belfast in November.
The picture up top is of one of the instructors at the forthcoming New England Pipe and Drum Academy, Donald McBride. It is from the camp in 2013 and a video of Donald’s excellent playing of ceol beag and the piobaireachd Sound of the Wave against the Castle of Duntroon will be available soon on the PP Video Archive. If you’d like to take advantage of some tuition from this expert click on the ad below – and check the archive later to see the man himself in action
You say admission is free. That is amazing. I will not be there, but if I was attending anything like that would be expecting to have to pay an admission fee. Attending the likes of football matches, admission fees can be expensive and particularly for a family, very expensive and an admission fee for the likes of the Paisley bash even if fairly small, allied to the price of a couple of pints of beer would raise cash for some good cause,be it for piping, pipe bands or some other deserving organisation. Free entry is admirable in many ways, but paying an entry fee out of some kind of respect for the effort that participants put into the whole thing has merit.