The grand finale of the Belfast Tattoo last weekend marked the Centenary of the Battle of the Somme. The massed bands and dancers were joined in the arena by Royal British Legion standard bearers in a moving tribute to all of those men and boys, who selflessly gave their lives. The evening concluded with the audience joining the bands in singing, ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’, ‘It’s Long Way to Tipperary’ and ‘Auld Lang Syne’.
The pipe band season is almost over with local contests at Pitlochry and Innerleithen this Saturday. Already some are turning their thoughts to summer ’17. Here are the dates of the 2017 majors:
British, Paisley, May 20
UK, Belfast, June 10
Euros, Forres, June 24
Scottish, Dumbarton, July 29
Worlds, Glasgow, Aug 11/12
Now you know what all the excitement is about. The final RSPBA event of the year is the World Solo Drumming in Glasgow on October 22. Entries close Oct 1. Get fixed up here.
What about this notice seen at the Scottish Championships at Dumbarton:
They must have been snowed under with worried pipe majors keen to know their anxiety levels.
I hear that Kenny MacLeod and Stuart McCallum of McCallum Bagpipes have left Greater Glasgow Police Pipe Band and other notable pipers have joined Shotts. I hope the band can recover from the loss of these two major players. We do not want to see the Glasgow Police going the way of Edinburgh/ Lothians Police. The band hasn’t had a great year and needs to get back into the top six during 2017 if it is to restore its reputation. Let’s hope they do just that.
Strongly worded letter on Cowal’s loss of championship status can be read here. We are proposing a rethink on the Champion of Champions awards with Cowal a possible venue as before. Please offer your thoughts by contributing to our poll:[polldaddy poll=9503440]