Month: November 2016

PP Ed’s Blog: US Sojourn Day 2 – Balmoral Classic Results/ Toronto Police Concert

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Day two in Pittsburgh began with breakfast with Jimmy and Gordon Bell, illustrious sons of the late and equally illustrious George Bell, Bishopbriggs and New Jersey. I told them that  over the years I had been in regular contact with their father up until his death eight years ago. George had been taught by Bob Hardie in the Bishopbriggs Boys Brigade and in the Kenmure’s Pipe Band. Hardie would go…

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PP Ed’s Blog: American Soujourn Day 1

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Pittsburgh has indeed thrown off its smokey steel town reputation. Yesterday I was given a tour of the metropolis by Andrew Carlisle and saw for myself the parks, the clean rivers the clean air – a distinct turnaround from the days of belching chimneys and Scot Andrew Carnegie’s industrial empire. That empire has endowed the city with some magnificent buildings and universities however and everywhere you get the feeling of…

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The Late Angus Nicol In His Own Words

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Robert Wallace writes: A couple of years ago, when his illness first struck, I got talking to Angus about his life. My, how it was interesting! At the end of the chat I told him that he must write something down and, Angus being Angus, did just that – and for my benefit always with a piping bent. What follows is all the more touching now that he’s gone. I have appended a tribute…

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PP Editor’s Blog: Balmoral Classic/ Shasta Contest/ RACPADS Concerts

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To Pittsburgh today for the weekend’s Balmoral Classic competition where I’ll be sharing a bench with this year’s double Gold Medallist Ian K MacDonald and top US piper Jimmy Bell. George Balderose and his team have organised an entertaining weekend of piping and pipe band music. The city itself is no longer the industrial giant it once was (or so I read) but now has a burgeoning tourist industry with…

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The Day Richard’s Bag Burst, the Power Burst a Drum and the Vale Played the Wrong Tune

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This article first appeared in the October 2008 issue of the RSPBA’s ‘Pipe Band’ magazine. As this issue of the magazine is now out of print, it is reproduced here in the belief that it will be of interest to pipe band members, adjudicators and the listening public. The article was written by Alistair Aitken OBE, one of our most respected pipe band commentators and a former RSPBA adjudicator….. Burst…

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