Today is the last opportunity to vote for your Scottish Pipe Band of the Year in the MG Alba Trad Music Awards. The contenders are:
- North Lanarkshire Schools
- Inveraray and District
- Preston Lodge Novice B Pipe Band
- Scottish Power Pipe Band
Half of the PP office will be voting for North Lanarkshire and the other half for Preston Lodge (pictured). Register your preference here.
Promoter ‘Hands up for Trad’ hosts the 16th Awards and Gala Concert on 1st December 2018 in Perth Concert Hall.
To buy tickets for the awards call the hall on 01738 621031 or buy online.
The organisers say: ‘The aim of these Awards is to highlight Scotland’s wonderful traditional music in all its forms and to create a high-profile opportunity which will bring the music and music industry into the spotlight of media & public attention.’
There will also be a late night ceilidh after the ceremony. Voting opened online on 6th November and runs until today, Friday 23rd November.
Those Irish boys are quick of the mark. The syllabus for next September’s All-Ireland Solos has just been issued and is available on our Competition Entry Forms page here.
There are two grades for piobaireachd which is pleasing to see and a full slate of light music and drumming events.
The contest is run under the auspices of the Irish Pipe Band Association and the Northern Ireland Branch of the RSPBA.
The venue is the National School, Lusk, County Dublin.
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P/M Jimmy Banks MBE has asked us to point out that the first round of the Scots Guards Knock Out is this Sunday (November 25).
Pipers are top-notch: Jonathan Simpson and Cameron MacDougall. Start time is 4pm; pay at door, pies at half time.
I hear that Cameron, runner-up in this year’s Gold Medal at Inverness, has taken over from Gary Nimmo tutoring the schools in the Ullapool and far north-west. Good luck to him with that.
Gary did a great job up there as did his predecessor Andrew Shilliday.
Still in the north, Alastair Campbell, Secretary of Inverness Piping Society, has sent this:
Our first piping recital of this winter will take place on 7th December at the usual start time of 8pm, at Tulloch Castle, Dingwall.
Dr Angus MacDonald, will be the main recitalist, supported by Hamish Drennan of Drumnadrochit.
John Kelly, Northern Ireland, has sent this from the Armistice Day parade in London:
On Sunday 11th November, following the main Remembrance Sunday Parade in Whitehall, Shree Muktajeevan Swamibapa Pipe Band, London (above), joined with 10,000 members of the public to take part in the People’s Procession past the Cenotaph in Whitehall.
The procession marked the Centenary of the Armistice and was made up of descendants, family members and members of the public who won a ticket to the event in a ballot.
Exactly one week from now entries for the John Cruickshank VC composing competition close.
If you intend submitting a tune please be aware that none can be accepted after Nov 30.
Response has been considerable, with the first batch of tunes already with the judges P/Ms Ian McLellan, Stuart Liddell and Richard Parkes and myself.
