Editor’s Notebook: MacStig Demotion?/ Navy Piper/ Mod Project/ Edin Police Solos

I am in a quandary. I don’t want to demote the guy, but MacStig is under pressure. We’ve had quite a few representations from bandpeople in Grade 3A asking why they are being neglected in our coverage.

Grade 1, as expected, gets the bulk of our pipe band space. With MacStig’s popular input, G2 has been riding high for the past few years. But is it time to give 3A a break? If we do shunt the Stigster downwards is there anyone out there who could do Grade 2 for us?

The helmeted one says he is happy to go down a peg and leave the G2 field for a season or two but with that crash hat on you never know if he is in a sulk or not. So I’m going to do what all editors do in such a situation: pass the buck. What do you, the readers, want? Please join the fun below:

Who was the piper who played as the pride of the Royal Navy, the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, left Portsmouth for the USA a few weeks ago?

Great to see the Senior Service marking these occasions with a tune on the great pipe.

Gaelic singer Mary Ann Turner is staging a show at Oran Mor, Glasgow, on Monday. Promoted by Scottish Natural Heritage, it is entitled ‘In search of the Dear Green Place’ and features tunes associated with Glasgow place names including my own hornpipe, the Barlinnie Highlander.

The blurb reads: ‘Under Mary Ann Kennedy’s [Turner’s]’ creative direction a group of performers celebrate Glasgow’s roots, its Gaelic place-names, its history and its people, in a delightful, informative evening of music, story and song.

‘A specially assembled group of musicians, under the creative direction of Mary Ann Kennedy [Turner] follow a trail through the city’s rich treasure trove of Gaelic place names (researched by Dr Alasdair Whyte), history and people, discovering the natural roots of the Dear Green Place and celebrating how people have helped create one of the great cities of the world. Special guests include Findlay Napier, Nick Turner, Finlay Wells and Lorne MacDougall.’ Tickets here.

Something from the 1970 programme for the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band’s annual solo contest held in the Royal Arch Halls a few months off fifty years ago.

Piobaireachd, four tunes
1 Cpl. IM Morrison
2 Hector MacFadyen
3 Iain MacFadyen
4 Willie Dickson
5= Cpl. Jimmy Banks/ Sgt. A MacKillop
Judges: Angus MacPherson, Invershin, DR MacLennan, North Berwick and Duncan Johnston, Glasgow.

March, two tunes own choice straight through
1 Ian McLellan, Glasgow Police
2 John Garroway, Glasgow Police
3 Cpl. Iain Morrison, QOH
4 Davy Hutton, Muirhead & Sons

S&R, two of each
1 Iain MacFadyen
2 Ian McLellan
3 John MacDougall
4 John Garroway
Judges for the March and S&R: Gen. Frank Richardson and Dr Kenneth MacKay

Jig, four tunes, one own choice, one judges’
1 Ian McLellan
2 John MacDougall
3 Hector MacFadyen
4 Norman Gillies
Judge: Angus MacPherson, DR MacLennan, Duncan Johnstone

Ten years after showing the Edinburgh Police a thing or two, Ian McLellan is pictured in 1980 in full Strathclyde Police Pipe Band Pipe Majors’ rig

Others who competed included Willie McBride, Thomas [sic] Speirs, Duncan MacFadyen, George Stoddart, Brian McRae, Ronald Morrison, Angus J MacLellan, Robert Stewart, John D Burgess, Ronald Lawrie, Colin Drummond, Walter Cowan, Jimmy MacGregor and Jimmy Young.

Special prize and Piob Mhor Trophy for Champion Piper: Ian McLellan

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1 thought on “Editor’s Notebook: MacStig Demotion?/ Navy Piper/ Mod Project/ Edin Police Solos

  1. I highly enjoy the reviews posted by MacStig !!
    Certainly he must have a relative WeeStig who could cover grade three and four and is
    just as talented and hawkeyed as he is.

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