The well-documented concerns of the audience at last summer’s Worlds is not the only matter which seems to have been passed over by the RSPBA Board of Directors at their October meeting. What about the demise of two of our Grade 1 pipe bands, Johnstone and Closkelt?
Did this merit any air time at all? There is a line in the minutes which tells us that one enlightened director did raise the matter of a cap on band numbers as a way of helping the problem. ‘Tried before and discounted’, is the noted response.
Tried before? Where? When, and for how long? Let us see the details and the evidence that this did not work and those of us advocating it might stop ranting on about it.
Something needs to be done to turn things round. We only have five Grade 1 bands in Scotland for goodness sake. Where is the action plan?
I know there are those within the RSPBA who are deeply concerned at the decline in band numbers and the fall off in major and minor contests. But there are others – they seem to hold sway at the moment – who seem quite content to let matters take their course, to manage the decline, insouciant to the last, all the while hoping, that, like Mr Micawber, ‘something will turn up’.
Trad Awards
Congratulations to The Big Rab Show. They have been nominated in the ‘Music in the Media’ section in the Scots Trad Music Awards 2025. Rab Lennox does such great work recording and videoing our band contests that he deserves any success that comes his way. Nominations closed last night so fingers crossed for Rab and his team. Results will be announced at a concert in the Music Hall, Aberdeen, on December 6.
Angus MacKay Music
This appeared recently on Ebay priced £125. It is described as ‘colour portrait and piano sheet music’ composed and dedicated to ‘Her Majesty’s Highland Piper Angus MacKay Esq’.
The blurb reads: ‘An 1846 eight-page book of sheet music featuring a wonderful contemporary colour portrait of the piper to Queen Victoria, Angus MacKay. The volume is titled: The Royal Caledonian Quadrilles, by Philippe Musard.
‘The picture is a vivid colour portrait showing MacKay as he plays the bagpipes on a rocky outcrop above a romanticised Highland loch. To the left of MacKay sit a young couple and below, on the shore, are two groups: one of men and women dancing to the pipes, another waving to a boat on the loch.
‘MacKay is resplendent in a dress kilt and with royal insignia on his right arm and on the pipe banner. He has a blue bonnet with feathers. The detailing and colouring is clear and bright.
‘The book of music is eight pages: front cover/inside front cover (blank)/ five tunes each on a separate page/ blank back cover. On the top left of the front is a date stamp from the publisher, R Cocks & Co, marked 20/1/46. Angus MacKay was appointed piper to Victoria in April 1843 so this dates the image to between 1843 and 1846.
‘The book is 24.8 cm wide and 34.5 cm upright. Condition: the book is quite fragile but the image of MacKay is in lovely, bright order with all the colours still sharp and clear. Inside, the tunes, arranged for piano, are: 1. The Marquis of Huntley’s 2. Miss Drummond 3. Come Under My Plaidy 4. John Roy Stewart 5. Over The Hills.
‘It’s not clear if the portrait was commissioned for the sheet music book but, either way, it is a wonderful image that can be clearly dated to the early part of MacKay’s career as piper to Queen Victoria, on a document which is dedicated to him in person, which illustrates his renown and stature at the time of publication.’ Check it out here.
Talk Piobaireachd
The Piobaireachd Society’s popular Talk Piobaireachd series resumes this Wednesday, November 19, when Vice President and Gold Medallist Peter McCalister will discuss Lady MacDonald’s Lament and the Battle of Bealach nam Brog, both from the 2026 set tunes lists.
The talk will be at 8pm GMT on Microsoft Teams and is only open to PS members. If not a member, you can join here and a link will be forwarded.
As before, talks will be recorded and placed on the Society website in due course. Next month’s talk will be given by multiple award winning Mike Cusack of Houston, Texas. Mike’s tunes are The Fingerlock and Beloved Scotland. Dates are: December 17, January 21, February 18, March 18, and April 22.
