The Centre have issued this statement today… ‘The Board of the National Piping Centre is delighted to announce that Finlay MacDonald (above) has been appointed to the position of Director of Piping of the National Piping Centre. ‘He will assume this position on 1/6/20. He has worked at the NPC since 2002 and for the last 12 years has been an outstanding and creative Head of Piping Studies. We look…

The following article was by Donald McIntosh and early advocate for the then SPBA. It appeared in the November 1935 issue of ‘Piping and Dancing’ Magazine…controversy over grading and proposed extension of the SPBA into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The above picture is of Stonehouse Pipe Band from Lanarkshire, winners of the first Grade 1 contest Cowal for civilian bands in 1909. We are grateful to Alan…

By Margaret Dunn Results from the CLASP’s first remote competition – which ran very smoothly! Yesterday (28th March) was spent collecting the live audio performances and today Wilson Brown, Dan Nevans and Alastair Dunn  judged the audio files. Pictured above is  Grade 2 overall winner Giovanni Giulianini from Italy. Congratulations to everyone who took part yesterday in the first remote competition.  A big thank you again to Wilson, Dan and Alastair…

The bagpipe if not kept clean could be a source of bacteria and virus infections. There are disinfectants avaiIable, but care should be taken as they could be corrosive, writes Duncan Watson. As  a matter of interest, I have been using hydrogen peroxide for years on reeds. It kills bacteria and a little research I have read shows it can deal with viruses.  The reason that I used it was…

Canada’s Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, one of the leading Grade 1 bands of the last 30 years, have not yet ruled out travelling over for the World Championships in August but are keeping a watching brief on Covid-19 developments. Meanwhile the band have produced a surprise new album recorded live last month. P/M Alan Bevan explains: ‘The band has been going very well this year. Last spring we made…