There were two juvenile solo competitions in Scotland last weekend. We have already reported on the Festival of Juvenile Solo Piping. The other was the Army Cadet Forces piping competition at Redford Barracks, Edinburgh. The above picture shows Pipe Major John A. McLaren and Cadet Rory Robson of 1 Highlanders Pipes & Drums, Inverness, who took first places in the piobaireachd events. Both John and Rory are from Invergordon and play for Ross…

The World Solo Drumming coverage last weekend precluded our celebrating the memory of the late P/M Angus MacDonald who would have been 80 last Saturday. Here is an obituary from the Guardian newspaper which appeared shortly after his death in June 1999….. Few Highland bagpipers have more persuasively or widely exemplified the highest expressions of their art than Pipe Major Angus MacDonald, who has died aged 60.  Steeped in the…

Festival of Juvenile Solo Piping Competition, Auchenharvie Academy, Stevenston. Saturday, 20th October 2018 Gerard McClumpha, Event Co-ordinator: Attached are the results of this year’s event. With over 200 entries, running five separate arenas, we actually finished ahead of schedule and were out the door before 5pm! Unheard of anywhere?! Keen competition in every event and all agreeing a very high standard involved. The above picture shows all the prize winners from the afternoon’s competitions…

With a cold start at Glasgow Caledonian University, the first competitors in Adult and Juvenile contests started their long road to glory at 9am this morning. Organisers have been in situ from several hours earlier and there were warm ups going on from 8am, and slightly earlier. In the earliest qualifiers, big names like Blair Brown, Steven Creighton, recent runner-up Mikey McKenna and reigning Champion Steven McWhirter, took their chances to…