Every day is a school day as they say and if ever the old adage was proved true it is here in Florida at the Pipe & Drum Academy. Star of the week has to be the brilliant Stephen Creighton, World Champion leading drummer with St Laurence O’Toole. Harsh truths about playing standards have been told and it seems that the more Stephen dishes out the honesty the more his…

Playing the pipes is something a person does for life. For many of us it has provided a lifelong musical pursuit, and a source of great pleasure and interest. It makes sense to those who love the pipes (i.e. are obsessed with them) that Robert Reid, one of the finest pipers who ever played, could say that if he had his life again he ‘would spend it playing pipes’. He also said…

Some promising news on the North Lanarkshire music provision front. It would appear that all of the bands and orchestras in the local authority’s schools are to remain, and that includes their award winning pipe bands. The downside I hear is that they are looking for cuts of £186,000 from ‘management and tuition’ in schools. That sounds to me like a few big jobs are going to be axed and…

By The Editor A reader has contacted us to mention that his son played in a Piping Centre Junior competition Piobaireachd event last weekend. When the boy finished the judges called him over and told him that he had played well but that he had gone off the tune. The boy was surprised; he didn’t think he had. The father, in the audience, naturally asked the boy what the judges…

The above photograph is from the British Legion piping competition 2002. I can identify some of those pictured ((l-r): Donald MacKay, Stuart Samson, ?, Jim Penman, Brian Donaldson, a very young Ben Duncan?, Ross McCrindle, ?, ? If anyone can fill in the gaps please pass on. I met Jim again recently at Bob Shepherd’s funeral and among other things he was telling me about the early days of his…