Well done to Burntisland Pipe Band for their virtual junior piping and drumming contest Matrix 2020. A great idea which will keep the fingers and wrists moving during these fallow pipe band times. A raft of top judges have been drafted in including Douglas Murray, Shauna Hilder, Lee Innes and Steven McWhirter. Performances are submitted online (by April 11 please note) and adjudicated at distance. Some great prizes too. All…

The World Pipe Band Championships 2020, due to take place at Glasgow Green on Friday 14 and Saturday 15 August have been cancelled. The event, which attracts around 200 bands from around the world to compete, will return to Glasgow in 2021. The World Pipe Band Championships have been held in Glasgow every year since 1986. Inveraray and District Pipe Band are the current world champions. Ian Embelton, Chief Executive…

It is looking less and less likely that there will be any major pipe band championships this year. Everyone should brace themselves for cancellation of the Scottish and World Championships. Major August events such as the Edinburgh Festival and Military Tattoo have tumbled already. This pandemic is now so serious that I wonder if people’s hearts would be in it anyway. Would bands have time to prepare? Short notice could…

Very pleasing response to the PP Lockdown Challenge with videos, drawings, a painting, tunes and essays coming our way rapido. Keep it going folks. Use that time constructively and creatively and maybe put a smile on the faces of our hard pressed piping fraternity. First the frustrating stuff however. Tomintoul Games, due for mid July, have been cancelled for 2020. Wallace Bagpipes, RG Hardie and McCallums are all curbing their…

The Irish Pipe Band Association today issued the following changes regarding their pipe band contests this summer. They include the postponement of the All Ireland Championships which were going to be a showpiece celebration of the Association’s 75th Anniversary. IPBA Secretary John G Sheehan said postponed events would be kept under review to ascertain the viability of an alternative date later in the year. He then issued the following:    …