The current World Champion leading drummer is Stephen Creighton of the St Laurence O’Toole Pipe Band. Earlier this year he was the drum instructor at the Florida Pipe & Drum Academy and the editor took the opportunity of interviewing him for Piping Press about his rise to fame. It is a remarkable story of talent, determination and hard graft and as such is a lesson for any young piper or…

Times are difficult in the bagpipe world right now, not more so than in the journalism line. Thankfully our contributors and readers are rising to the challenge and we have lots of interesting articles in store which will help keep things ticking over during the next few weeks, but if you read copied PP input more than usual elsewhere over this period don’t be surprised. The picture above comes to…

By Robert Wallace, Piobaireachd Society President The annual Piobaireachd Society sponsored recital of ceòl mòr which had been scheduled for early August has been postponed until November due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent cancellation of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival of which the concert was part. The event, entitled, ‘Classical Bagpipe Music – Scotland’s Hidden Treasure’, will now take place on Novemebr 29 – the Sunday nearest St Andrew’s…

PP Lockdown Challenge…Friend and composer Eddie McGuire read of the request for paintings and artwork and reminded me of this drawing by artist John Gahagan. It’s not for the competition but might inspire someone. Eddie writes: ‘I see that you are putting up artwork featuring pipers. Here’s the excellent drawing that John Gahagan did for the front cover of the music I wrote for the Glasgow arts festival ‘Mayfest’ in…

Can anything be salvaged from the 2020 piping season? It remains to be seen whether Oban, Braemar (above) and Skye will follow the trail of cancellation evidenced yesterday by the not wholly unexpected call offs from the Northern Meeting and Cowal, writes the Editor. I hope the remaining gatherings can, at least for now, resist the temptation of making too early a decision. All of the competing pipers I have…