By The Editor All the very best to all of our readers, advertisers and contributors for 2020. 2019 has been a successful year for Piping Press, with many thousands of readers attracted by our ‘no spin, no subscription’ quality journalism. Thanks to your support Piping Press will remain an independent, free, self financing web magazine for all of next year and beyond. Since our beginnings five years ago the magazine…

Tommy Graham passed away peacefully on the Monday before Christmas surrounded by his family. He was 93. Though small in stature, Tommy was a huge character and champion of piping and pipe bands. He was the founder and pipe major of the Graham Highland Pipe Band, a band consisting mostly of members of his family. Tommy is pictured above as band P/M. He was a war hero and in later…

Jimmy McIntosh on the archive report on Willie MacDonald, Benbecula’s Clasp in 1967: ‘My late friend Peter Forbes and myself stayed with Willie at that time. (Peter served in the HLI with Willie.) That morning when we were getting ready to go to Rose Street [the venue for the competition], Willie didn’t have his kilt jacket. His wife Margaret had forgotten to get it from the dry cleaners so Willie…

Paul Brown at Kingdom Thisle pipe band supplies in Fife sent the YouTube link below and this question: ‘I know this is a bit strange but we played a tune with Dysart and Dundonald a while ago and I’m trying to get the name of it. I think it’s one of Robert’s compositions. Do you think he could tell me the name of it?‘ The tune is the Isle of…

The music here is by the hand of the legendary John MacDougall Gillies and belonged to his pupil Robert Reid. Check out the full score below where you can just make out Reid’s signature bottom right ‘Property of Pipe Major Robert Reid’. All piobaireachd players will recognise the tune as MacFarlane’s Gathering or, as is given here, ‘Togail nam Bo’ (Taking of the Cattle’), rustling to Western fans. I read…