By Robert Wallace I remember the day well. It was Aberdeen 1970. The Worlds. Shotts first Muirheads second in Grade 1. Apart from Shotts’ big win (Hills of Alva or Peter MacKenzie Warren set?) what was significant was that they had done so playing a medley, not an MSR. The conspiracy theorists back then said John MacAllister had worked his magic with the RSPBA to get them to change the…

The Florida Pipe & Drum Academy concluded after an excellent week of study and good fun – shame about the weather, cold and wet to begin with, writes Robert Wallace. We spent the last day of the trip at the North East Florida Highland Games where it was good to catch up with piping judges John Bottomley, John Rechnagel, Al MacMullin, Jim Dillahey and Bill Caudill, and they kindly invited…

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…