Editor’s Notebook: Malcolm Ferguson/ Euros and Worlds Confirmed/ Scots Guards KO/ BB Reception/ Iain Glass/ Piper Poem

Response to yesterday’s Malcolm Ferguson tune riddle: ‘My name is Colin Moulson and my late grandfather, Pipe Major Malcolm Ferguson who died in 1981, was very close friends with ‘wee’ Donald MacLeod for many years. ‘It has always been a source of great pride to all the family that he had a tune dedicated to him by not only his great friend Donald but by a man who happened to…

Scots Guards Knock Out – Round One

I think it must have been the Scottish Pipers’ Association who started the ‘knock-out’ competition, two pipers play, the audience picking a winner who progresses to the next round. The famous final of the ’60s when Duncan Johnston defeated Donald MacLeod is still talked about in these parts. And I remember being robbed in the SPA final myself when playing against P/M Angus. By Robert Wallace Well it’s another guardsman…

Editor’s Notebook: John McLellan DCM/ Band Regradings/ Weekend Solos/ Pinkman Collection/ Aussies Adopt PS Set Tunes

Reader Yahya Hussein on the above picture: ‘That rather rare photo was taken right after WW1. His medal bar shows his Great War medal trio, the 1914-1918 Medal, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. ‘That is alongside his Queen’s South African Medal along with his famous DCM won in South Africa when rallying his battalion as they were being cut to pieces by the boers at Magersfontein in…

Editor’s Notebook: Ten Years After – A Decade of Piping Journalism

Just over ten years ago saw the start of Piping Press, the online continuation of our Piper Press magazine. The latter was taken over by the Piping Times in 1999. I then edited the PT for 15 years before departing Otago Street in 2014. Much has happened during the decade including the regrettable, though predictable, demise of the PT and the College of Piping. Four years ago we had the…

Disturbing Legal Action in Canada/ Ken Eller Memorial Gathering

Some of you will be aware that our Canadian piping and drumming cousins are currently involved in a bit of a brouhaha. On the one side we have a disgruntled judge who believes he has been unfairly treated after alleged transgressions. On the other we have the governing body, Pipers and Pipe Band Society of Ontario, which believes that, in taking what it saw as the required disciplinary action, it…