New Recording from P/M Gordon Walker Added to PP Audio Archive

It has been a very tough year for one of the world’s best pipers, Gordon Walker. Gordon’s genial nature and brilliant technique and music have been sorely missed at the major competitions and we can only hope that in the coming year the difficulties of the past 12 months will be overcome and we will see him strutting the boards once more.To remind everyone of this great piper’s abilities we…

MacStig Ends his 2017 Review With a Look at Juvenile

In the year just ending I was paying most attention to Grade 2 with Juvenile and Novice bands and their wider organisations. As everyone will know, most of these competitions happen earlier in the day and are well worth following. They are often led by big names in the upper grades.  In Juvenile, Matt Wilson’s (FMM) Dollar Academy Juvenile Band (pictured top) had the lot – sound, tightness, musicality and…

Join MacStig for a Boxing Day Look Back at Grade Two in 2017

Some say he thinks ‘reindeer’ is a weather forecast, others that he believes ‘snow’ is just a Glasgow negative; yet more are convinced he’s as thick as the sole on an Army issue brogue….. All we know is he is called MacStig….  So the year is about to turn; 2018 is almost upon us. One hundred years from the end of the Great War and a defining moment for Army…

Happy Christmas to All Our Readers, Advertisers, and Contributors

It’s Christmas Eve here in the PP office and the staff are quietly going about their business. The Editor (that’s me) has generously granted an early finish today – 4.30pm instead of the usual 5. In addition he’s given each employee a gift-wrapped Christmas Pie with special instructions that it must not be opened before midnight. It’s got them all wondering ‘why the secrecy’. Well there is none really; I…

RSPBA Announces 2018 Calendar/ Worlds Picture Gallery Part 2

Dates and other details for all 2018 outdoor pipe band contests have now been issued by the RSPBA. Headquarters says: ‘These events are of course subject to change so please check back frequently. You will find links here to contest summaries as we receive them as well as any pre drawn contests sent from branches. All previous years summaries can be found via our results service. ‘A reminder that this…