Author: Robert Wallace

Editor’s Notebook: The Demise of G1 Pipe Bands/ SPA Juveniles/ Donald Cameron’s Powder Horn/ Keith Sanger

Posted on      by      1 Comment

To lose two Grade 1 pipe bands in one week is dispiriting news. Closkelt and Johnstone have gone to the wall both victims of a lack of numbers. Will those in authority wake up? How long has this column, and significant cadre of our readers, been banging on about the need to restrict sizes in Grade One? Don’t the bigwigs at the RSPBA realise that if you allow unlimited numbers…

More Editor’s Notebook: The Demise of G1 Pipe Bands/ SPA Juveniles/ Donald Cameron’s Powder Horn/ Keith Sanger

Lochnell Intermediate Piping Championship Results

Posted on      by      Leave a comment

This prestigious contest for solo pipers aged under 22 was held on October 10th, at Lochnell Castle, Benderloch, Argyll, courtesy the Earl of Dundonald. The overall champion at the 5th annual competition was Magnus Stone from Massachusetts, USA. He became the first overseas winner of the coveted title. He is 17 years old. He qualified for Lochnell by placing third in the MacGregor Memorial Piobaireachd at this year’s Argyllshire Gathering….

More Lochnell Intermediate Piping Championship Results

Editor’s Notebook: 2026 Majors/ RSPBA Fundraising/ Mod Piping/ Lochnell Championship/ Letters

Posted on      by      1 Comment

I wonder how the RSPBA are getting on with the planning for next year’s major championships? Will it be five or the three and a half we had this year? Looking back it seems there was confirmation of the Worlds, the Euros, the Scottish and the UKs for 2026. The latter was a bit of a non-event given the date on which it was held (July 12) but the Association…

More Editor’s Notebook: 2026 Majors/ RSPBA Fundraising/ Mod Piping/ Lochnell Championship/ Letters

The Importance of Schools Music Education

Posted on      by      6 Comments

In Scotland we have become inured to idiotic statements from well paid public employees and politicians struggling to connect the family brain cell with their vocal cords. This produced another candidate for dunce of the decade last week. In a live-streamed statement the Head of Education at East Ayrshire Council declared her opposition to schools music teaching by stating that she was ‘no [not] really seeing the point of a…

More The Importance of Schools Music Education

Review: The Inaugural London Recital

Posted on      by      Leave a comment

As pukka piping dos go it would be hard to better the London Recital. Black tie, beautiful room, superb wines, Raasay whisky, and gourmet canapès, and – more important than anything – brilliant piping from the fingers of two of the best, Iain Speirs and Angus MacColl. So here’s how it went. We gathered last Thursday evening in Dover House in Whitehall by kind permission of the Secretary of State…

More Review: The Inaugural London Recital