Fascinating insight this week into the making of ‘The Glorious Effect’. By co-incidence I have been in touch with Andy Glen the maker of another bagpipe film. Andy was the man begind the hilarious ‘Follow Me I’m Right Behind You’ about the College of Piping beginners’ pipe band of 2010. Andy is now living in Ayrshire and tells me he plans to hoist the film onto YouTube in the not…
Last weekend was spent near St Conan’s Kirk, on Loch Awe-side in Argyll. That’s the handsome church you see on your left about twenty miles east of Oban as you head for the Argyllshire Gathering. It was the venue for a concert to celebrate the life and work of the famous Gaelic poet, Duncan Ban Macintyre. There was piping and poetry and stories. One speaker, Professor Alan Riach of Glasgow…
We had several hours to kill before our flight home from the Northern Winter School and accepted an invitation of a short tour of the nearest great city, Hamburg, from our generous guides Frank and Kirsten. Hamburg vies with Rotterdam as the most important port on mainland Europe. A previous tax-free enclave made it a world centre for coffee roasting. Much of the old quarter is built on oak piles…
We are well into the 2021 Northern Winter School here on the plains of Lower Saxony and as I write the music mingles with forests and fields that have borne witness to the best and worst of human conduct. In this little corner of Lohheide over 50 piping and drumming students banish the pandemic memories, learn their rudiments and re-kindle old friendships. The format is, as ever, hard work in…
This is a busy weekend for piping with the London Championship beginning held tonight in the capital and the Northern Winter School kicking off in Germany. The Championship’s prestigious Bratach Gorm takes place in the Caledonian Club, Belgravia. Good luck to everyone. Leading the charge for the big one will be Glenfiddich prizewinners Finlay Johnston and Callum Beaumont but on their day any of the contestants is capable of taking…
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