Author: Robert Wallace

Editor’s Notebook: Imminent U-turn Will Save Early Pipe Band Season/ Piping in Pitt Street/ Piobaireachd by the Sea/ Ottawa Games 1976

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Twelve hours after Tuesday’s blog suggesting the 2022 British Pipe Band Championships should be moved from Scotland to England, Sir Ian McGeechan proposed the same for the forthcoming Calcutta Cup rugby match. Newcastle would be the perfect spot for the battle with the auld enemy, a max crowd permitted and guaranteed, said Sir Ian. Twenty-four hours later our football pundits were suggesting the same for Scottish Premier League matches. The…

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Restrictions Pose Threat to British Pipe Band Championships

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Welcome back folks and right away I must apologise for being the bearer of un-glad tidings. If we are to believe what the Scottish Government and its medical apparatchiks are saying, we need to start worrying about early season pipe band contests. Just look at the front pages from Monday’s Times newspaper (above). In England (r) we had talk of a lessening of restrictions whilst in bonnie wee benighted Scotland…

More Restrictions Pose Threat to British Pipe Band Championships

Happy Hogmanay/ Piper in Austria/ Pipe Band Ship Launch/ Eagle Pipers 1970

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There are many good reasons to enjoy Hogmanay this evening not least of which is that when numbskull politicians dictate we should do something it is wise to carry on as before. Piping at ‘the Bells’ in your home is perfectly safe and outside cheering up the neighbours even safer. Cancelling Hogmanay is the sort of torture no true Scot should have to endure. It’s on a par with the…

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Editor’s Notebook: Covid Fears for 2022 Season/ Charity Single/ Talk Piobaireachd/ Results from Yesteryear

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All the indications are that the restrictions/ recommendations on social gatherings limited to three households, as announced yesterday, will extend at least until March. What impact this will have on band practices here in Scotland I know not. But I am concerned. The knock on effect for the 2022 season could be significant. Already we have had the cancellation of the Scottish Schools contest scheduled for the end of March….

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Editor’s Notebook: US Ship Launch/ Finlay MacRae/ PS Bursary/ Eddie’s New CD

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Reader Michael Hubbard in the US: I thought to send this fairly dramatic photo from October 2021.  This is the Clan Macleay Pipe Band, Portland, Oregon, USA (in continuous existence since 1912).  We are playing at the launching of a barge at Greenbrier Marine.  As can be seen, we were in our typically rainy period, with pipers and drummers in Inverness capes. The Drum Major, Dan Kelley, decided to stand out…

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