Neil Clark: My grandfather, Robert Bishop, was a piper in the Allandale Pipe Band [above], based in the village of Allandale, near Bonnybridge, Stirlingshire. He’s the first piper shown in the video [below]. He was taught to play pipes by the second piper in the video, Robert Irvine. They are both shown in Allandale uniform, around 1938: On the outbreak of WW2 in 1939, the band signed up en masse…

The Piobaireachd Society’s third ‘Talk Piobaireachd’ session of 2021 takes place this Wednesday, March 17, at 8pm GMT. These popular discussions are open to members of the Society and have proved very popular. The Society’s former President Dr Jack Taylor (above) is in the hot seat for what is sure to be another engrossing hour of information, ideas and thoughts on ceòl mòr and particular tunes in the repertoire. It is is suggested…

After the recent raft of competition cancellations I hope we can have a period of calm during which summer promoters and their committees stand back and look at the overall picture. They should take on board all the considerable changes to lockdown there will be from next month onwards. Rather than just take the easy way out, approach difficulties with a ‘can do’ outlook. You have a responsibility to the…

A significant proportion of the pipe band commnunity want what is left of the 2021 season to be rescued. In answer to our poll question ‘Should the RSPBA run a truncated 2021 pipe band season?’ almost half of those who responded agreed with the comment ‘Yes, we need to get back out playing again’, writes the Editor. However a significant proportion, 32%, thought it best to scrap everything and wait…