Scottish Pipers’ Association Online Professional Results (Updated with full details)

Each competition was judged by two judges, and the competitors had to upload each performance to YouTube and send the links to the SPA. I would say that running this competition was a steep learning curve for the Association and there are definitely things that I would have done differently with hindsight, not just on the media side, but in how other things were done. By Logan Tannock, President, Scottish…

Editor’s Notebook: Lack of Contests/ Piping Live!/ Dublin Poster/ Iain McLeod and Mod banner

I am not surprised that bagmaker Jim Begg got almost universal support for his views on the dearth of contests this year. Piping Press has been banging on about this for some time too. It is rather late now to do anything for this summer but the performance of our promoters in keeping the national music alive over this difficult period has been poor, it must be said. Part of…

Richard Reflects on His Four Decades of Success with Field Marshal Montgomery – Part 4

Legendary pipe major Richard Parkes concludes this series of articles to mark 40 years of success with FMM, 40 years that has seen him capture an incredible array of trophies and awards both for the band and himself. Recognised by royalty and academia, Richard has, through his achievements, written himself into the history books. In this final section he answers a few more questions from our Editor Robert Wallace. Which…

Bag Maker Jim Launches Blistering Attack on Pipe Band and Solo Promoters – Readers React

Pipe bag maker James Begg has used his monthly newsletter to severely criticise the dearth of pipe band and solo piping events this summer. Jim points to the thousands of people attending large sporting events in the UK, yet here in Scotland we cannot even put on an open air piping contest. Jim says it is a ‘disgraceful outcome’ for piping and pipe bands. He writes: ‘There were 66,000 football…

Richard Reflects on His Four Decades of Success with Field Marshal Montgomery – Part 3

In this, the third part of this illuminating series, P/M Richard Parkes answers with honesty and candour some questions from our editor Robert Wallace. Richard talks of the first changes he made at FMM, his confidence in being able to do the job, and some of the mistakes he made along the way….. Before you took over FMM did you always fancy being P/M?I always had an ambition to be…