The big event today is the joint Celtic Connections concert being given by Stuart Liddell’s Inveraray & District Pipe and Bagad Kemper from Brittany, France. Tickets have sold very well and there will be a large crowd at the event which kicks off at 12.30pm in Glasgow’s Royal Concert Hall, but some places are still available. Here’s the link. Writing about Jimmy Anderson last week I forgot to mention his…
The late piping historian and military music expert Lt. Col. David Murray continues his examination of the origins of the pipe band. You can read earlier excerpts here and here. The influence of John MacAdam’s road surface also had its effect on the music. On the line of march, the Pipes and Drums and the Military Band played alternately, the Military Band usually being stationed half way down the column. The…
Noticing the advert for the new RG Hardie pipe cases I was wondering what happened to the old wooden pipe box. I mean what do pipers sit on these days when they are waiting for a bus? Sorry, I forgot; they don’t do that any more. If you turn up at your band practice in anything less than a Ford Fiesta Titanium you get frowned on. Taking the boat to…
A WW1 article in the Scotsman at the weekend made poignant reading – five hundred pipers killed and six hundred wounded. It read: ‘London-born Sir Philip Gibbs (1877-1962), one of five official reporters during the First World War, wrote about the effects of the pipes and the extraordinary bravery of pipers and Highlanders among the British forces at the Battle of Delville Wood near the village of Longueval which raged…
Ian McAlister has added to the debate on a cap on band sizes. Ian writes: ‘I have said for a while we need to limit numbers in bands. I would have a maximum squad number and maximum playing number into force to allow a bit of cover for holidays etc, perhaps a maximum of 18 pipers playing with max of 21 in the squad. ‘This would make more players available…
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