PP Editor’s Blog: Muirheads Recordings/Roderick Cannon/UK Champs/ FMM Deal

Three new tracks have been added to our pipe band audio archive today. They are of the famous Muirhead & Sons Pipe Band and were all recorded in Toronto, Canada, in the 1970s. The quality is not the best, but listeners will get a good sense of the expert leadership and teaching of P/M RG Hardie and L/D Robert Turner. If any reader has a recording they would like to…

PP Editor’s Blog: City of Edinburgh Police PB/Donald MacDonald Quaich/World Solo Drumming etc.

Yesterday I mentioned the City of Edinburgh Police Pipe Band under P/M Ian MacLeod and I wonder if anyone can give us the names of the individuals in this shot taken of the band with multiple trophies in the early 1970s. Email them please, to pipingpress@gmail.com. The history of the band and its sorry demise was given in great detail in a series of three features in the Pipe Band magazine…

PP Editor’s Blog: Kilberry Bagpipes/ British Championships/Piping Live

Double Gold Medallist Douglas Murray has taken over Kilberry Bagpipes in Edinburgh and reports brisk business at his premises in St Mary’s Street just off the Royal Mile. The above pic shows Dougie outside his new shop. Visitors are welcome to call in for a chat or to have their pipes looked over by an expert. Douglas will be leading his much-improved Fife Constabulary band onto the field at the…

Grading of Solo Competing Pipers/PP Miscellany

The Editor: Just to add a little flesh to my earlier comments about flaws in the grading system, I do think the whole business needs re-assessed with greater involvement of the judging fraternity. After all, it is the judges who sit through lengthy contests listening intently to each player as they come forward – something the current Competing Pipers’ Association Grading Committee don’t seem to do. They operate primarily on…

PP Editor’s Blog: Readers, MacCrimmon Trophy, USPF, WW2 Letter, New England Schedule

I am constantly, and pleasantly, surprised by the breadth of readership we get here at Piping Press. This week alone (Sun – Tues inc.) we have had 2,560 readers come to the site from, among others, the following countries: UK, USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, Germany, Netherlands, France, Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong, Brazil, Oman and the Philipines. What is interesting too is that it is not always the current features that people are…