A last look at the piping at the 2017 Northern Meeting today. Before that a word about Oban and its dress code. Pipers at the Argyllshire Gathering are permitted to play without jackets. The rooms get hot at times and the laudable aim of the organisers is to make the competitors as comfortable as possible in the pressure cooker atmosphere of the small theatre at the Corran Halls and in…
Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band’s Junior Piping and Drumming Championship will be held on 18 November 2017 at Calderhead High School in Shotts. Entries are now open and close on 30 October, writes organiser Alison Gilmour. This is the fourth year the band has organised the competition in partnership with North Lanarkshire Council; an event that has grown year on year becoming an established winter solo competition for youngsters. The band…
This book shows glimpses of delicious interactions, thought processes and history, writes our special correspondent MacStig. It should become a standard read for anyone interested in the piping art, pipe bands and humanity. It is all there, fame, failure, family, humour, heartache, and hard work. The long anticipated reminiscences of renowned piper, lawyer, husband and now author, Bill Livingstone soar immediately from the opening paragraphs of his book ‘Preposterous: Tales…
A sunny day in central Perthshire for one of the last Highland games of the year. Unfortunately the entry was, like many games this year, on the poor side, writes the Editor. Fellow judge Archie Maclean and I have asked the games committee to consider the re-introduction of a piobaireachd event (they had one many years ago). Such a competition may improve the entry at this games and would certainly…
Hurricane Harvey has wreaked devastation across much of Texas, not least in Houston, home of the well-known St Thomas’ Episcopal School Pipe Band. Piping Press Editor Robert Wallace contacted his friend, the school’s headmaster Mike Cusack, to see if we could do anything to help. Mike and Band Director Lyric Todkill have given us some harrowing details. The band has lost pipes, smallpipes, drums, music and recording equipment. If any…
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