Category: Comment

A Look Back At The Grade 1 Contest at the Scottish Championships

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I didn’t think Saturday’s Grade 1 contest was reflected in the way the summaries eventually showed. For me there were three bands in the mix for first at Dumbarton: Field Marshal, St Laurence and Inveraray. The title could have gone to either one and no one could have complained. That said, Inveraray’s four straight first places tells its own story and I bow to the superior insight and positioning of…

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Inveraray Proclaimed Scottish Champions

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Inveraray & District Pipe Band picked up their second major title of the season when they  took first place at the Scottish Championships Grade 1 contest held today at Levengrove Park, Dumbarton. Previously P/M Stuart Liddell’s band had won the first major of the season, the British at Paisley. Today, a total of 141 bands competed on what was a briefly showery but cold day on the banks of the River…

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PP Editor’s Blog: Highland Games/ Scottish & Worlds/Ulva and MacArthur Pipers

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I am not sure the prestige of Inveraray Games is helped by the pipers being given their piobaireachd a week before the contest. It makes things easier all round for the competitors but is much less of a test. Compare it with Braemar where it’s eight tunes, the chosen piece given at the bench. Promoters often justify the ‘early tune’ decision by saying it cuts down the number of breakdowns….

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Revisionist Piobaireachd and the Tradition as it Has Come Down to Us

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David Hester of the Alt Pibroch website has been in touch following my article on judging and subsequent comments on Donald MacDonald. David: Two quick questions, just for the purpose of me gaining a bit of insight and better sensitivity to the idiom: 1) What is particularly poor about the fare of the MacDonald book and manuscript?  Is it missing something, for example?  Are the pibrochs chosen too massive?  Some…

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Tobermory Games: Full Results and Critique of the Ceol Mor

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A warm, sunny day and a high standard of play. Apart from the solo piping boards, the large crowd was entertained royally by Oban High School Pipe Band under P/M Angus MacColl Snr. and the Mull & Iona Pipe Band under P/M Neil MacCallum. Angus is pictured above on his way to glory in the ceol mor. Piobaireachd (three tunes asked for and given and selected tune given at the…

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