Category: Features

Northern Ireland: RSPBANI 75th Anniversary/ IPBA Schedule/ Causeway Coast

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RSPBANI Branch are marking their 75th Anniversary this Saturday with a Gala Dinner in the La Mon Hotel & Country Club. This will be a formal black-tie gala event featuring a drinks reception followed by a three-course dinner, live music and plenty of dancing. The NI Branch will be celebrating their people, partnerships and progress. There will also be a charity raffle on the evening with some fantastic prizes up for…

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The Inaugural Peter MacLeod Memorial Recital

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This past Friday (13/2/26) saw lovers of highland piping fill out the function room of Airdrie Working Men’s Social Club in Lanarkshire. The large audience was made up of people from all over Scotland and even a group who had travelled up from southern England to attend. The event was the very first held by the foundling charity, The Lanarkshire Piping and Drumming Trust.  By Dan Nevans The recital featured…

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Editor’s Notebook: Bob Nicol/ Tonight’s Recitals/ RSPBA Website/ Solo Judging/ Balvenie Medal

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Reading Duncan Watson’s article on Bob Nicol I thought, ‘they don’t make ’em like that any more’. Quite a character. To be a good teacher you must have a clear vision of how a tune should be played and RB Nicol clearly had that. Too many alternatives and the student becomes confused. But there is more to the man. When all we hear is of Nicol’s teaching we tend to…

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Bob Nicol, A Blunt But Inspirational Teacher

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Recent Piping Press posts on the judging of solo piping led to a response from Mr Neil Mulvie in which there was reference to an unnamed piper whose playing was criticised by Bob Nicol. The piper played the piobaireachd Beloved Scotland and apparently did not give enough value to the low A in the commencement to the tune and Nicol uttered the words, ‘he hasn’t got it’. By Duncan Watson This occasion was…

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Pipe Band Judges Ensemble Seminar

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Thanks to an invite from Robert Mathieson and John Reville, I was able to spend a couple of hours sitting in on last Saturday’s RSPBA judges’ online seminar. There were 62 participants, a mix of adjudicators and leading pipers and drummers. The subject was ensemble, something that has featured over that past while in these pages. Much of what I heard and saw was new to me, eye-opening even. By…

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