The last major piping events at the Argyllshire Gathering (AG), Oban, and the Northern Meeting (NM), Inverness, were in 2019 and the next such events will be, hopefully, in 2022. We will all be three years older by the time we sit down to listen once more to these great competitions.Looking at past programmes of the Northern Meeting it is surprising how the names of the players change in a…
Dear Piping Enthusiast, Can any of us believe the torrid times our music has suffered in the past couple of summers? Who knows the damage the pandemic will have done to our great tradition. However, an end is in sight and already we can see the green shoots of recovery in the solo world. Sadly, there is not much doing in the pipe band world, but the solos? Yes there…
The Argyllshire Gathering are to mark their 150th Anniversary by holding a ‘live’ professional piping contest. The date is Wednesday, August 25th. The invited pipers are all from, or have strong family connections with, the county of Argyll. They are as follows: Jamie Forrester, Alasdair Henderson, Finlay Johnston, Stuart Liddell, Angus MacColl, William McCallum and Sarah Muir. The competition will take place in the Argyllshire Gathering Halls in Oban. The…
I am not surprised that bagmaker Jim Begg got almost universal support for his views on the dearth of contests this year. Piping Press has been banging on about this for some time too. It is rather late now to do anything for this summer but the performance of our promoters in keeping the national music alive over this difficult period has been poor, it must be said. Part of…
Legendary pipe major Richard Parkes concludes this series of articles to mark 40 years of success with FMM, 40 years that has seen him capture an incredible array of trophies and awards both for the band and himself. Recognised by royalty and academia, Richard has, through his achievements, written himself into the history books. In this final section he answers a few more questions from our Editor Robert Wallace. Which…
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