Category: Features

Piobaireachd Society Reveals Full Line-up for Conference ’17

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The 2017 Piobaireachd Society Conference will take place on Saturday/Sunday 25/26 March at the Birnam Hotel, Perthshire. Booking arrangements are slightly different this year than in the past. Those staying at the hotel for the weekend should contact reception directly on 01350 728030. Rates are available for two nights bed and breakfast including conference dinner on the Saturday evening. A conference fee of £40 is payable directly to the Piobaireachd Society via their…

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Is it Not Time that we Capped the Numbers of Pipers in Pipe Bands?

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Pipe bands seem to have settled on a ‘no more than 25 pipers’ rule in the past couple of seasons. Before that we had showmen P/Ms turning out with nearer 30. Now they realise the difficulties this means for unison and control. There was a time when the optimum size of a pipe band was considered to be 12 pipers, four side drummers, two tenors and a bass. Among the top bands…

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Lecture on Robert Reid/ US Blackwood Instrument ‘Passport’

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Perfect for whiling away part of a winter’s evening would be a trawl through the PP Audio Archive. Added today is our copy of the lecture on the life and times of P/M Robert Reid made for BBC radio in the early 1970s by Seumas MacNeill as part of his ‘Masters of Piping’ series. The delivery and musical illustrations are superb, the piping by Reid’s pupil, P/M RG Hardie. Robert Reid…

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PP Ed’s Blog: SWSPDA/ Letters/ SPA Entry Forms/ SPA and Judges

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Thanks to Andy McCartney for his kind comments the other day and also for the latest information on the activities of the South West Scotland Piping and Drumming Academy: Weekend workshop – Abernethy Trust, Ringford, near Kirkcudbright from Friday evening 17th February until around tea time on Sunday 19th. Pupils stay over for the two nights, but day pupils will also be very welcome, and this workshop is for both pipers…

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PP Ed’s Blog: Joe Rafferty, Darach & Helen/ RSPS/ W Storm/ Robert Turner

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George Barlow in the US has asked for information on P/M Joe Rafferty: ‘Could you please check this with your readership. At the annual competition at Inchdrewer House the Army School has a piobaireachd award named after Pipe Major Joe Rafferty whom I met in the 1980s when the Black Watch was on tour here. The P/Sgt. was Alex Brown whom I saw on YouTube doing a recruitment film for the…

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