The annual competition run by the Scottish Piping Society of London takes place a week on Saturday in the Kensington Conference Centre. Since the early 1930s it has been one of the highlights of the solo calendar. Today we begin a look back at the history of this illustrious Society and its early beginnings tracing the origins of its famous competitions for the Bratach Gorm and the Gillies Cup. The…
Yesterday’s mention of the brilliant playing of P/M Iain Morrison, Lewis, brought to mind this famous picture of all the Gold Medallists of the Queen’s Own Highlanders attending the 1970 Northern Meeting. It features Iain standing top right. I am not sure if everyone is au fait with the individuals and their tunes, and to the modern generation these gentlemen will probably seem as mysterious as the early MacCrimmons. So, history…
By Barry Donaldson Following last week’s letter from Alex Gandy from Halifax, Nova Scotia, regarding comments on his tune selection for the Former Winner MSR event at this year’s Northern Meeting, I thought, as was one of the judges involved in the selection of the competitors’ tunes, I might be able to add something to the debate. The following are my considerations on this matter, however they are mine alone…
One has to be careful about treading in areas where one’s knowledge is limited, but did anyone else notice that of the top six solo pipe band drummers from Saturday’s World Solos not one is Scottish? Is this something we should be concerned about? I don’t know about other grades, but in the Adult Final we had: 1 Steven McWhirter (Northern Ireland), 2 Michael McKenna (Ireland) 3 Jake Jørgensen (Denmark)…
Top professional piper Alex Gandy from Halifax, Nova Scotia, has written regarding a recent blog post by the Editor concerning the selection of tunes for Former Winners’ MSR contests….. Alex wrote: I wanted to get a little clarity on what maybe the judges are looking for with regard to tune selection, as it appears you weren’t 100% enthused with Mrs. MacDonald of Dunach. I’ve played the same marches two years…
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