We continue with our interview with P/M Alasdair Gillies from 1999. In it he talks of the infamous occasion when he was ordered from the stage by one of the adjudicators and a former Piping Convenor of the Northern Meeting, the highly respected Lt. Colonel DJS Murray….. ‘1991 will always be remembered. I was red carded from the Gold Medal. I had bet my old man I would be teetotal…
Lothian and Borders branch band, The City of Edinburgh, has announced the line-up for the 2016 Pipe Majors’ Wheel of Fortune competition. The band has sent this: ‘Brian Lamond, a former Pipe Major of Dysart and Dundonald and a member of the Victoria Police Pipe Band which won the World’s in 1998, will return to defend the title he won in 2015. From Dunfermline in Fife, Brian will be joined by…
We continue our ‘Famous Pipers’ column with the third part of our look back at the life and career of the late P/M Alasdair Gillies, renowned solo piper and last Pipe Major of the Queen’s Own Highlanders. What you will read is from an interview with the man himself for Piper Press magazine, the forerunner to Piping Press, in 1999. Alasdair has already talked of his annual obsession with the Northern Meeting….
Mentioning Duncan Campbell as one of the old school of Scottish bagpipe makers reminded me of a visit to Edinburgh a few weeks ago when I was able to call in to the Wm Sinclair workshop in Leith. In all my piping years I’d never been before and it was a pleasure to meet Alastair Sinclair, the present proprietor, a master craftsmen who is carrying on the fine tradition of…
Our main feature today is an article by Northern Ireland piper Kenny Stewart on the historic concert given by Bill Livingstone’s 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band in Ballymena, Ken’s home town, in 1987. Ken tells us of the origins of the show, how it was organised and how the band impressed so many people with their playing only a few days before they lifted the World Champion crown, the first…
Recent Comments