PP Editor’s Blog: Weekend Contests/ Lorient/ Breton CD/ Piobaireachd Letter

Shotts band contest today and Markinch tomorrow. Weather forecast good for both. Results for the first on the RSPBA website and the second here as soon as we get them. Tom Johnstone, Scottish Organiser for the Lorient Festival, has sent these details about this year piping events: Pipers representing Scotland: Callum Moffat, David Shedden and Fred Morrison. Scottish Judges: Andrew Frater and Bruce Hitchings The MacCrimmon Trophy, for which contestants play music from…

PP Academy: Bands, Your Dress & Deportment is Important

The following article appeared in Pipe Band Magazine in 2000. It is by Highland Dress expert Bill Blacklaw formerly of the Gordon Highlanders. Much of Mr Blacklaw’s advice is still relevant today. The picture above shows P/M Alan Bevan and the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band from Canada with a front line from a few years ago. Notice the correct length of kilt, polished brogues (properly tied) and the glengarries…

PP Editor’s Blog: Bob Worrall Recital/ Tutor 3/ Albert Duncan/ Pipe Bags/ Highland Games League

Videos and audio files to accompany Bagpipe Tutor 3 – Piobaireachd are now live and can be accessed here. If you would like to learn piobaireachd (pronounced ‘pee-broch’ with the ‘och’ as in loch) then you can buy the book here: I was sorry to hear of the passing of Albert Duncan a friend and teaching colleague on many occasions out in Western Canada. Always smiling and willing to help,…

Piping in Breeks/ Donald Video/ Australia Results

New video posted today of Donald McBride, Kansas and Donegal, but formerly Patna (South Ayrshire), Prestonpans and Glasgow. Donald plays some ceol beag and then the piobaireachd The Sound of the Waves Against the Castle of Duntroon. Appropriately he is playing the tune on the foreshore north of Boston (the tide is audible in the background) during a quiet evening at the New England piping camp in 2013. It was a balmy…

Everything All Set for First Major Pipe Band Championship of 2016

One week from now 147 bands will converge on St James Playing Fields, Paisley, for the British Pipe Band Championships, the first major competition of the season. All of the organisational detail and logistics for an event which will host upwards of 5,000 bands people has been completed to the satisfaction of the RSPBA. Site work begins on Monday with fencing and vehicle tracking being laid. All band buses will…