Category: Features

Full Weekend Pipe Band Results from Gourock, Dunbar and Banchory

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Congratulations to all bands who supported last weekend’s pipe band contests at Banchory, Dunbar and Gourock. Inveraray won in Grade 1 at Gourock (May 14) with Boghall second and first in drumming. P/M Ross Harvey and L/D Kerr McQuillan of Boghall are pictured above. Gourock G1: 1 Inveraray 2 Boghall 3 Shotts 4 Police Scotland; Drumming: BoghallG2: 1 Uddingston 2 Oban 3 Lower Clyde 4 Turriff; Drumming: UddingstonG3: 1 Milngavie…

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Editor’s Notebook: Willie Ross and Robert Reid/ Book Plea/ Gordon’s Tune/ Clan MacRae and Glasgow Skye

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I am sure P/M Willie Ross did seminal service to piping when he streamlined the playing and writing of our ceòl beag technique. Gone were the doublings on C with the two D gracenotes, the open style of taorluath writing, the heavy D throw, the gracenoted birl. His six books also provided a catalogue of standard settings of many of the classic competition tunes in versions that everyone agreed were…

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End of Year Recitals for Piping Students/ Black Watch Tune Search

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Students on the Royal Conservatoire / National Piping Centre Traditional Music degree course take to the stage for their end-of-year recitals on 1st and 2nd June, writes John Mulhearn. These public recitals are a major component of the course assessment and are part of the wider RCS Traditional Music Recital Festival. Commencing on Tuesday 30th May, the festival takes place at Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts and is free to attend.  Piping…

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Were Wallacestone Pipe Band the First World Champions 120 Years Ago?

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We have received this intriguing information from expert piping historian and author Jeannie Campbell: ‘In 1903 a contest was held in the Waverley Market, Edinburgh. ‘Thirteen bands took part and the contest was reported in the papers as the World’s First Pipe Band Championship. The winners were Wallacestone and their opening march was Bonnie Anne.’ The band is pictured above with the handsome trophy with all the personnel clearly named….

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William Grant Foundation Leads the Way in Supporting Piping and Pipe Bands

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There can be few companies around that have done more to support piping than William Grant, the independent whisky distillers, writes the Editor. True to the wishes of their founding philanthropist Sandy Grant Gordon, the company continues to pour money into our art, these days through its charity wing, the William Grant Foundation. It states: ‘William Grant & Sons has always taken a long-term view to support its people, its…

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