Chatting to Ian Duncan at the weekend he tells me in his understated way that the memorial trust for his brother Gordon has now donated more than £110,000 to help young pipers and other musicians with their lessons. Isn’t that worthy of the highest praise? A fitting tribute to Gordon too. He would have been both amazed and delighted. Though he died 16 years ago, Gordon’s spirit lives on –…
Pipe band ensemble, and the need for a single category of adjudicator, has been raised on a number of occasions over the years since the 1950s. Firstly, it is interesting that while AD Hamilton said in his mid-1950s article that it was ‘plain daft’ that no-one was appointed to adjudicate the band as a musical ensemble, it took another 15 years before the concept of an Ensemble adjudicator was introduced…
The Lochnell Estate lies low on a wooded spit of land jutting out into the Firth of Lorne. Sheltered on its eastern lee sits a castle, home of the Cochrane clan for 100 years and the Campbells for centuries before. For most of last Saturday its ancient walls resounded to the call of the bagpipe. There may have been some unkind things said about the sea-going Cochranes back in Admiral…
Some of the concerns over ensemble, drumming prizes, tempos and judges in tents, have of course been remedied over the years since the 1950s. Adjudicators of RSPBA pipe band competitions for many years have no longer been hidden in tents (although that has generated new concerns regarding whether they should be static or move around the competing bands; and whether they should be allowed to share tents and confer with…
I see that the RSPBA are holding elections for the jobs of Piping and Summer School Principals. This is a statutory procedure which will be carried out at the first Pipe Band College AGM in November. I understand John Nevans is standing again for the summer school job. In my view it would be remiss of the Association’s member bands and branches not to re-elect him. In John they have…
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