Category: History

Argyllshire Gathering 150th Anniversary Invitational and Games Contests Announced

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The Argyllshire Gathering are to mark their 150th Anniversary by holding a ‘live’ professional piping contest. The date is Wednesday, August 25th. The invited pipers are all from, or have strong family connections with, the county of Argyll. They are as follows: Jamie Forrester, Alasdair Henderson, Finlay Johnston, Stuart Liddell, Angus MacColl, William McCallum and Sarah Muir. The competition will take place in the Argyllshire Gathering Halls in Oban. The…

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Editor’s Notebook: Lack of Contests/ Piping Live!/ Dublin Poster/ Iain McLeod and Mod banner

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I am not surprised that bagmaker Jim Begg got almost universal support for his views on the dearth of contests this year. Piping Press has been banging on about this for some time too. It is rather late now to do anything for this summer but the performance of our promoters in keeping the national music alive over this difficult period has been poor, it must be said. Part of…

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Richard Reflects on His Four Decades of Success with Field Marshal Montgomery – Part 4

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Legendary pipe major Richard Parkes concludes this series of articles to mark 40 years of success with FMM, 40 years that has seen him capture an incredible array of trophies and awards both for the band and himself. Recognised by royalty and academia, Richard has, through his achievements, written himself into the history books. In this final section he answers a few more questions from our Editor Robert Wallace. Which…

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Richard Reflects on His Four Decades of Success with Field Marshal Montgomery – Part 3

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In this, the third part of this illuminating series, P/M Richard Parkes answers with honesty and candour some questions from our editor Robert Wallace. Richard talks of the first changes he made at FMM, his confidence in being able to do the job, and some of the mistakes he made along the way….. Before you took over FMM did you always fancy being P/M?I always had an ambition to be…

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Editor’s Notebook: World Solo Drumming/ Champion of Champions Medal/ Richard Parkes/ Piobaireachd by the Sea/ Oldest Piper Search/ North East Photographs

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Not surprised the RSPBA have cancelled the World Solo Drumming given that there will be no fly-in competitors, but could they not have put on something for the drummers in lieu? I really cannot understand the lack of activity from this great organisation. What about a Scottish drum championship or a UK drum championship or a British Isles drum championship? They could have used Headquarters in Washington Street and if…

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