PP Editor’s Blog: Schools Funding/ New Letters/ Donald McKillop

The annual 214 Glasgow Co. BB Reunion is on March 4.) Three new letters added today on Willie Ross, Norrie Gillies and old pipes in North America. Read them here. If anyone is any doubt about the amazing work being done by the Scottish Schools Pipe & Drum Trust have a look at their website to see the amount of cash that is being invested in young pipers and drummers….

Uist & Barra Professional Competition Information Released

Details have been announced about the Uist & Barra  Professional contest to be held on March 5.  Invited pipers are as follows: Callum Beaumont, Glenn Brown, William Geddes, William McCallum, Niall Stewart, Gordon Walker, Angus MacColl, Gordon McCready, Finlay Johnston, Roderick Macleod, Stuart Liddell, Cameron Drummond, Faye Henderson, Alasdair Henderson, Iain Speirs. Judges for all three events (ceol mor, MSR, H&J): Ian Duncan, Stuart Shedden and Andrew Wright. Admission £12….

History: Walter Drysdale and James Honeyman’s Lord Alexander Kennedy

Following on from yesterday’s ‘Choice Tune’, Lord Alexander Kennedy, and a letter from Walter Drysdale, we have his obituary and additional information about the tune’s composer, James Honeyman, and its subject.  The picture above is of the 42nd Regiment (The Black Watch) in 1852, while stationed at the Citadel in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Lord Alexander Kennedy was an officer in the regiment and James Honeyman a piper. It is likely Honeyman,…

Choice Tune: Lord Alexander Kennedy by James Honeyman

Our focus today is on the 2/4 pipe march Lord Alexander Kennedy. Now more popular with bands than soloists, it is nevertheless a classic of the genre. ‘Lord Alex’ lends itself to innovation and re-write, and many versions of the tune have appeared and been performed over the years. What I’m presenting today, however, is a copy of the original tune as written by the composer, James Honeyman, and passed…

New Footage Added to PP Video Archive etc.

We complete our feature on the life and times of the late P/M Alasdair Gillies with footage from his funeral held in Ullapool in 2011. Alasdair was laid to rest with many of the world’s top pipers in attendance and one, P/M Niall Matheson, played the Queen’s Own Highlander’s regimental piobaireachd  ‘Cabar Feidh gu Brath’ at the graveside. Read the earlier features on Alasdair’s life and times here. Listen to his…