Category: History

PP Editor’s Blog (Updated): SPA KO & Dates/ Owen MacNiven/ Piob Soc/ WW1 Memorial

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Revised dates for Scottish Pipers’ Association contests are as follows: The Professional competition will now be held on April 16. The provisional date was April 23rd but for various reasons this was unsuitable.  The Adult Amateur and Veterans contest is on March 26 to allow some of those attending the Piobaireachd Society Conference from overseas to stay on for a week to compete. The Juvenile/ Amateur contest will be in September,…

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PP Editor’s Blog: Sandy Hain/ Donella Beaton/ SPA/ South Florida etc.

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It was a pleasure to talk to Sandy Hain the other day. Sandy is the composer of the popular jig Donald MacKillop, now better known, erroneously, as Duncan MacKillop. The eponymous Donald was from Wick and a piper in the Black Watch through WW2. Sandy was  Pipe Major at the regimental depot in Perth. Sandy ‘did the course’ with Willie Ross 1950 -51 along with Bob Crabb (Scots Guards), Peter…

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Famous Pipers: P/M Alasdair Gillies – ‘The Day I Was Ordered from the Northern Meeting Stage’

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We continue with our interview with P/M Alasdair Gillies from 1999. In it he talks of the infamous occasion when he was ordered from the stage by one of the adjudicators and a former Piping Convenor of the Northern Meeting, the highly respected Lt. Colonel DJS Murray….. ‘1991 will always be remembered. I was red carded from the Gold Medal. I had bet my old man I would be teetotal…

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A Look Back at 2015 with Editor Robert Wallace

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Yesterday we received the annual facts and figures from our web host and they made pleasant and satisfying reading. 400,000 visits from 156 countries in 12 months cannot be bad, and I would like to thank all of our readers and advertisers for their support. It is clear that you approve of a web magazine that educates, informs, criticises and entertains – and always with the highest journalistic standards. I know…

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Famous Pipers: P/M Alasdair Gillies In His Own Words – Part 3

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We continue our ‘Famous Pipers’ column with the third part of our look back at the life and career of the late P/M Alasdair Gillies, renowned solo piper and last Pipe Major of the Queen’s Own Highlanders. What you will read is from an interview with the man himself for Piper Press magazine, the forerunner to Piping Press, in 1999. Alasdair has already talked of his annual obsession with the Northern Meeting….

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