Category: History

Editor’s Notebook: North Lanarkshire Schools PB/ Jet Travel/ Uist & Barra/ Braemar/ PS Conference

Posted on      by      1 Comment

Speaking to Ross Cowan regarding the recent expansion of teaching in North Lanarkshire, he tells me he has 120 kids on practice chanter and 12 moving on to pipes this year. Who says there’s no interest out there? Other Scottish local authorities cutting back on their schools music tuition should look to this Motherwell-based council for the way forward. Says Ross:  ‘The band will be depleted this year as a…

More Editor’s Notebook: North Lanarkshire Schools PB/ Jet Travel/ Uist & Barra/ Braemar/ PS Conference

History: Solo Piping in 1985 and the Day the Gold Medal was Paused for Communion

Posted on      by      Leave a comment

The following is taken from the Oban Times piping column written by Alfred Morrison in late August 1985. He begins in characteristically trenchant fashion with a comment on the Silver Chanter: On Wednesday evening this piping recital was held in Dunvegan Castle. This event in piping used to be a competition for pipers who had already won the Gold Medal at Oban or Inverness, but this year it was demoted…

More History: Solo Piping in 1985 and the Day the Gold Medal was Paused for Communion

Editor’s Notebook: JAX School/ North Lanarkshire Job/ Donald, Willie/ Letters/ USPF

Posted on      by      Leave a comment

We had 40+ students at this year’s Florida Pipes & Drums Academy in Jacksonville. The intake represents a good bounce back after covid. We introduced a new grading system for the pupils this year. It placed them on an attainment ladder which we hope will encourage them to advance upwards. June, one of our students and herself a teacher, said she was impressed with the care and concern the tutors…

More Editor’s Notebook: JAX School/ North Lanarkshire Job/ Donald, Willie/ Letters/ USPF

More on the Australian Ladies’ Visit to Scotland

Posted on      by      1 Comment

Reading Duncan Watson’s article on the Australian Ladies’ visit reminded me that I had a couple of very old cuttings about them from the Campbeltown Courier. There’s information that intimates their visit, followed by a fairly comprehensive report on it. I have copied the reporter’s scripts to the letter for authenticity, though some wording is a bit quaint. By Iain Duncan The first cutting from the Courier, dated October 9, 1926,…

More More on the Australian Ladies’ Visit to Scotland

EUSPBA’s New President Speaks to Piping Press

Posted on      by      1 Comment

At 56 Bill Caudill is the recently-appointed President of the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association. By geographical area, and perhaps numbers, it is the largest piping association in the world. This week he has been instructing at the Florida Pipe and Drum Academy in Jacksonville and our editor took the opportunity of interviewing him about his new role. Membership?: ‘We have in excess of 700 solo members and more…

More EUSPBA’s New President Speaks to Piping Press