Editor’s Notebook: Massed Bands/ SPA Date & Tune/ Lorient/ Weekend Games/ Book Success

The RSPBA is to trial a new method of forming massed bands. It is hoped to shave at least an hour of the process of getting all competing bands together for the announcement of the prizes. Various ideas have been tried before but nothing has really worked. Yesterday the Association announced the following: ‘To improve the presentation and reduce the time it takes to get all the massed bands onto the field…

Editor’s Notebook: Field Marshal/ Visiting Walter/ Neil Fraser/ Games Reminders/ Tutor Wanted

There was an anonymous comment on PP yesterday regarding Field Marshal Montgomery and their win at the Scottish Pipe Band Championships on Saturday. It questioned their success. It has been deleted. Will commentators please be aware that if they are going to be controversial, and nothing wrong with that, they really need to be accountable for what they say. The writer asked if I was at the Scottish and was…

150th Anniversary Gold Medal at Oban

As we approach August, the piping side of things for this year’s Argyllshire Gathering is in a pretty good place, writes Piping Steward John Campbell. Torquil Telfer deserves most of the plaudits on that score.  This year is a very special one for the Oban Gold Medal. Here is some information about it and a few photos. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Highland Society of London Gold Medal…

Editor’s Notebook: William Fraser & Bob Brown/ Desperate Battle Event/ Newtonards Contest/ Weekend Solos

I discovered this old picture in a rummage through the PP library. It is of one William Fraser the man who started Bob Brown on the chanter. Little did he know the favour he was doing piping. Brown went on to have further lessons from P/M George Allan [he of the Donald MacLeod hornpipe] and then John MacDonald, Inverness, and the rest you know, or should know. Jimmy McIntosh’s excellent…

P/M John McLellan DCM Exhibition

Dunoon Burgh Hall have issued the following invite – Date: Thurs., 31 July 2025; Time: 6 to 7pm; Dunoon Burgh Hall, 195 Argyll Street, PA23 7DD; Cost: free, but donations welcomed. ‘Join us for the opening of our latest small gallery exhibition to mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Pipe Major John McLellan 1875 – 1949.  ‘Pipe Major John McLellan DCM of Dunoon is also known as ‘John McLellan Dunoon’ and…