Category: Letters

Our Juggernaut Pipe Bands – Are They a Good Thing?

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The two hot topics of the pipe band winter have been the major championships and band sizes. The first is now settled with a final announcement on the forth and fifth majors expected from the RSPBA on Monday. The second continues, with PP readers to the fore as witnessed yesterday in the letter from David Cross, Northern Ireland. In response….. Eric McGaw: I agree with some things that David has…

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Editor’s Notebook: Pipe Band Championships/ AKQ Draw Update/ Tune Search/ Northern Meeting/ Metro Cup

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‘Missing Majors’ no more. My information is that we will have a full complement of pipe band championships for the 2024 season. Final contract details will be concluded next week. Already confirmed are the Worlds, Glasgow Green, August 16/17, Scottish, Dumbarton, July 27, Europeans, Perth, August 11. I can’t say more about the British or the UKs, but the ink is almost dry. They will be in May and June….

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RSPBA Chairman Confirms Major Championships

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As reported in Piping Press two days ago, the RSPBA have announced significant progress in securing the ‘missing’ three major pipe band championships for the 2024 season. In a letter headlined ‘Update on 2024 Major Championships‘ and sent to bands last night, Chairman Kevin Reilly writes: ‘Dear Bands, Over the last 12 months we have reached out to over 100 contacts that included councils, private entities and individuals with regards…

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£500 for Winner of NZ Piobaireachd Composing Competition

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As Piping Press readers may know, Comunn na Piobaireachd (CNP) NZ is running a competition for the composition of ceòl mòr. Entries are open from anywhere in the world. We want to put out one more round of publicity before entries close on February 29th. The full title of the competition is the Sir Ian and Neville McKay Piobaireachd Composing Competition. Ian (top) and his brother Neville are pictured in the poster…

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Editor’s Notebook: Piping Reports/ Pipers Persuasion/ Talk Piobaireachd/ Florida School/ Military Music

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Don’t you like reading about the piping heroes of the past? I certainly do. Yet as I wrote this week, media reports on our solo and band competitions are practically extinct, a dying art. Sure, you can search online and you’ll find the ‘results-and-everything-was-great’ type of article from, say, the Glenfiddich Championship, but no real opinion-based comment journalism. We used to have a piping correspondent for the Oban Times, the…

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