Category: Letters

Editor’s Notebook: Juvenile Band Fund/ Libya Pipe Band/ DR’s Wedding/ Highland Dress/ Dingwall Honour

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I was pleased to learn last week that the RSPBA are looking at upping the profile of their National Juvenile Pipe Band Fund. This fund was established in 2015 to help these bands pay for buses, tuition and other essentials that help youngsters get ‘on the grass’ for competition. The fund was inaugurated with a major contribution from Jimmy Stuart a piper in his time with Kilsyth, Camelon, Wallacestone and…

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P/M Iain Robertson 1976-2023: A Tribute

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It was with great sadness I heard of the passing of my friend Pipe Major Iain Mitchell Robertson. Iain died peacefully at his home in Palmerston North, New Zealand, on Saturday, 14th December, after a long battle with cancer. He was 46. Affectionally known as ‘Robbo’ by most, he was one of New Zealand’s top solo pipers, judges, teachers, and a long-time member and Pipe Major of the Grade 1 New…

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Responses and Conclusions in My Search for the Origin of My Historic Pipes

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A few readers got in touch after yesterday’s story on the pipes. Jim Robb: ‘Alan Bain maintained that his family’s ‘Avernish Pipes’ were made from hazel wood and had been bored with a red hot rod. They could still be played with a fairly modern chanter and were known in the family as ‘The Auld Sticks’. He said they had been made in Avernish, Kintail, and were about 200 years…

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Editor’s Notebook: ‘Pipeline’ Axed/ Copyright Appeal/ Highland Dress/ Andrew Wright/ Florida Academy

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So it seems the mainstream media has caught up with Piping Press and our story about the axing of key BBC Radio Scotland music shows including ‘Pipeline’. We even had one scribe claiming as an exclusive his report a full month after you read it here first. That’s how it goes and is not really important. What is is that we do all we can get the management at BBC…

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History: GS, Bob Nicol and the 1926 Northern Meeting

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The results below, and the photograph above, are of undoubted interest to all pipers. The photograph is of George S McLennan and Robert B Nicol, clearly at a Highland Games. Not surprisingly, the original photograph, almost 100 years old, has faded due to age and the bottom of it has been torn off. What you see is one considerably enhanced thanks to modern-day technology. I found the picture in the effects of…

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