PP Ed’s Blog: World Drumming/ Gus MacLennan/ Nick pic/Q’land Contest/ Letters

One has to be careful about treading in areas where one’s knowledge is limited, but did anyone else notice that of the top six solo pipe band drummers from Saturday’s World Solos not one is Scottish? Is this something we should be concerned about? I don’t know about other grades, but in the Adult Final we had: 1 Steven McWhirter (Northern Ireland), 2 Michael McKenna (Ireland) 3 Jake Jørgensen (Denmark)…

PP Ed’s Blog: St Thomas Job/ World Drumming/ Patrick Molard/ Angus Nicol/ George’s Pipes

The newspapers here are reporting: ‘The Outer Hebrides is the happiest part of the UK, according to the latest wellbeing analysis released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). ‘The data reveals people living on the islands off the west coast of Scotland and in certain districts of Northern Ireland ranked their happiness higher than any other part of the country, while people in London reported having the most anxiety. The findings – taken from…

PP Ed’s Blog: Charity Figures/ Ross’s Baby/ Duncan MacDougall/ London Reminder

The Office of Scottish Charities Register (OSCR) has made the following account details concerning the College of Piping, the National Piping Centre and the Piping Live festival available to the public.   The College of Piping show an income of £544,896 and outgoings of £609,356 – a deficit of £64,460 – in their latest figures posted on 29th January this year. The National Piping Centre show an income of £2,157,165…

PP Editor’s Blog: Grampian Placings/ Roddy Ross/ BB Letter/ Piobaireachd Analysis

Patricia Grant has sent the final placings in the John Milne Fine Arts Grampian Games Association Piping League 2016. Well done to all those pipers, junior and senior, who supported these important north-east games. Patricia writes: ‘It is encouraging to see that there are new names appearing on the League placings and hopefully the efforts of the Grampian Games Association to promote all aspects of Highland games is paying off.  I know that…

PP Editor’s Blog: Silver Chanter/ Letters/ Comments/ Games/ Nicol-Brown/ Bill Blacklaw

Congratulations to Iain MacFadyen on completing 50 years attendance at the Silver Chanter competition held this week at Dunvegan Castle, Skye. Iain’s family has had a long association with the competition and with the island. His brother John, who had a home there, was one of the Chanters’ co-founders back in the late 60s. The family connection with the Misty Isle continues with Cameron MacFadyen, Iain’s nephew, taking over from…