Lance Corporal McCaskill had just finished his half hour performance and I turned to Jimmy Banks and Jimmy turned to me and Finlay Johnston turned to him and we all agreed what a joy it was to hear a live bagpipe. The occasion was this week’s Army Pipe Major’s Course Passing Out where we three were the panel. It was the first time in many months we had heard pipes…

Yesterday, April 1, was the 40th anniversary of the City of Port Moody Pipe Band under P/M Terry Lee becoming the ‘new’ Simon Fraser University Pipe Band in 1981, writes Rob MacNeil, SFU Band President. We asked Terry to share some brief thoughts and a picture on this significant anniversary that Piping Press readers may finding interesting. Terry writes: ‘It has been a great ride over the 40 years and…

Recently I posted on Piping Press drumming advice written during the 1940s and 50s by all-time greats Jimmy Catherwood and George Pryde. I have now taken a look through other papers collected over the years of my involvement with the RSPBA, particularly as a member of the Association’s former Historical Research Group.  Other prominent legendary pipe band drumming pioneers of the early 20th century included Paddy Donovan, Alex McCormick, Gordon…

How good it feels to have something positive to report! The news that Piping Live! 2021 is to go ahead will be welcomed by everyone keen on clawing back some of the lost ground piping has suffered in the past year. Finlay MacDonald and his NPC team are leading the way in getting us back to where we once belonged. So as the blurb says: Save the Date! The festival…

Peter R MacLeod was one of the finest ever composers of music for the great Highland bagpipe. Much has been written about him but this article contains some new information direct from his grandson Kenneth, son of Dora MacLeod of the eponymous tune. Kenneth is known to the writer through a mutual friend on the island of Mull. Roderick Peter MacLeod, son of Hector MacLeod and Mary MacLeod (MacRitchie) was…