Fifty years ago three giants of piping were locked in a negotiation that was to change the face of the music in this country. Captain John MacLellan (l), John MacFadyen (centre) and Seumas MacNeill, our own ‘Three Wise Men’, were about to convince the civil service bods at the Scottish Education Department that the national instrument, the great Highland bagpipe, should be a suitable instrument for the country’s music exams….

In looking for things to do to break the monotony of the latest lockdown restrictions in Scotland I came across copies of two articles relating to the teaching of pipe band drumming which were given to me a long time ago by Allan Chatto from Sydney in Australia.  The articles, written probably in the 1940s or 50s for the then Piping, Drumming and Highland Dancing Journal, were by two of…

The 2021 Uista & Barra Professional Solo Piping Competition has been cancelled, it was announced last night. The contest had been scheduled for the first Saturday in March but has becomne a victim of the ongoing pandemic. The Uist & Barra was the last live competition before the mass cancellation of piping events in 2020. In a statement U&B Piping Convenor John Angus Smith said: ‘The U&B Committee has decided that…

Planning is continuing at pace for the forthcoming ‘Kids with Cancer Charity Concert’ which will be held on Saturday 20th February 2021 from 7.00pm. Due to the pandemic the concert will take place online however every effort has been made to engage a quality line-up of artistes. This is a PAY PER VIEW ONLY event with the money raised going to the Children’s Cancer Unit Charity at the Royal Victoria Hospital,…

This touching story is from Andy McCartney of the South West Scotland Pipe & Drum Academy: ‘Just prior to the beginning of lockdown in 2020, William Marchant a 9-year-old pupil at Penpont Primary School, started chanter lessons with me. They were done via the internet to his home. ‘Both William’s dad and his grandfather are pipers, so it seemed natural that William would also want to play pipes. He was…