By Helen Urquhart The National Piping Centre and William Grant Foundation are delighted to announce that the Glenfiddich Piping Championship for 2020 will go ahead on Saturday 31st October 2020 as originally scheduled. The event itself will be behind closed doors, with the public invited to join through a pay-per-view online stream on the day.  The qualifying pipers for this year will be announced closer to the event date. A…

We had a great response to our second remote CLASP Competition since lock down. The ‘live’ audio recordings were gathered by CLASP stewards on Saturday and the judges spent Sunday judging and writing up digital crit sheets for the competitors. The next remote CLASP competition will take place on Saturday 8th August and replaces the annual ‘World Solo Amateur Piping Competition’ at Piping Live! Pictured below are Stuart Robinson, Grade…

US painter Emily MacArthur has submitted this fine portrait for our Lockdown Challenege competition. It will now be forwarded to the judge Robert Mathieson for consideration along with the other entrants. There is still time to submit an artwork. Use the usual email address. The painting is of Donald Legge, formerly a piper and dancer in the Black Watch (1970s). It is acrylic on canvas 48″ x 30″ and was…

Last week RSPBA Chairman John Hughes issued a spirited rallying call to all pipe bands now inactive for the rest of 2020 thanks to the coronavirus epidemic of April and May. Today Chief Executive Ian Embelton re-affirms the Association’s commitment to the 2021 season and talks of the financial security which underpins that commitment. There is nothing we can do right now except sit tight and wait for the Scottish…

A couple of weeks ago we ran a humourous Pipe Band Magazine article in which a pipe major wrote about the trials, tribulations and toil of running a Grade Four band. Today we have an equally humourous response from those pre-mobile phone days. Forty years on the writer’s concluding sentiments still ring very true for all devotees as we endure the worst period in the history of the pipe band…