By Drum Major Thomas Lorenzen The Swiss Pipe Band Meeting which includes the Swiss Pipe Band Championships and the Swiss Solo Piping & Drumming Championships will be take place on the weekend of 30th August – 1st September 2019 in Abtwil, St. Gallen, Switzerland. All events will be organized by the Appowila Highland Games Club on their festival site.                      The Appowilla Highland Games are so kind to organize again the Swiss Pipe…

By Robert Wallace Whilst editor of the Piping Times I ran a very interesting story concerning the tragic tale of John Archie MacAskill. John Archie, a former piper with the City of Glasgow Police Pipe Band and a Gaelic poet and bard, hailed from the island of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides. Born in 1894, he left his native island aged 16 to join the Cameron Highlanders. Lying about his…

Despite all the work they do for our pipe bands the RSPBA still gets heaps of stick from certain quarters of the disgruntled doghouse of dodgy debaters. One trollologist recently whined on about how the Association has £1m in the bank and that all the money would go to waste, the bands losing out whilst Messrs Embelton, Hughes et al, all Hawaiian shirts and shorts, headed for the executive lounge…

The draw for this year’s World Pipe Band Championships took place at the RSPBA’s temporary HQ in Washington Street, Glasgow, today. The competition, the last major championship of the season, takes place at Glasgow Green on August 16 and 17. Bands in Grade 1 on the Friday will compete as follows: Friday – Grade 1 Final MSR10:30 Simon Fraser University10:40 Lomond and Clyde 10:50 Police Scotland Fife11:00 Inveraray and District11:10 78th…

Well known piper Calum MacCrimmon has just completed publication of a new book of tunes he has compiled with his father Iain. Calum writes: ‘A MacCrimmon Collection’ is a book of traditional and contemporary pipe tunes brought together by father and son, Iain and Calum MacCrimmon. The book focuses largely on light music repertoire, although it does contain one pibroch which is Iain’s first ceòl mòr composition, written in salute…