Some say his wellies are more chunter than Hunter, yet more that his temper is as frayed as his vintage Culloden kilt ….. and there are others who aver that he is AWOL from the Eccosse division of the French Foreign Legion. But does anyone care? All we know is his reports are what you are after and that he is the one and only MacStig…….  Having just about dried…

City of Edinburgh Pipe Band have issued the following press release: City of Edinburgh Pipe Band is pleased to announce a new leadership team of David Clunie and Simon Grant. The pair join the capital band from Denny and Dunipace Gleneagles. Pipe Major Clunie said: ‘Both Simon and I are delighted to be appointed Pipe Major and Leading Drummer respectively and are looking forward to the challenge ahead.  ‘Given the amount…

A hearty well done to Boghall and Bathgate for supporting the Princes Street Gardens contest last weekend but why on earth did they form up in a circle in front of the Ross Bandstand? With part of the band’s backs to the terraced audience it looked, from photographs I’ve seen, so last century. Goodness knows what the visitors must have thought. Would a brass band have shaped up that way?…

By Alistair Aitken OBE, former RSPBA adjudicator Saturday 15 June saw the second of the RSPBA Major Championships of 2019 (the UK Championships) which this year took place in Lurgan, Northern Ireland. Most readers of Piping Press presumably will know that the UK Pipe Band Championships replaced in 2014 the Championships previously held in Dunoon as part of the famous Cowal Highland Gathering. For the last four years the event has…

This is my second post on Piping Press with some observations and stats about the 2019 UK outdoor pipe band competition as the season progresses. By all reports the weather has not been particularly favourable to the bands at the majority of competitions so far this year. As with Brexit, the early experience of the outdoor season has also shown that ‘politics’ within the pipe band community as ever are never far…