I think it’s time again that you raise the old chestnut of the same tunes being played time after time in the MSR, especially in Grade 1, writes reader Ian Forbes. I almost lost count of the number of G1 bands playing Lord Alexander Kennedy [at the British Championships]. I applaud Scottish Power who played the lovely march 93rd Highlanders, and who got two firsts in piping.  Marvellous. Here are my…

Hugh MacCallum’s funeral will be at Falkirk Crematorium, Dorrator Road, Camelon, Falkirk FK2 7YJ on Thursday, June 6, at 1:45pm. Hugh died earlier this week after a long illness. Report here. The 2019 Northern Meeting will be held at Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, on August 30 and 31. Here are the benches and timekeepers: Gold Medal: Stuart Samson, Tom Speirs, William Wotherspoon. Timekeeper: A Fraser Silver Medal: Neill Mulvie, Stuart Shedden,…

The following judges have been announced for the piobaireachd competitions and the Former Winners’ MSR at the Argyllshire Gathering 2019.The Gathering is on August 21 & 22.

Following his article this week (read it here), I asked Yves Tison in Brittany to send over recordings of his drones fitted with elder reeds and one with ‘normal’ reeds. Yves writes: ‘The first recording is called mixed reeds and is recorded from my Alexander Glen 1847 set of pipes (Patrick Molard has a replica). Strangely the starting of drones has three steps before getting the right tone, not double tone, but…

By Gilbert Cromie I was unable to attend either of St Laurence O’Toole’s concert performances at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow in the week before the 2018 Worlds or recently in Northern Ireland at the Armagh City Hotel where they launched the CD of the 2018 event. While I had heard some excerpts from both concerts on social media I had decided that I would purchase the CD because…