A big day of solo piping sees the Scottish Pipers’ Society Knock Out First Round today and also the Highlands & Islands Festival Piping in Oban. The first leg of the SPA KO contest for the Piping Times Trophy is in the National Piping Centre, Otago Street. Contestants are Stuart Liddell, the holder, and Gordon McCready.    Entry is £10, 7 for 7.30pm and there is a bar and a raffle…

Allistair’s funeral will be held at Charlotte Chapel, Shandwick Place, Edinburgh on Wednesday, May 8 at 12 noon. The intimation in the Edinburgh Evening News newspaper reads: ‘Sinclair, Allistair, Wm. peacefully at St Columba’s Hospice on April 28, 2019. ‘Beloved husband of the late Carol and father of Ewan, brother of Ian and Kenneth and uncle of the family. ‘Service Charlotte Chapel, Shandwick Place, Edinburgh, on Wednesday May 8 at…

The New Yorker magazine has published an article under the heading ‘William Barr’s Secret Passion: The Bagpipes’ with a sub heading ‘Dept. of Hot Air’. The magazine states mischeviously: ‘The Attorney General’s role in the City of Washington Pipe Band, which included Secret Service and FBI agents, may be the best evidence we have of a ‘deep state’. It reads……’This magazine has located five individuals who attest that Barr, who…

This week marked the founding of the Northern Ireland Branch of the RSPBA 70 years ago. Happy birthday! What a journey it has been. On Saturday 30th April 1949 a meeting took place in Belfast which legendary Northern Ireland pipe band administrator Eddie McVeigh regularly referred to as ‘the best day’s business ever done for piping and drumming in Northern Ireland’. The previous evening three Scottish Pipe Band Association officials, William McLean (President), RC Whitelaw…

Drumming legend Alex Connell’s funeral is on Tuesday the 7th of May at 9.45am at Daldowie Crematorium, Glasgow. There is sure to be a large representation from throughout the pipe band community, his ex-Glasgow Police colleagues and his former BB Company the 214 Glasgow. Click here for a map and directions to Daldowie Crematorium. Click here to read Ian McLellan’s moving Piping Press tribute to his former leading drummer. Pleasing that the RSPBA have…