Eighty years ago this year pipe band drumming started its great leap forward. The man behind it was an Irishman by the name of Paddy Donovan. In this article Allan Chatto charts the life and times of a man whose influence on the drum corps is still felt today……… At the Cowal Games, Dunoon, Scotland, August 1939, the massed bands stood waiting for the announcement of the results of the…

If it is true that only five pipers played in the Silver Medal qualifier held in British Columbia last weekend it does not necessarily follow that the winner does not deserve his place in the 2020 SM competition. A good tune is a good tune wherever it is delivered. However, poorly attended qualifiers such as that in western Canada will throw up a perception of unfairness among the majority of…

Alan Bevan won the Open Piping aggregate and Jack Lee captured the MacCrimmon Memorial Cairn for Open Piobaireachd at the 2019 BCPA Annual Gathering on April 19 & 20 at North Delta Secondary School, Delta, BC, writes BCPA President Robert MacNeil. With his win, Jack has won the Cairn 14 times across five decades. Grant Maxwell won the Open Snare Drumming aggregate. In Grade 1, Tori Killoran won the Piping…

On Saturday last (April 20th) the Lisnagarvey High School was the setting for both the 2019 Ulster Solo Piping and Drumming Championships and the RSPBA NI Branch World Adult Solo Drumming (WSD) qualifier. There was an entry of sixty four pipers, thirty eight side drummers and twenty one tenor drummers with very few drop outs. The adjudicators were Piping: Robert Barnes, Mark Faloon, Rachel Moloney, Harry Stevenson, and Richard Parkes…

Zephan Knichel of Surrey, BC, won the Competing Pipers Association B Grade Piobaireachd event at the British Columbia Pipers’ Association Annual Gathering on April 19, 2019, writes BCPA President Robert MacNeill. With the win Zephan qualifies for the Silver Medal at the 2020 Argyllshire Gathering and 2020 Northern Meeting. Brad Davidson of Waterloo, Ontario, captured the CPA C Grade piobaireachd event. Full results were:CPA B Grade Piobaireachd Silver Medal Qualifier1….