Former RSPBA Adjudicator Alistair Aitken concludes his review, from an ensemble perspective, of the Grade 1 Medley performances at the 2018 World Pipe Band Championships held last Saturday on Glasgow Green. The Medley competition provided the bands with much more freedom to demonstrate the musical capabilities of the pipe band. Performances these days can be very innovative and exciting. It is sometimes unfortunate that some of the bands tend to favour technical proficiency…

‘A’ Grade light music champion Gordon McCready is pictured above. ‘A’ Piob 1 Alistair Lee 2 Stuart Easton 3 James MacHattie 4 Cameron MacDougall 5 Derek Midgley ‘A’ March 1 Gordon McCready 2 Alistair Lee 3 Ben McClamrock 4 Steven Gray 5 Andrew Lee ‘A’ S&R 1 G McCready 2 S Gray 3 Alistair Lee 4 B McClamrock 5 Andrew Lee ‘B’ Piob 1 Finlay Cameron 2 Zephan Knichel 3…

Two days of quality piping in Oban, and here are some pictures which we hope will be enjoyed by those who attended and those who couldn’t make it. The picture above is of the Gathering’s own 2018 chuckle brothers, Silver Medallist Darach Urquhart and Gold Medallist Stuart Easton. Their pipes are adorned with the winners’ banners supplied by MacDonald Bag Covers. The banners are retained by the pipers. The gallery:…

Oh the tears, the happiness…..there was the new Gold Medallist Stuart Easton crying his eyes out, consoled, (consoled!) by his Kiwi colleagues. Stuart had just phoned home to tell his wife that all that travel and expense had been worth it. He was a Gold Medallist.  Mid sob Stuart was able to blurt out a few words: ‘I’ve worked so hard for this’ sniff, ‘I can’t believe it’, sniff, ‘it’s…