New video posted today of Donald McBride, Kansas and Donegal, but formerly Patna (South Ayrshire), Prestonpans and Glasgow. Donald plays some ceol beag and then the piobaireachd The Sound of the Waves Against the Castle of Duntroon. Appropriately he is playing the tune on the foreshore north of Boston (the tide is audible in the background) during a quiet evening at the New England piping camp in 2013. It was a balmy…
All eyes tomorrow on the British Pipe Band Championships. If you are not already on Twitter then you may like to sign up and receive the RSPBA’s feed @RSPBAHQ. That way you will get the results as they are announced by Chief Executive Ian Embelton on the park. Failing that check out the RSPBA’s Results summaries from 6.30pm onwards. I will be reporting from the competition in these pages from…
Two days before the first pipe band championship of 2016 at Paisley, one of the world’s top bands, Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia, have announced a new sponsorship deal. Car firm Peoples Ford will sponsor the band for at least one year with an option for a further term. The sponsorship, announced by Peoples chairman Brian Gilda, continues a link with the band stretching back more than 30 years when it performed…
Following on from yesterday’s story on the new P/M RG Hardie Memorial Trophy, we have uncovered the above picture from the PP archives. It is of the Massed Bands at Pitlochry Highland Games and must be from the late 1960s. In those days bands formed up in two files, a Pipe Major leading one and a Pipe Sergeant the other. P/M Hardie is far left. To his right in the…
Congratulations to last weekend’s Grade 1 winners St Laurence O’Toole at Bangor, Northern Ireland, and Scottish Power at Banchory. It is good to see these big bands supporting the smaller contests and not just the major championships. At the latter the Power narrowly beat Fife Police on ensemble preference and at Bangor it was Field Marshal who were nudged into second on a third prize for their drummers. There has…
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