Jimmy Turns 90/ East Lothian School/Govan Piping

Firstly today, congratulations to Jimmy McIntosh on his 90th birthday. Jimmy is on his way to Scotland to celebrate with his family this side of the water. Before he left his home in North Carolina he recorded one of our great piobaireachd, the Lament for the Children. The playing is remarkable for one so young. It has been added to our audio archive launched yesterday. The above picture, from the…

PP Audio Archive/ National Mod/ Composing Competition/ Letters

Launched today is the new PP Audio Archive page which will carry  recordings of this and previous generations of pipers and pipe bands.  Our first recording is of the great Donald MacPherson recorded from the BBC in 1972. It has been supplied by his former pupil Donald McBride and we would ask other readers who have other suitable recordings to forward them to us at the usual address. This recording ties in…

Marathon Man Jack Completes Major Recording Project

Canadian piper Jack Lee (pictured above with Silver Medallist son Colin) has completed his recording of all the tunes in the Piobaireachd Society collection. The tunes are available for download from his company’s website. Jack, P/Sgt. of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, is a double Gold Medallist and winner of all the top solo awards as well as six World Championship titles with SFU. To let readers understand the magnitude…

Iain Dall MacKay Contest/ New Letters/ Govan Piping

Details have been announced for the 2015 Iain Dall MacKay contest to be held in Gairloch, Wester Ross, in September. The Iain Dall ‘Young Pipers’ Festival’ will be held in Gairloch Primary School on September 26th. The purpose of the festival is to encourage pipers aged under 18 to compete and enjoy their piping in a friendly and relaxing competition. There are eight classes: 1: March on practice chanter – primary…

The Army’s Ben Duncan Triumphs at Blair Games

The Army’s Ben Duncan picked up three first prizes at a cold and breezy Blair Atholl Games. Ben place first in the B Piobaireachd with the Lament for MacSwan of Roaig and first in the open MSR and H&J, thus continuing on the early season promise he showed at the Highlands & Islands Festival in Oban earlier in the month. A decent sized crowd were entertained by the band of the…