Category: Pipe Bands

Editor’s Notebook: Lochaber/ Bessie MacKinnon/ Henderson Pipes/ SPA Professional

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Occasionally we must extract a negative from what was clearly a happy, successful event. I refer to the Lochaber Junior Piping competition held last Saturday in Fort William. Yet again we saw very few pipers or drummers from the local schools coming forward to take part. Why is this? There is a full time piping tutor in Lochaber (for the past 20 years anyway) and I believe he/she has a…

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Jimmy McIntosh Scholarship / Concert for Eilidh’s Trust

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The members of the Jimmy McIntosh Piobaireachd Scholarship Committee are pleased to announce that, in this inaugural year, we have selected two deserving recipients for 2022 Abby Long of Houston, Texas, and Emmitt LaBelle of Morganton, North Carolina, pictured above, were selected from a number of applicants. All of the pipers who applied demonstrated a great deal of promise, and the committee’s decision was difficult. We are confident that Abby…

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Lochaber Piping Society Junior Results

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I attach a copy of results from Saturday’s competition. Judging by the feedback, the competitors were absolutely delighted to get back into a proper ‘in-person’ event and all indicated that they thoroughly enjoyed their day. We had 43 entrants who, with multiple classes, played in 128 performances. The piping adjudicators (Euan Dewar, Craig Muirhead, Connor Sinclair and John Dew) all commented on the high standards of playing – possibly the…

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History: RG Lawrie Limited, Master Pipemakers Whose Instruments Are Much Sought After

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We have recently run history articles mentioning the famous Peter Henderson pipemaking firm. Equally renowned are the instruments of their rivals, RG Lawrie. Before he passed away Jimmy McIntosh forwarded to our editor the following article. In an accompanying note Jimmy wrote, ‘I had lunch one day in Stirling with Arthur Lawrie and he gave me this history of the RG Lawrie company. I think it is very interesting and…

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History: Iconic Bagpipemaker Peter Henderson’s Catalogue from the 1930s Part 2

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We continue with our look at the Peter Henderson catalogue from the 1930s. It has a full page on how to make your own bag seasoning. In these days everyone played either sheepskin or hide bags. There were few proprietory brands of seasoning. Of those that did exist, Robertson’s ‘Airtight’ was the market leader. The recipe for this mixture was bought by John Weatherston of RG Hardie & Co in…

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