Queen Victoria School Seeks New Pipe Major/ Canadian Piping Society Launches Newsletter

The Ministry of Defence are seeking ‘to appoint a Pipe Major who strives to continuously improve the high standards of piping at Queen Victoria School, Dunblane, including ensuring that piping students have opportunities to gain formal (SQA) qualifications in the subject. ‘The Pipe Major will also take an active role in the promotion of Queen Victoria School through regular attendance, along with the whole pipe band and, potentially, the Highland…

Why There Can Be Anomalies in Pipe Band Competition Results

We continue our build up to the the 2022 pipe band season, the first in three years. This article was first published in Pipe Band Magazine ‘Judge’s Journal’ in November 2010 but is no less relevant twelve years on……. I feel I must respond on behalf of the RSPBA Adjudicators’ Panel to the email letter regarding the wide differences in the results of piping adjudicators in which the question was…

Why There Can Be Anomalies in Pipe Band Competition Results – Part 2

The circle formation for pipe band competitions has remained constant since the early days of the original SPBA.  The concept was based on the principle of the arena allowing bands space to enter and leave whilst also allowing spectators maximum opportunity to see and hear the performances, in effect from three sides of a roughly square arena.  The other principle was to allow bands to march into a circle to…

Editor’s Notebook: Florida Academy/ Ukraine Piper/ Helensburgh Band Recruiting/ Tomintoul Losses/ March for Norman/ SPA AGM

The 2022 Florida Pipe & Drum Academy has concluded successfully with noticeable improvements in performance and knowledge. The school was the first since the ending of lockdown and, in 2019, the last before the pandemic hit. We only lost one year. Organiser Chris McKeown has expansion plans for next year. We finished with a visit to the North Florida games where many of the students competed with success in the…

Northern Ireland Pipe Bands Gearing Up for Post Covid Comeback

The pipe band scene in Northern Ireland is making strides to get going again with bands resuming practices and plans being put in place by the RSPBA NI Branch for the season ahead. The RSPBA NI Branch Meeting took place on Saturday 29th January 2022 via Zoom and a draft contest programme was tabled. At the time only the Mid Ulster (Cookstown) and the Ulster (Ballymena) competitions were confirmed however…