Scottish Schools Pipe Band Contest for 2022 Cancelled

The 2022 Scottish Schools Pipe Band Championships, a non-RSPBA event, have been cancelled due to the ongoing covid pandemic. The competition was due to be held in March next year, only two months before the first scheduled major pipe band championship, the British at Gourock. The RSPBA have listed the proposed majors for next year but their website warn: ‘Given the current COVID-19 restrictions, these events are of course subject…

Entries for Oban and Inverness Open/ Film Premier Reminder

The Argyllshire Gathering and Northern Meeting advise that entries for next year’s competitions can now be submitted online at each of their web sites. There had been a problem with the Gathering registration form but that has now been resolved. Here are the relevant links: Argyllshire Gathering  Northern Meeting  Entries for the open competitions (Gold and Silver Medals, March, Strathspey and Reel A and B) must be lodged according to the…

Editor’s Notebook: US Ship Launch/ Finlay MacRae/ PS Bursary/ Eddie’s New CD

Reader Michael Hubbard in the US: I thought to send this fairly dramatic photo from October 2021.  This is the Clan Macleay Pipe Band, Portland, Oregon, USA (in continuous existence since 1912).  We are playing at the launching of a barge at Greenbrier Marine.  As can be seen, we were in our typically rainy period, with pipers and drummers in Inverness capes. The Drum Major, Dan Kelley, decided to stand out…

Preview: ‘Jimmy, Memoirs of My Life as A Piper’ by Jimmy McIntosh MBE

                                             The much anticipated memoir of one of piping’s greats is published just in time for Christmas. ‘Jimmy, Memoirs of My Life as A Piper’ by James H. McIntosh MBE, tells the story of a long life completely dedicated to the service of piping both in Scotland and the…

Online Premier of Acclaimed Pipe Band Film to Go Ahead Next Weekend

I released a DVD some years ago (title above) about some beginner bagpipe players from around Europe coming together to enter the World Pipe Band Championship. It’s a great tale and the film received some acclaim at the time. I’ve now decided to make it available to everyone online. Following the maxim that ‘the best way of learning is doing’, piping tutor P/M Barry Donaldson enters a band of beginners…