Category: Pipe Bands

What is Wrong with the RSPBA Pipe Band College?

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The RSPBA Pipe Band College must be the only one in the world which does not have standard teaching terms, and a recognised curriculum. It does run a successful summer school and conduct exams at various branches round the country, hardly sufficient for any ‘college’ worthy of the name. There are three Principals (excluding the Summer School Principal) instead of one – another first in world education. Yet still we have…

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Remembering P/M Hamilton Workman, HLI

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Wouldn’t it be interesting to go back in time to piping contests held in the late 1950s-60s and see all the legends of piping from that era? Think of the bigger than life names, such as John MacFayden, Donald MacPherson, John D Burgess, Donald MacLeod, and many others.  One name, maybe not as prominent, but certainly competitive, would have been Hamilton Workman. Hammie, as he was affectionately known to me…

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Editor’s Notebook: Scottish Pipers/ Piping on Radio/ Lochaber Anniversary/ Book Query

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The Scottish Pipers’ Association Professional contest is at the Piping Centre in McPhater Street, Glasgow, from 8.30 tomorrow morning and is sponsored by the Piobaireachd Society and the Competing Pipers’ Association. Admission is £5 at the door which, as President Logan Tannock says, would be a bargain at double that price. There are contests for all levels from C grade to Premier, light music and piobaireachd. This will be the…

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Kingdom Thistle Results/ Wheel of Fortune/ CLASP Chanters

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The Dundee, Perth and Angus Branch of the RSPBA ran their ‘Kingdom Thistle European Solo Piping Contest’ last Saturday in Fife. The competition attracted a large entry. The senior piping was split into two categories, piobaireachd and a combined MSR and Hornpipe & Jig. The RSPBA placing system was used to determine the outcome of the latter. Piobaireachd: 1 Dan Nevans, Shotts 2 John Dew, Inveraray 3 Iain Simpson, (formerly…

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Editor’s Notebook: PS Conference/ Watson’s Bursary/ SPA Entries/ Virginia Tattoo/ Band Entries

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one of the supplementary benefits of the Piobaireachd Society conference is the time afforded for informal chats. They were happening all over the place at the Golden Lion in Stirling last weekend. One was a follow on to Michael Grey’s talk on Bill Livingstone and the great tape recording scandal. There are phones recording everything now we pondered – in the piper’s sporran as he plays, and all over the…

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