Family of Tragic Eilidh Issue Heartfelt Thanks to Piping World

The family of 14-year-old Eilidh MacLeod who lost her life in the Manchester terrorist bomb outrage on May 22 have issued a statement thanking the piping and pipe band world for their messages of support and condolences at their loss. Eilidh, from Barra in the Outer Hebrides, was one of 22 people who died when a bomb was detonated at the Manchester Arena at the end of an Ariana Grande…

Inveraray are New Scottish Pipe Band Champions

Inveraray held on to the Scottish Pipe Band Champions crown for 2017 in a close fought contest at Levengrove Park, Dumbarton. Runners up were Field Marshal Montgomery with St Laurence O’Toole from Dublin third. SLoT also won the drumming. Best band on parade (Marching and Discipline): Buchan Peterson. Part of the Inveraray front rank is pictured above. 140 bands took part across all grades. Conditions were not cold but blustery…

Scottish Pipe Band Championships Underway

Blustery, damp conditions confronted the first bands on at today’s Scottish Pipe Band Championships at Levengrove Park, Dumbarton. The picturesque park juts out into the confluence of the rivers Clyde and Leven and as such can be very exposed in high winds. Today’s competition, the penultimate championship of the pipe band summer, is seen as an important pointer for the World Pipe Band Championships on August 11 and 12, though…

Tomorrow’s Scottish Pipe Band Championship at Dumbarton, Grade 2 Preview

Tomorrow sees the penultimate ‘major’ pipe band championship of the summer, the Scottish at Dumbarton. The weather forecast is for rain for much of the day and, given the exposed situation of Levengrove Park, bands should be prepared for wet and wind. That however will not blunt the pencil of our intrepid Special Correspondent……Some say he is an Adjudicators’ Panel reject; others claim he pipes for tourists in Glencoe; yet…

It is Time to Make a World Concert Pipe Band Championship a Reality

Why don’t we have a World Concert Pipe Band Championship? Here’s an outline: Each August the 12 finalists from the previous year’s Worlds come together at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre in Glasgow. Date is the Saturday after that year’s  Worlds proper. The bands have prepared a ten minute set of music. To their pipe and drum corps they can add a maximum of any five instruments from mainstream…