Silver Medal Tunes for 2018 Available for Download/ Grade 3a Band Looking for Leading Drummer

The Piping Press Shop now has a full set of recordings of tunes set by the by the Music Committee of the Piobaireachd Society (PS) for the 2018 Silver Medal competitions at Oban and Inverness. They are played in full on the practice chanter by Piping Press editor Robert Wallace more or less as published by the Society but with some differences as handed down in oral tradition. These differences are…

Appeal for More Information on P/M Willie Jack of the Dalziel Highland Pipe Band

Reader Kerry MacIver has written asking for information about her grandfather, P/M William Jack of the Dalziel Highland Pipe Band. Kerry writes: ‘I am wanting to find out more about my grandfather and I was wondering if you could help. His name was Willie Jack and he was Pipe Major of the Dalziel Highland Pipe Band. I believe it was based in either Motherwell or Wishaw. ‘He passed away in…

Dress at Oban and Inverness and the Standard of Play in B Grade Events

A last look at the piping at the 2017 Northern Meeting today. Before that a word about Oban and its dress code. Pipers at the Argyllshire Gathering are permitted to play without jackets. The rooms get hot at times and the laudable aim of the organisers is to make the competitors as comfortable as possible in the pressure cooker atmosphere of the small theatre at the Corran Halls and in…

Shotts Juniors/ Cancale/ Pitlochry/ Kiltwalk

Shotts and Dykehead Caledonia Pipe Band’s Junior Piping and Drumming Championship will be held on 18 November 2017 at Calderhead High School in Shotts. Entries are now open and close on 30 October, writes organiser Alison Gilmour. This is the fourth year the band has organised the competition in partnership with North Lanarkshire Council; an event that has grown year on year becoming an established winter solo competition for youngsters. The band…

Review of Bill Livingstone’s Book ‘Preposterous: Tales to Follow’

This book shows glimpses of delicious interactions, thought processes and history, writes our special correspondent MacStig. It should become a standard read for anyone interested in the piping art, pipe bands and humanity. It is all there, fame, failure, family, humour, heartache, and hard work. The long anticipated reminiscences of renowned piper, lawyer, husband and now author, Bill Livingstone soar immediately from the opening paragraphs of his book ‘Preposterous: Tales…