Some of you will be aware that our Canadian piping and drumming cousins are currently involved in a bit of a brouhaha. On the one side we have a disgruntled judge who believes he has been unfairly treated after alleged transgressions. On the other we have the governing body, Pipers and Pipe Band Society of Ontario, which believes that, in taking what it saw as the required disciplinary action, it…
The decision by the RSPBA to appoint a fund-raising officer is long overdue. Given the millions the Association brings into Scotland each year via the Worlds and feeder events such Piping Live and the Worlds Week concert, it has a strong ethical case for public funding. Given the work bands do in education and in preserving an important Scottish tradition, the new man should be able to tap into cultural…
Saturday, September 28th saw the annual Piper of the Year competition in the Adair Arms, Ballymena. There was a decent attendance to listen to the eleven invited pipers who competed in the afternoon in the Piobaireachd section and then in the evening’s MSR and Hornpipe and Jig. The pipers played in the following order: Andrew Pattison, James Frazer, John McElmurry, Alastair Donaghy, Andrew Nelson, Kris Coyle, James Stone, Marc Warnock, Scott…
Last Friday my old Boys Brigade Company, the 214th Glasgow, was honoured with a Civic Reception from the city to mark 100 years since the company’s founding. It was held in the City Chambers off George Square. Glasgow has deserved much of the recent criticism of its roads, litter, shop closures…but you cannot complain about the City Chambers. If you have never visited you must. There won’t be finer marble…
Dr Katherine Macaulay: ‘I recently read an article by you on ‘History of the Scottish Piping Society of London; The Post War Years’ written in 2016. In the article you mentioned Lewis Beaton Memorial Pipes … but, sadly, the actual pipes have disappeared somewhere along the timeline. Apparently they were actually Lewis Beaton’s silver mounted MacDougalls. Where are they now? ‘My father is Iain Macaulay, nephew to, and taught the pipes by,…
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