Severe Weather Forces American Pipe Band Championships Indoors

Please find attached the results for the American Pipe Band Championships, held yesterday in Norfolk, Virginia, writes Andrew Carlisle. We unfortunately had to hold the event indoors, inside Scope Arena due to unsafe weather conditions – very high winds, so strong that bike rack / barriers and metal bleachers (seating) were blowing over and tents were taking flight. Later in the day, around the time of the massed bands and results,…

Jock Elliot 1974 – 2023

It is with sincere regret we report the death of Jock Elliot proprietor of the well-known chanter and reed manufacturer G1. Jock was 47 and had been a member of Inveraray Pipe Band during their Worlds winning years. Jock began his pipe band career with Balingry School in Fife where he was taught by Bob Shepherd. From there he played with Dysart & Dundonald before moving to Shotts and then…

Editor’s Notebook: Worlds Winners/ Glasgow Skye/ SPA Professional/ Charles Dunbar Pipes/ WW2 Tunes Search

Thanks to the RSPBA and their Chairman Kevin Reilly for the positive response to our mini-campaign to have the World Pipe Band Champions 1906 – 1946 recognised by their inclusion in future Worlds programmes. Mr Reilly has been in contact with the RSPBA’s Media and Marketing committee, so fingers crossed we will see the names of these somewhat neglected champion bands and their pipe majors in the 2023 Glasgow Green…

Open Letter to RSPBA Officials on Worlds Winners and Setting the Record Straight

Dear Sirs, With the support of our many readers, Piping Press this week published a full list of World Championship winning bands from the pre-SPBA and RSPBA era. We believe these bands and their achievements deserve to be recognised by their inclusion in the Worlds programme produced every year for that great championship at Glasgow Green. We appreciated that these titles were won under the umbrella of the Cowal Championship,…

Putting the Record Straight on Our World Pipe Band Champions

I am grateful to reader Trevor Clydesdale for forwarding this list of winners from the first Cowal Championship in 1906, writes the Editor. These bands were considered the World Champions of their day and deserve to be showered with the same accolades as the champions of today. Yet they feature not in the official RSPBA Worlds programme produced for that championship each year. Perhaps these winners did not have the…