History: Roderick MacDonald and His Pupil Kenneth MacDonald

John MacPhee, former President of the Glasgow Uist & Barra Association, has kindly supplied an old cutting from the Oban Times newspaper from 1959. It features well known post war tutor and piper Roddy MacDonald and the late Kenny MacDonald.  Their story reads: ‘One of the happiest men in Scotland is Roderick MacDonald, a Glasgow policeman and tutor to Kenneth MacDonald and this year’s winner of the Highland Society of…

SPA KO/ Letters re 6/8 Marches/ British PB Champs Entries

President Tom Johnstone of the Scottish Pipers’ Association on the latest semi-final of the SPA KO: ‘Both players gave superb performances tonight (Sat, April 2) and the audience vote went to Stuart Liddell. ‘Steven Leask lost the toss and played first, and played exceedingly well. Stuart started and finished his performance with what seems to have become his trademark – marching in playing and marching out playing at the end.  …

Northern Meeting Competitors Announced

The Northern Meeting has announced the lists of pipers who will compete at this year’s championship at Inverness in September. The Argyllshire Gathering and the Meeting are  the pre-eminent piping competitions in the world. Just to get to play at either of these contests is an achievement. At Inverness, 25 places have been allocated for the Gold Medal and 27 for the Silver. Lists of reserves have been drawn up…

PP Editor’s Blog: PB Mag Preview/ Results from the Antipodes/ SPA KO/ Midwest Solo Championship

The April edition of Pipe Band magazine will be available from Thursday on the RSPBA website and from the Piping Press shop. The magazine has features on: AD Hamilton, the father of modern pipe band ensemble Pipe band competition performance set up – the circle must go Reid Maxwell’s new sticks – a review Live in Ireland – 1987 remembered Consultative judging pilot scheme explained AGM wrap up National Juvenile…

Two Impressive Sets of PIpes for Sale/ BC Pipers Results

Two fine looking sets of pipes for sale today in our Classified Ads pages. The first is a full silver set of Naill bagpipes (above), beautifully engraved, and the other a set of Sinclair plain silver pipes. Considering the price of silver these days, good prices on both. Check them out here. Posted today are the results from last weekend’s British Columbia Pipers’ Association Indoor Meet. Editor Robert Wallace writes:…