Pipe Band Competition Formations – Part 1

I had not anticipated my article on Piping Press about the recent World Pipe Band Championships would generate debate about the circle formation for competing bands.  My reference to containing and balancing the sounds with the circle formation were intended merely as a reference to only one of the aspects of the original thinking when the circle formation was introduced.  I also did not suggest any preference for either a…

Editor’s Notebook: Look Back at the Season/ Inverness/ Worlds MSRs/ BB Fears/ South West School

So summer’s lease has come and gone and I think we can look back on a very successful return to competition in both solo and band worlds. Next year will be even better I feel, all things being equal. I think the standards in the Grade 1 bands were every bit as good as before the shutdown – but maybe not so in the solos. A lot of weak interpretation…

1st Port Glasgow BB – Pipe Band Memories and Worlds Winning Celebration Part 2

After a successful 1973 in Grade 3, most of the boys went on to play in Grade 1 bands such as Paisley, Red Hackle/Clan Campbell/Britoil, British Caledonian Airways (Renfrew), Shotts and Dykehead, Scottish Power, Babcock Renfrew and Bucksburn. In 1993, the BB company celebrated its Centenary. There was a Grand Dinner in the Town Hall on the Friday evening at which, amongst others, ex-member Lord George Penrose, a high court…

Pitlochry Games Results

Warm and dry for the final Highland games of the season. There was a two-minute silence for HM The Queen and a lone piper played the lament. Twenty played in the seniors, eight in the juniors. Champion Piper was Craig Sutherland who is pictured above on the boards today. A composing competition to mark the 170th Anniversary of the Pitlochry Games has been won by Niall Matheson, Inverness. Niall was…

Northern Ireland Pipe Band Round – Up: Part 1

The second half of the Northern Ireland competition season got underway with the Ulster Championships on July 23rd in the grounds of Ballymena Academy. It proved to be a very successful event with a large crowd and decent weather except for a heavy shower mid-afternoon. There were thirty one band entries and twenty six drum majors. A Highland dancing competition was also in full swing throughout the day such is…