RSPBA Chief Executive Confirms Five Majors for 2027

RSPBA Chief Executive Officer Colin Mulhern has confirmed that all five major pipe band championships are in place for 2027. This includes the Worlds at Glasgow Green. And Mr Mulhern forcefully scotched all rumours circulating of a fallout between the Association and Worlds promoters Glasgow Life. Mr Mulhern took time out from his busy day at the European Pipe Band Championships in Perth to talk to Piping Press about this…

Review: European Pipe Band Championship, Grade 1

Can we talk bass drums? Why are they being thumped so hard? On Saturday at the Euros you would have thought some of these stick people were preparing for the 12th of July! I listened to all of Grade One and there was only one mallet man who produced the soft-stroke musicality, the sort of purr that blended with the bass drones. That was the chap from St Laurence O’Toole….

Editor’s Notebook: Old Recordings & Jeannie Book/ Mull Games/ Neil Clark/ Worlds Tickets

Reader Michael Dunn has alerted me to his excellent collection of early, re-mastered, piping recordings. Click on the picture of Willie Ross to hear the maestro play Captain Norman Orr Ewing and the link below for many other tunes. There’s music from the likes of JB Robertson, Robert Reid, Henry Starck (bagpipe maker), John Macdonald, Inverness, Glasgow Police under P/M John MacDonald (1945), and many more. Full play list here…

Review: ‘Around the Worlds’, a New Book on the Development of the Grade 1 World Championship

In October last year I was contacted by the author Iain Duncan seeking some assistance with regard to Northern Ireland’s Grade 1 bands for a project he was working on relating to the World Pipe Band Championships.  As the months went by Iain’s project developed into a publication entitled ‘Around the Worlds’. It focusses on the development and evolution of the Grade 1 World Pipe Band Championship and also the…

USPF: Review of the Piobaireachd and a Trial of Colin MacLellan’s Judging Proposal

I judged the United States Piping Foundation Professional Piobaireachd with Paula Glendinning on Saturday 20th June. It is one of the major US competitions and continues in memory of its founder, Maclean Macleod.   By Dr Jack Taylor MBE It has moved from Delaware to Maryland, and is superbly organised now by Peter Kent, Michael Rogers and their committee. You may have read Michael’s report and full results on Piping…