Following the article of a couple of weeks back, we asked Breton piper Patrick Molard how he came to have such excellent recordings of Bob Nicol, Balmoral, playing light music. Patrick responded promptly and, we are delighted to say, also supplied us with several other recordings from his archive. Thank you Patrick! He wrote: It is such a long time ago (51 years!) that it is difficult for me to…
Nothing epitomises the romance of the games more than this old photograph from Glenfinnan in the 1970s. It shows the famous bench of Seton Gordon, Angus MacPherson, Invershin, and Col. Jock MacDonald, Viewfield, Skye, in confab. Combined ages not that far off 300. Clearly making notes after discussing the playing, but later just as likely to be talking of some arcane ethological phenomena (Seton was a renowned naturalist), a convoluted…
On Friday April 28th the eagerly awaited Frank Andrews Tribute Concert took place at the Tullyglass Hotel in Ballymena. There was an attendance of 600 and it was an outstanding success. I have attended the majority of the big pipe band concerts over the years, at the County Hall or the Waterfront Hall, and I would venture to say that this was amongst the absolute best. The star act was…
I am sure P/M Willie Ross did seminal service to piping when he streamlined the playing and writing of our ceòl beag technique. Gone were the doublings on C with the two D gracenotes, the open style of taorluath writing, the heavy D throw, the gracenoted birl. His six books also provided a catalogue of standard settings of many of the classic competition tunes in versions that everyone agreed were…
We have received this intriguing information from expert piping historian and author Jeannie Campbell: ‘In 1903 a contest was held in the Waverley Market, Edinburgh. ‘Thirteen bands took part and the contest was reported in the papers as the World’s First Pipe Band Championship. The winners were Wallacestone and their opening march was Bonnie Anne.’ The band is pictured above with the handsome trophy with all the personnel clearly named….
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