I judged the Oban Silver Medal with Ian Duncan and Malcolm McRae. I remind readers of the statement top left on this page. The standard has been better. I don’t know if it was the tuning facility in the rather dank Ceilidh House, but too many pipers just didn’t have settled instruments on which to demonstrate their prowess. As stated earlier, the winner was Nick Hudson, Pittsburgh, USA. His tune…
The 2016 Argyllshire Gathering should be described as nothing less than an outstanding success, writes the Editor. Of course the fine weather helped with pipers able to stop and chat in the Oban sunshine about all the usual things: drones going off, rotten reeds, crooked judges. The gathering was helped by having popular winners in all the main piobaireachd events. Pride of place must go to Ian K. MacDonald of…
By Duncan Watson This year’s Ballater Highland Games gave us a day to remember for a couple of reasons. It started with a presentation to Norman Matheson MBE, a judge at Ballater for over 40 years. Norman has been a kenspeckle figure at the Deeside games, including Ballater and beyond, for, as indicated, over four decades. In his professional life he was a consultant surgeon at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary. He was…
Thankfully the sun shone through occasionally on the Saturday of the World Championships and we avoided rain apart from some drizzle during the morning, but in general it was rather cold and not the ideal conditions for tuning and playing. Compared to the Friday, the difference in the atmosphere within Glasgow Green was quite dramatic with the buzz from all the bands and spectators, and a gradual build-up of people…
I think the old football cliché of a ‘game of two halves’ neatly sums up Field Marshal Montgomery’s ‘Impact’ concert last night at Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Whilst never falling below the standard of excellence we have come to expect from this band, there was something almost reticent in their delivery in the first. But maybe they, like the audience, were befuddled by booming bass – and I mean booming….
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