History: ‘Scotch Piper and the Dancing Girl’ – Part 2

We continue with the second part of Victorian journalist Henry Mayhew’s interview with an unnamed itinerant piper of the 1850s and a veteran of the 93rd regiment. Here our hero tells us of the money he can make in various parts of the kingdom, how it is cheaper to live in Scotland than London (some things never change), how he has kept poor health since leaving the Army, how best…

Review: Piobaireachd Society Conference – A Successful Return After Fallow Period

This was the first Piobaireachd Society Conference for four years. It was held in the Fair City of Perth. If we’d listened we might have heard the Bells.  But there was never enough silence so enthusiastic was the chatter and the tunes.  The Royal George Hotel proved an ideal venue, a stone’s throw from St John’s Church where those bells still ring. Friends old and new gathered on Friday evening. …

Outstanding Recital and Increased Entry at Lochaber Junior Piping and Drumming Competition

Thanks again from Lochaber Piping Society to our sponsors including the Piobaireachd Society, Pipe Dreams, McCallum Bagpipes, the Piping Centre, Sabhal Mor Ostaig and RG Hardie, for their really generous support for our Youth Piping & Drumming Competition, held last Saturday, March 25. Without the support of our sponsors, whether financial or with prizes-in-kind, we could not contemplate holding an event of this nature. Likewise, the work put in by…

Editor’s Notebook: PS Conference/ NI Bands/ D.R. MacLennan’s Pipes/ Missing Trophy

A week from now we will have the first Piobaireachd Society Conference since 2019. It can be difficult to re-kindle enthusiasm after so long a gap, easy-option Zoom meetings making us all lazy and complacent. But the benefit of human contact and a face to face welcome cannot be underestimated, and the Conference has been part of the furniture in the piping world since as far back as many can…

Review: ‘Music from Mull’ A New Collection of Pipe Tunes by Calum Maclean

This collection, ‘Music from Mull’, is a newly published volume of bagpipe tunes composed and collected by Calum Mclean. Calum is a well known Muileach, a piper and resident of Tobermory. Like many of the Hebridean islands, Mull is full of Gaelic music, and whilst this may not be the first publication of pipe music emanating from the island, this collection is a wee gem.  A total of 40 light…