Category: Reviews

P/M Gordon Walker Recital, Northern Ireland

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The Blackthorn Pipers’ Society Annual Recital Andy Wilson reports: The Blackthorn Pipers’ Society held its third annual piping recital in Dromore Rugby Club, Dromore, Co Down, Northern Ireland, earlier this year. The Blackthorn Pipers’ Society is in its fourth year having been formed along the same lines as The Eagle Pipers’ Society. We hold gatherings so that pipers of all ages and abilities can enjoy the great Highland bagpipe. At the end of…

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Scottish Pipers ‘Music of First World War’ Part 3

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Robert Wallace writes: Erudite and interesting I said; erudite and interesting it was. In the third of his lectures about WW1 and its pipe music, author Colin Campbell succeeded yet again in adding life and colour to what to most pipers are mere names at the top of a pipe music score. Who was Captain Lumsden or CM Usher or John S MacMurchie DCM MM? Last weekend Mr Campbell gave us…

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London: B Grade Piobaireachd Review

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[easyrotator]erc_75_1413484305[/easyrotator] Scottish Piping Society of London Competition, Nov 1, 2014, ‘B’ Piobaireachd Review By Andrew Wright Competition reports and feedback, as a rule, tend always to centre on the very top level, with lower grade events mostly by-passed other than for the recording of the results. It is, however, at the lower level that the apprenticeship for the top is served, where performing skills are learned and honed toward the…

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London: 12 Hours of Capital Piping

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Robert Wallace reprises the London Championship held on Saturday at Kensington Conference Centre: This was a long, but ultimately successful, day of piping. I have to applaud the committee of the Scottish Piping Society of London in managing to cram 120 pipers, hundreds of performances and a wheen of events into 12 hours – a credit to their organisation and the hard work of the stewards. However, it doesn’t need to be…

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Northern Ireland Piper of the Year – Critique

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This contest, run by the Northern Ireland Piping Society, was held in the ballroom at the Adair Arms Hotel in Ballymena, and despite a hum from the cooler behind the bar, it proved an ideal venue for a piping competition; plenty of floor space, plenty of audience space and a draughtless ambience. There were very few listeners in for the piobaireachd in the afternoon  (not unusual, even in Scotland) but the…

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