PP Ed’s Blog: Band Circles/ Cancale/ Northern Meeting, Lochaber, Aboyne

Difficulties over ‘concert’ formation positioning mentioned in Alistair Aitken’s piece yesterday should be easily overcome after a little trial and error. Bass sections are different in the circle set up so there is nothing new there. Going by the photographs I thought the formations at the Ross Bandstand pretty good and must have been much more comfortable for the judges than what they are used. No walking about, balancing of…

Kenmore Games Junior Piping

Perfect conditions to day for this contest in Perthshire. U-12 Piping 1 Archie McNab 2 Annabelle Charlton 3 Wallace Mackie 4 Brodie Barrie U-14 Piping 1 Bobby Allan 2 Joshua Reilly 3 Annabelle Charlton 4 Brodie Barrie 16 and Under Confined to Perthshire 1 Annabelle Charlton 2 Archie McNab 3 Lexy MacDiarmid 21yrs and Under 1 Bobby Allan 2 Brodie Watson-Massey 3 Tommy Young 4 Joshua Reilly 21yrs and Under Jig 1…

Donald MacPherson’s Bagpipe: Sad News from Down Under

Disturbing information has reached me from Australia via a well known piper and acquaintance of mine, writes the Editor. It concerns the late Donald MacPherson’s bagpipe, that glorious instrument which in Donald’s hands made him the most successful competing piper of all time. It was a pipe I had the good fortune to hear many times. We have several fine instruments on the boards today but none that quite captures…

Ceres Games Results (updated)

Beautiful day in Fife and a successful one for the Army’s Ben Duncan (pictured above). Eight pipers competed. The games also saw a visit from television chef Gordon Ramsay and other tv personalities who were filming. Piob 1 Ben Duncan, Lament for MacSwan of Roaig 2 Darach Urquhart, Glengarry’s March 3 Eireann-Ianetta MacKay, Lament for the Viscount of Dundee 4 Craig Martin, Lament for Donald of Laggan March 1 Ben…

PP Ed’s Blog: Donald MacDonald/ Calum Piobair/ Lochaber Gathering/ James MacColl

Duncan Watson’s comments on the Donald MacDonald Cuach a couple of days ago were pertinent. Why is it that those who play in this contest stick slavishly to the scores as produced by the pioneer of stave writing? The results are incompatible with traditional teaching, teaching stretching back, at the very least, to the time of Calum ‘Piobair’ Macpherson (1883 -1898), pictured above. We know this from the School of…