Category: Solo Piping

Review: An Alternative Desperate Battle of the Birds

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By Duncan Watson A few weeks ago I attended a talk at Aberdeen University’s Storytelling Festival. It was given by Jamie MacDonald Reid with musical accompaniment by a cellist. The title was ‘The Desperate Battle of the Birds’ and that’s what sparked my interest. I was not sure what to expect. I thought we would have the usual story backed up with extracts of the tune: the cock birds stalking each…

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Editor’s Notebook: Reid Pipes/ RSPBA Majors/ SPA Veterans/ Brittany Events

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An intriguing story has come in following yesterday’s about Willie Reid’s ‘MacDougall’ pipes. Reader Robert Stewart writes, ‘As a teenager I new Willie Reid well. ‘Latterly, before emigrating to New Zealand, he was P/M of the Glasgow Fire Service Pipe Band. On one of my regular visits to his barber shop he was quite excited. ‘One of his bandsmen had attended a fire at an old cottage and found a…

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Catriona Hill and PS Summer School/ Scottish Pipers’ Veterans Entries

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The Piobaireachd Society has announced that their 2025 Summer School of Ceol Mòr has sold out with 31 students signed up, a significant increase from this year. The school takes place at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Gaelic College on the island of Skye from June 1 – 6. President Robert Wallace said: ‘There is considerable appetite for high level instruction in ceol mòr. The Society is delighted to be able to…

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Canadian Judge in Plea to PPBSO Members/ CLASP Online Results

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Well-known piping and pipe band adjudicator Bob Worrall has called on members of the Piping and Pipe Band Society of Ontario (PPBSO) to support their board members during the current legal action and attendant controversy. In a statement on social media Mr Worrall (pictured below) writes: ‘For months now I have read and been made aware of a vicious online campaign directed toward the PPBSO Board and Chair of the…

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Editor’s Notebook: Leslie’s Pipes/ Schools Jobs/ EUSPBA Vote/ John’s Book/ Piping Pop Groups

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Next Friday (December 6) a set of pipes that belonged to the late Dr Leslie Craig will go under the auctioneer’s hammer in Glasgow. Great Western Auctions have put a price of between £1,200 and £1,600 on the Robert Gillanders instrument. The description reads: ‘A full set of ebonised white metal and ivory mounted Scottish Highland bagpipes. The mounts hand engraved with a thistle foliate pattern; together with an RG…

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