World Champion Pipe Band, Shotts & Dykehead, held their Annual Junior Piping and Drumming Championship in the town’s Calderhead High School today. There was a very healthy increase in competitors from 103 last year to 154 this. Pipe Major Ryan Canning and Leading Drummer Blair Brown were in Canada on a teaching trip but the event went like clockwork in their absence. North Lanarkshire Council, the local authority, are very…
Tom Johnstone, President, Scottish Pipers’ Association: ‘Dear Members and Friends, Just a reminder that this Saturday will be the first in our new series of Knockout Contests. Venue: College of Piping; Date and Time : 7.30pm Saturday 7th November 2015; Pipers: John Patrick (holder) vs Finlay Johnston; Licensed Bar. Format : Audience Vote – 8 pipers in the series and final will be held on 7th May 2016. Please come…
This was a vintage Glenfiddich, which the packed audience in the great hall of Blair Castle was privileged to hear. To begin with, we heard ten technically faultless tunes, played by ten of the world’s leading pipers of today: a rare occurrence. But technical perfection needs another ingredient: the pipers must convey the music as well as the notes. But there was no shortage of music, and the adjudicators must…
The organisers of the 78th Frasers Concert at Celtic Connections next January have sent the announcement below. The above picture shows the band under P/M Bill Livingstone in 1987, the year they created history by becoming the first ever overseas band to win the World Pipe Band Championship: Superstar Percussionists Added to Cast of Glasgow’s 2016 Celtic Connection Festival’s Celebration of the Music of ‘Live in Ireland 87’ A group…
I first travelled to London for the annual competition in 1976 and have always found it an enjoyable experience. I can’t quite put my finger on why this should be. A chance to meet up with piping colleagues in a far off land? A different competing environment? The beer? I don’t know. Certainly the lure of the big prizes, the Bratach Gorm and Gillies Cup and all the history attached…
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