There was piping activity in the POW camps and this was supported by the pipers on the home front. Piping societies were raising money to send instruments to the prisoners and the monthly magazine Piping and Dancing encouraged readers to write to prisoners. A member of the College of Piping Veteran’s Association, Sinclair Swanson, remembered his time as a prisoner: ‘My father was a piper in the first war and…
The Competing Pipers’ Association have issued the following: The Duncan Johnstone Memorial Piping Competition 2022 will be held on Saturday 12th March. This will be an in-person event. B Grade contests will be held at the National Piping Centre. C Grade contests will be held at the National Piping Centre Otago Street. Entry fees are £10 per event and are to be paid by PayPal at time of entry, via the…
Unfortunately the Scottish government’s change of heart regarding indoor gathering has come too late to save the Celtic Connections festival here in Glasgow (it’s going ahead as a restrictions-affected hybrid) but the expected U-turn has to be good news for all other events especially those early year indoor mini band and quartet contests. And with the cap lifted on the numbers attending outdoor gatherings from last Monday, can we really…
In my youth, I had the great privilege of being accepted by the traveller community, thanks to my ‘adoption’ by the late, great ballad singer Jeannie Robertson. They reckoned I had a good voice and many times I was assured by the likes of Jeannie and Belle Stewart (Blairgowrie) that I had the ‘coinneach’, a quality of voice but also of expression which caused the hairs on the back of…
The Piobaireachd Society had founded and paid for the Army Class in 1910. Its aim was to improve the standard of piping in Scottish regiments. By 1939 it had grown into the Army School of Piping and P/M William Ross was in charge of the school based in Edinburgh Castle. In December that year, three months after the outbreak of war, his services were placed, with his consent, at the…
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