They may not have been the first with the synthetic drone reed, but who would deny Ronnie MacShannon and Tommy Johnston their place as innovators who, through their company Pipe Dreams, changed the quality of bagpipe sound? Their Eezidrone reeds established a bench mark against which others were tested. Their sound was as close to cane as you can get without all the hassle. And every set of reeds met…

The RSPBA have published the draws for the next pipe band championships, the Scottish at Dumbarton. In Grade 1 there are ten bands playing in the following order: Fife Police, Shotts, Scottish Power, Johnstone, FMM, SLOT, Boghall, Closkelt, Police Scotland and Inveraray. Judges are John Wilson, Peter Hunt, Stuart Coils and Tom Brown. The contest is not until July 27 so bands have five weeks to prepare. After that the…

Not being able to travel to Forres for the British I had a listen to a few of the Grade 1 bands online. Not ideal, but better than nothing. Of those I heard I thought third placed Shotts had the most complete MSR. The winners Boghall had an outstanding march…but then the strathspey. Inveraray, second, likewise. Band drummers these days don’t play strathspeys in the traditional sense, four beats to…