Editor’s Notes: Season ’21/ Finlay’s Job/ Artist’s Thanks/ Paddy’s Worlds/ MacBeth Soundtrack

Shotts at the 2019 British. Will there be a return in May 2021? Who would disagree with yesterday’s comments by Gilbert Cromie that we need some forward planning if we are to save the 2021 pipe band season? I would go further and ask that the RSPBA form a ‘Task Force 21’ to examine all of the potentail problems, to offer solutions and to do so from a positive, ‘can…

The 2020 Season in Northern Ireland and Major Concerns Regarding 2021

In normal times as we come to the end of August here in Northern Ireland, our competing pipe bands would have been reflecting on a season-ending trip to the seaside resort of Newcastle which would have hosted the NI Branch Champion of Champions contest beneath the magnificent Mountains of Mourne which, as the song says, ‘sweep down to the sea’. Sadly this has been anything but a normal pipe band…

Chris Earl Resigns from Pipe Bands Australia

Resignation letter: ‘Pipe Bands Australia, as with any organisation, should and must always be in the collective best interests of all members. To serve those members in the advancement of aspirations and by giving a voice to the many who prefer making music to attending meetings dictates that individual sacrifices are made of a vocational, personal and financial nature – without hesitation – in honouring the principles and tenets of…

2020 MacGregor Memorial Piobaireachd Result (updated with winning performance)

Campbell WIlson from New Zealand has won the prestigious MacGregor Memorial Piobaireachd competition run by the Highland Society of London and the Argyllshire Gathering. After the judges considered the video submissions, the prize list was as follows: 1 Campbell Wilson2 Henry Pulach3 Ross Conner4 Anna Smart Listen to Campbell’s winning tune here: The finalists and their tunes: Ross Conner (17), Campbeltown, End of the High Bridge. Ross played Lachlan MacNeill Campbell…

Shedding Light on the Rankin Piping Family from the Island of Mull

We know very little of the Rankin family from the island of Mull and mentioned in Angus MacKay’s book as hereditary pipers to the MacLean of Coll ‘from time immemorial’. The most notable was Conn Dauly and he is believed to have been instructed on Skye either by the MacCrimmons or the MacArthurs. MacKay’s book relates the tale of a Rankin playing for Dr Johnston on his tour of the…