We are grateful to reader Steve Thomson from Dumbarton, but now resident in Detroit, Michigan, for alerting us to this previously unknown piece of pipe band history. The Ford band is pictured above in 1939. The story is from ‘The Henry Ford’ an innovation and history project. It reads: If you’re out celebrating St. Patrick’s Day you’re sure to hear the sound of the bagpipes. In America, you’ll most likely…
Pipe Major William Ross’s third book of ceòl beag appeared in 1938 and was reviewed anonymously in the Oban Times newspaper. The review was positive, congratulating the author and publisher on ‘a notable addition to the literature of the Highland bagpipe’. However one paragraph set the fans and family of piper and composer GS McLennan all aquiver. It read: ‘…..but Pipe Major Ross has avoided the grosser forms of exagerration…
The National Piping Centre in Glasgow has returned a significant increase in profits its latest accounts show. In the financial year ended April 30, 2019, the Centre had an income of over £3.5m against expenditure of just over £3m giving them a profit of slightly less than £500,000 and a doubling of its profit on 2018. The exact figures: Income £3,554,151; Expenditure £3,067,655; Profit: £486,496. The details are contained in…
In a new venture, the Piobaireachd Society are running a Summer School of Ceol Mor in late May 2020. Tuition at the school is free to all members of the Society. The tutors are myself and former President Dr Jack Taylor. The venue is the spacious and well appointed Gartmore House just south of Aberfoyle, about 45 minutes from Glasgow. As I say, the tuition is free. Participants only have…
We conclude the very interesting article ‘Pipers of Scotland’ from the pen of the London Times piping correspondent Seton Gordon. It dates from the 1960s. In this excerpt he discusses the hereditary pipers to the MacDougalls and MacKenzies, gives composers for two famous piobaireachd and poses the age old question: do pipers today play as the masters of the past did? The MacDougalls were originally hereditary pipers to the MacDougall…
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