New Letters/ Award for Gordon/ Calum Johnston/Gairloch Juniors

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New letters added today headed Competition Notes, Monktonhall Pipe Band and the SPA WW1 concert. Congratulations to RSPBA adjudicator and dedicated teacher of piping, Gordon Lawrie, on his BEM from HM The Queen. Here’s how the local paper reported his receiving the award from  her representative, the Lord Lieutenant of Dunbartonshire. Gordon is pictured bottom right: Congratulations too to Bleary & District Pipe Band (pictured top) on their elevation to the…

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Here Comes the Sun! South Florida Pipe & Drum Academy Registration

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Pre-registration for the 2016 South Florida Piping and Drum Academy is now open. The Academy will run from Feb 24 -28 inclusive at Boca Raton, Florida. Boca Raton Fire Department, 6500 Congress Ave #200, Boca Raton, FL 33487, is the precise address. Likely schedule will be auditions on the Weds, then an evening out for a meet and greet.  Classes proper will start Thursday the 25th and the school will end with…

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Daniel Laidlaw VC/ Inverness Junior Piping/ Blackthorn Pipers/ Whisky Galore

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As part of its WW1 commemoration series, the BBC has published a good wrap up on Piper Daniel Laidlaw VC, KOSB. There’s an interview with his grandson Kevin Laidlaw. Kevin, also a piper, went to Loos in 2005 for the 90th anniversary of the battle. He says: ‘I stood out and played The standard on the Braes o’ Mar which was the regimental charge of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers, which…

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PP Editor’s Blog: Whisky Galore, Compton MacKenzie, Calum Johnston, Neil Angus MacDonald

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Thanks to everyone who responded to our Whisky Galore article at the end of last week. Not possible to respond personally to everyone’s emails so a collective ‘thank you’ to you all. I asked for the name of the piper pictured and then posed a quiz question: ‘Who wrote the book and who was his piper?’ A few were caught out by that, assuming that the piper in the film…

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PP Editor’s Blog: All Ireland Solos/ Whisky Galore/ 24 Renfrew Street

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To Dublin tonight for tomorrow’s All-Ireland Solos.The Championships are under the joint auspices of the Irish Pipe Band Association  and the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (Northern Ireland Branch)  and will be held in Trinity Comprehensive  School, Ballymun, Dublin. For those going along, Piping is at 10am and Drumming at 11. Here are the current champions:  Senior Piping: Ashley McMichael, Field Marshal Montgomery Senior Drumming: Michael McKenna, St. Laurence O’Toole Piobaireachd A: Graham Drummond,…

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