Donald MacDonald Quaich/ Grampian League

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Canadian piper Bruce Gandy of Halifax, Nova Scotia, won the annual Donald MacDonald Quaich competition held at the Clan Donald Centre, Sleat, Skye, last night. Others who competed for the £1,000 ($1,500US) first prize were Douglas Murray, Niall Stewart, Roderick MacLeod and Stuart Liddell. The adjudicator was Dr Jack Taylor. The competition was generously sponsored by the Glencoe Foundation, USA.  Pipers had to play a piobaireachd from the Donald MacDonald…

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PP Editor’s Blog: City of Edinburgh Police PB/Donald MacDonald Quaich/World Solo Drumming etc.

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Yesterday I mentioned the City of Edinburgh Police Pipe Band under P/M Ian MacLeod and I wonder if anyone can give us the names of the individuals in this shot taken of the band with multiple trophies in the early 1970s. Email them please, to pipingpress@gmail.com. The history of the band and its sorry demise was given in great detail in a series of three features in the Pipe Band magazine…

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PP Academy: Meddling With Competition Pipe Marches

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Readers could be forgiven for thinking I had a downer on Roderick Campbell’s fine tune ‘The Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society’. I don’t. I think it a wonderful composition and I am sure the eponymous Society is delighted with a tune that has guaranteed their immortality. However, as I said in my crit on the British Pipe Band Championships, I do not think it is of sufficient difficulty for Grade 1…

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Jimmy Turns 90/ East Lothian School/Govan Piping

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Firstly today, congratulations to Jimmy McIntosh on his 90th birthday. Jimmy is on his way to Scotland to celebrate with his family this side of the water. Before he left his home in North Carolina he recorded one of our great piobaireachd, the Lament for the Children. The playing is remarkable for one so young. It has been added to our audio archive launched yesterday. The above picture, from the…

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PP Audio Archive/ National Mod/ Composing Competition/ Letters

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Launched today is the new PP Audio Archive page which will carry  recordings of this and previous generations of pipers and pipe bands.  Our first recording is of the great Donald MacPherson recorded from the BBC in 1972. It has been supplied by his former pupil Donald McBride and we would ask other readers who have other suitable recordings to forward them to us at the usual address. This recording ties in…

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