PP Editor’s Blog 8/2/15

Posted on      by     

Last weekend, when all mayhem was meant to be breaking out in this city thanks to the first meeting of certain football clubs in three years, I found myself on Glasgow Green that same afternoon. And you know what?, a more civilised Sunday afternoon it would be hard to find in any metropolis in the world. Where was the murder, the screaming insanity the media had predicted? Was I missing…

More PP Editor’s Blog 8/2/15

Draw for Wheel of Fortune/ PP Miscellany/ Drumming Prizes Poll

Posted on      by     

Paul White: The City of Edinburgh Pipe Band is pleased to announce that the draw has been made for the 2015 Pipe Majors Wheel of Fortune competition. The event, which will be held in Danderhall Miners Club on Saturday 7th February, will see some of Scotland’s finest traditional musicians take part in a unique competition where musical expression and entertainment comes to the fore.   The order of play is…

More Draw for Wheel of Fortune/ PP Miscellany/ Drumming Prizes Poll

P/M Ian McLellan Part 3/Murdo MacDonald/ SPA Veterans

Posted on      by     

Today we publish the final instalment in the remarkable life story of P/M Ian McLellan. This excerpt concentrates on Ian’s early years and solo career. Read it here. Murdo MacDonald, a piper in the City of Glasgow Police Pipe Band in the 1960s, has died aged 86. Murdo, from Lewis, played in the band under P/M Angus MacDonald and for a short time under P/M Ronnie Lawrie. Murdo’s funeral is…

More P/M Ian McLellan Part 3/Murdo MacDonald/ SPA Veterans

Oldest Piping Society in the US is Reborn plus Chris Armstrong Departure

Posted on      by     

US professional piper Nick Hudson has sent this: ‘Hi Rab, Wanted to let you know of a potentially newsworthy item: we’re starting a piping society in Pittsburgh, similar to the Eagles. Standard fare, I know, but…it happens to be the oldest society in the USA, dating from 1898.’ Press release: ‘The oldest piping society in the U.S.A. predates such bastions of our age as the Piobaireachd Society, the RSPBA, and…

More Oldest Piping Society in the US is Reborn plus Chris Armstrong Departure

PP Editor’s Blog 30/1/15

Posted on      by     

I was struck by the quality of Gordon Walker’s playing on the BBC’s Gaelic piping programme the other day: bright, full of verve, clean, crisp professional technique, a solid, harmonic pipe. It was recorded at the Northern Meeting a couple of years ago and here was a piper going for the first prize. No safety first for him. Yes, he may have lost a tad control in his Cockerel in the…

More PP Editor’s Blog 30/1/15