Ten Years After: The World Pipe Band Championships, Glasgow, August 2011 – Part 1

There won’t be a Worlds this summer for the second year in a row. The international pipe band community is in need of a fix, a reminder of the excitement, the adrenaline and maybe the disappointment of the biggest day in the pipe band calendar. PP staff have trawled the archives for pictures and comment from the Championship from ten years ago, the place Glasgow Green. How times fly. Here…

Editor’s Notebook: Audience Restrictions Lifted/ Talk Piobaireachd/ Duncan Watson/ Tryst Supergroup

Anyone thinking about putting on a ‘live’ piping event should consider the following positive guidelines from Scotland’s administrators: Level 2 of covid restrictions begins on Monday May 17, Level 1 from ‘early June’ and Level 0 in ‘later June’. What this means in audience numbers is as follows: If the will is there, there is no official impediment to running a piping or pipe band competition this summer. Reader Ian…

RSPBA in ‘Sound’ Financial Position Despite Fall in Revenue – Auditor Agrees Accounts

We conclude our final report taken from the RSPBA’s 2021 AGM Order Paper. The AGM was held last March online. The Association accounts show a fall in income following the cancellation of all major championsips in 2020. This was offset by the savings in expenditure and Government grant assistance. In 2019 the Worlds generated £254,195; income for this event for 2020 amounted to £47,487. Other Chanpionships raised £301,480 in 2019….

Solo Piping Boost: Lochaber Gathering Confirmed ‘Live’ at End of August

The popular Lochaber Gathering professional piping contest is to go ahead this year after cancellation in 2020. Barring unforeseen problems, it will be one of the first ‘in person’ solo contests to be held in Scotland post-pandemic. By Ken A. CameronChairman, Lochaber Piping Society After the sad death last year of Allan MacColl, who almost single-handedly organised the competition, it looked as if this popular and successful event might disappear…

History: P/M William Norris and Glasgow’s Clan Fraser Pipe Band

This is taken in the main from an edition of ‘Piping and Dancing’ magazine from March 1937. It highlights the qualities and arrangements every band needs if it is to be successful: a good pipe major, organisation, co-operation and a good committee. The band, with a very young Pipe Major William Norris, is pictured below in 1931.. This band was formed on 3rd February, 1930, by the present Pipe Major,…