PP Ed’s Blog: Highland & Islands/ La Sturgeon/ Inveraray at Ballymena/ NPC-CoP/ Braemar Pix

Riona MacInnes of the Highland & Islands Festival has asked us to remind everyone that entries close for this year’s event this  Monday, March 19. There are senior piping contests in ceol beag and ceol mor for all grades A/P, B &C. For the juniors there is everything from Junior Chanter Under 12 to a full range of events for the under 18s. For drummers, tenor and side, there are…

PP Ed’s Blog: Band Formations/ Muirheads Names/ Colin Thomson/ Braemar/Jack Lee

Those of us who have been advocating ‘concert formation’ for pipe band competition for many years were cheered by yesterday’s announcement that the Edinburgh Pipe Band Championship, to be held in Princes Street Gardens on June 18, will adopt just such a format. All credit to John Hughes the RSPBA Lothian & Borders Branch Chairman, and Vice-Chairman of the Association, for taking this initiative. When I played there in the…

PP Ed’s Blog: Pipe Band Anger/ PB Mag/ Braemar/ SPA/ Dunedin/ Letters

Apart from running Pipe Band Magazine for the RSPBA and reporting on competitions, I have no direct involvement in the pipe band competition milieu. I am essentially on the periphery – the best place for the fourth estate in that fraught world. It was not always so given that I learned piping via the pipe band system in the Boys Brigade and later graduated to Muirhead & Sons at age…