Review: Fife Police Pipe Band Concert Marks Ten Years ‘On the Beat’

By Duncan Watson On the evening of Saturday 14th April, I attended the concert at the Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen featuring the Fife Police Pipe Band hosted by Bucksburn Pipe Band. The show was entitled a ‘Decade on the Beat’ as the Fife polis band has been in existence for that time. Their progress has clearly been significant and as a result the event was most enjoyable. Sadly the likes…

Dr Roddy Ross and the Fingerlock/ SFU and Pachelbel’s Canon/ Silver Chanter Letter

At the 2009 Piobaireachd Society conference the late Dr Roddy Ross astonished everyone with his performance of part of the ground of the Fingerlock, writes the Editor. He also impressed attendees with the passion he had for the music and his personal insight into the MacCrimmons and the land that bore them. Fortunately PS member Hector Russell was at hand with his video camera and recorded Dr Ross in full…

Obituary: P/M James Jackson 1941 – 2018

Jimmy Jackson was born in 1941 in the village of Jamestown near Balloch on Loch Lomondside. He was the fourth generation of James Jackson or ‘MacFhiachair’ as the family’s surname was known in their native Argyll. His grandfather, an Ardrishaig man who  had been a Pipe Major in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, was a contemporary of John MacColl and a good friend of Pipe Major William Lawrie of Ballachulish. His…

Review of the 2018 Scottish Pipers’ Association Competition

I am not sure everyone appreciates how hard it is to produce a piobaireachd to a high professional standard. At last weekend’s Scottish Pipers’ Association contest, there were 22 competitors, all of them first class pipers. Some play in world championship winning bands; others have won major solo awards. Yet of those I heard we really only had four tunes which reached the level described in my opening sentence.  There…

Kintyre Juniors Results

The annual junior competition run by the Kintyre Piping Society was held today in the Seafield Hotel, Campbeltown. The picture above shows the main winners and their trophies. Results: Under 15 yrs 2/4 March First Bobby Allen Second Joshua Reilly Third Andrew Renton Under 15 yrs S&R First Bobby Allen Second Joshua Reilly Third Murray O’May Ground of Piobaireachd Under 15 First Matthew McKerral Second Murray O’May Third Andrew Renton…