Lochnell Championship Underway

The prestigious Lochnell Intermediate Piping Championship got underway at 10am this morning with seven of the country’s top young talents aged under 22 vying for the title. The event is taking place in Lochnell Castle, a picturesque setting on a spit of land on the Argyllshire coast. The venue is courtesy the Earl of Dundonald and the competition is hosted by his son Lord Archie Cochrane. The competition is modelled…

Lochnell Intermediate Championship Draw and Submitted Tunes

The Lochnell Intermediate Piping Championship takes place tomorrow, October 22, at the picturesque Lochnell Castle, Argyll, under the auspices of the Argyllshire Gathering Trust. Seven of the world’s top young players will compete in Piobaireachd and March, Strathspey & Reel. The pipers will be given their chosen tunes this evening Friday October 21. There are four prizes in each event: £120, £80, £60, £40. Here are the competitors in order…

Winning the Worlds 50 Years Ago – 1st Port Glasgow BB Celebrate in Style

The 1st Port Glasgow Boys’ Brigade Pipe Band won the World Juvenile Championship in 1972.  The Golden Jubilee was to be celebrated by a parade and dinner on Friday 30th September.  When the day dawned it was raining, only as it can in Inverclyde.  To make matters worse a gale was blowing.  It seemed that Hurricane Ian (their spelling, not mine) had taken a detour from Florida to pay a…

Editor’s Notebook: Band Search/ Royal Tune/ Livingstone Bursary/ Piping Times Archive/ Jori’s Contest

Ulf Schönberg of the Stockholm Pipe Band: ‘Can you help me identify the band in this photo? The historic interest (to me) is that it is the very first time a Swedish audience could see and hear a pipe band – at the Gothenburg Exhibition in August 1923.  ‘The band travelled to Sweden by ship together with the Royal Artillery Band and played in Gothenburg and in Stockholm. It was much…

History: Pipe Major RU Brown, Balmoral, and His Final Journey Home

We conclude the report from the special edition of the South Australian Pipe Band Association Newsletter which outlined RU Brown’s 1972 tour of South Australia and Tasmania, his teaching, his recitals and his illness and death. This excerpt contains touching details from air hostess Helen Aitkenhead who cared for P/M Brown on his final journey home…… Pipe Major Robert U Brown flew from Melbourne to Sydney where I joined him….