With announcement of new, severe lockdown regulations, the helmeted one reflects on the 2021 pipe band season prospects and we find him in serious mood…… I’m an optimist, a glass half full type, yet in less than a week into the New Year it was gone. Faster than two three-pace rolls, my hopes for the 2021 band competition season evaporated with the lengthening of what seems to have been the…

The death has been announced of P/M Tony Crease, the man who, almost 50 years ago, led the Pipes & Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards to the top of the hit parade with Amazing Grace. Tony is pictured above with the Gold Disc he received when his band’s recording hit the No.1 spot. Tony passed away peacefully at his home in Yorkshire yesterday, 4th January 2021, after an…

The death has been announced of Mrs Eleanor MacFadyen, wife of Iain, and his constant companion throughout his long piping career. Eleanor passed away in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, surrounded by her family. She had been ill for several months and visits to the hospital were made all the more heart rending given the isolation regulations of the pandemic. Eleanor was known throughout the solo piping world and was a regular…

Welcome to the first report of the New Year. I hope everyone had a good time. I think we can all look forward to a better 2021, at least in the latter half of the year. I always avoid the Hogmanay shows on television if I can and managed to do so again this year even with all the isolation strictures. Trawling through them on New Year’s Day they all…