The Australian Ladies Pipe Band – The Definitive History Part 1

I have read the various stories on Piping Press concerning the Australian Ladies. According to newspaper reports, on their arrival in Glasgow on Thursday, August 26th, en route to Cowal, the band was welcomed at the station by 42,000 enthusiastic citizens and the Clan MacRae Society Pipe Band, the champion band of Scotland, under their P/M William Fergusson, which played them to their hotel. Membership of the band was restricted…

My Father, P/M Robert Reid – Part 4

We continue with our correspondence from Robert Reid jnr. to Jimmy McIntosh. This abridged letter is dated 28th September, 1993. In the firing line are Alastair Campsie, Andrew MacNeill, Colonsay, and William Connell…. I can’t recall any article being written specifically about my father other than obituaries in the Piping Times, the Glasgow Herald, Daily Record and the Oban Times around August/September 1965. Occasionally some journalist would come into my…

Set of Smallpipes for Sale/ Piobaireachd by the Sea/ Piping Livestream/ Northern Ireland Bands

Pipemaker Brian Mulhearn: ‘I have a set of smallpipes for sale. They are a new ‘A’ set made by myself and are boxwood with blackwood mounts. ‘They come with a boxwood or blackwood chanter and a quality set of bellows and are reeded up and ready to play. Price £975.’ Email Brian here. PIOBAIREACHD by the SEA Piping Press editor Robert Wallace will conduct a piobaireachd masterclass at the annual…

Victorian Championships and Australian Piobaireachd Medal Results

Editor’s Notebook: Reid Letters/ Festival Contest/ Tony Lightfoot/ MacLellan Contest/ Piping Live March

Comparisons are odious as they say, but it is a habit in which we pipers just can’t help indulging. For example, Robert Reid jnr., we read this week, believed Malcolm Macpherson a better player than the Bobs of Balmoral. I don’t suppose we’ll ever know. The ‘Binneas’ recordings of Malcolm are very poor and I know of no others of him. There are good recordings of RB Nicol and RU…