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…
The Piobaireachd Society conference enters its second day today and I must say it has been a roaring success so far. I’ll have a full report later as the there is not a lot of time before the next session on the 2017 set tunes begins. The weather up here in Birnam has been amazing – as it has been in much of the UK. Last night’s ceilidh went on…
This was a very well run contest today at the Piping Centre in Glasgow, but it was noteworthy that not many pipers waited around for the prize giving. With the sponsors in attendance along with the Johnstone family, this did not enhance proceedings. All contests were over by 6.45pm. A very big ‘well done’ to CPA Secretary Helen Wilkinson for organising things so well and ensuring the smooth running of all…
We are grateful to reader Mrs Massie for passing on these photographs and newspaper clippings. They offer an interesting snapshot of life and society in and around the Brechin/ Kirriemuir area of Angus in the late 19th century. If anyone can help her in her quest please get in touch…. Mrs Massie writes: I recently commented on the thoughts on ‘History of the Pipe Band and the Worlds’ by Keith…
Scottish Schools’ Pipe Band Championship is well underway in Edinburgh. Eighty one bands of various standards and sizes were ready to step off this morning. With George Heriot’s Juvenile B (pictured) first up in Hall A. Twenty-one bands in the Nov Juvenile B, seven in Nov Juv A, and six in Juvenile. A host of other bands are playing in Hall B covering less experienced ‘grades’. The contest is ideally housed in good facilities at…
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