My comments on the Lament for Mary MacLeod (see British Championships 2018 – Grade 1 Review) may have baffled some non-piobaireachd players in the pipe band world but you can listen to the whole 12 minute or so tune here (scroll down the page a bit) played by maestro Donald MacPherson and you might get an idea of what I was talking about. To pick and mix ‘tuney’ sections of ceol…
Some say his birls are legend, or maybe just leg end, others that he knows more about crop circles than the band variety….all we know is he’s called MacStig… Cometh the hour, cometh the band, although my spell check almost had ‘comets’… some of these bands are just like that – flashes of brightness and close to the edge. Adjudicators on duty for Grade 2 were Messrs Semple, Worrall, Mordaunt…
I arrived at Paisley around lunchtime on Saturday and after a coffee, picked up a programme (free) and headed over to the Grade 1 arena for the 2pm start of the British Pipe Band Championship . Readers will know all the usual caveats about the audience not being as close as the judges are to the bands, extraneous chatter etc, etc and this should be borne in mind when they read this…
The following has been received from Steve Connor in Toronto in response to a recent letter regarding the composer Charles MacLeod Williamson. It gives a fascinating insight into the composer’s character and musical inspiration…… By Steve Connor, Toronto I am responding to your enquiry about Charles MacLeod Williamson. I live in Canada now but knew Charlie probably better than anyone in the piping scene in the 1980s and into the…
I spent yesterday afternoon with Jimmy McIntosh who, with his wife Joyce, is on a three-week visit to the UK. Jimmy, now in his 90s, continues to amaze everyone with his energy and enthusiasm for piping. He is a firm believer in the adage ‘don’t count the days; make every day count’ and is currently involved in a number of projects, which, with Joyce’s valuable support, I am sure he…
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