P Ed’s Blog: PS Conference/ Set Tunes/Glasgow Transport Band/ Duncan Johnstone/ Allan Chatto

To the Piobaireachd Society Conference today for what is always an enjoyable weekend of good friendship and good music. For the past several years it has been held at Birnam in Highland Perthshire, a peaceful spot on the banks of the mighty Tay river and always with a welcome hint of spring in the clean, clear air. It invigorates the mind in preparation for the active discussion (in committee) of…

MacStig Rides in from the West With A Tribute to a Grade Two Hero

Wherever it is he goes to ‘find himself’ over the winter, our rantin’, rovin’ reporter MacStig has returned refreshed. He says the harder he looked inwards the less he found. The sun tan suggests the destination was more Western Isles than West Palm Beach. Maybe he forgot to remove the glen g/ crash hat combo, but hey, let’s just say welcome back. Time to get writin’………….. Spring, Easter, daffodils, sun (sometimes)…

Argyllshire Gathering Places Announced for Gold & Silver Medals

Following meetings last weekend the pipers listed below have been granted a place to compete for The Highland Society of London Gold Medal and the Silver Medal at this year’s Argyllshire Gathering. They are as follows (not in playing order): ARGYLLSHIRE GATHERING GOLD MEDAL 1. Andrea Boyd, Canada 2. Glenn Brown 3. Gordon Bruce 4. Sandy Cameron 5. Andrew Carlisle, N Ireland 6. Jori Chisholm, USA 7. Cameron Drummond 8. Stuart…

Archives: Uist & Barra/ Bob Hardie/ Northern Meeting/ Donald MacPherson

This year’s Uist & Barra competition was cancelled due to the weather and we await details of a rearranged date. In the meantime a delve into the PP archives has revealed this cutting from the Daily Record of February 12, 1951, confirming that the contest was held even earlier all those years ago. These days it is usually on the first Saturday in March.  Under the headline ‘Portrait of prize piper’,…

PP Ed’s Blog: Online Band Registrations/ Piob Soc Conf/ Recital Cancelled/Neil in Falklands/ WW1 Tunes

The RSPBA have announced that registration for all major championships for 2018 is now available online. Chief Executive Ian Embelton says on the RSPBA website: ‘Online entries are now open for the 2018 championship season. ‘Entries for bands and drum majors will only be available online. We introduced this facility three years ago and in 2017 almost all entries were made online so we have now decided to remove the…