Tag: Stories from the Piping World

The Musical Passion of a Victorian Amateur Piper

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I have always been interested in the Victorian illustrator Charles Keene, 1823-1891.  One of his cartoons [above] appears in Manson’s ‘Highland Bagpipe’ book. The caption reads, ‘Mr McSkirlinguy beguiling the time with some cheerful pibrochs on his national instrument’, whilst in the adjacent train compartment we have ‘Mr Southdown (travelling north with his family by the Night Mail), ‘Dear, dear, dear! What a shame they don’t grease the wheels of…

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Editor’s Notebook: Hogmanay/ Stuart Liddell/ Queen’s Comment/ Grading/ Royal Bagpipe

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I hope everyone had a good New Year. The Hogmanay celebrations augured well for piping. Television channels BBC Alba and BBC2 had the pipes welcoming in the midnight bells (the latter featuring the Scots Guards P&D) and Buckingham Palace even put out a video showing Paul Burns, Sovereign’s Piper, piping down the steps at Buckingham Palace playing Auld Lang Syne (best to finish on high A with that setting Paul!)…

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2022 – A Year of Rebirth for Piping and Pipe Bands

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It was the year when we finally shook off the fear and loathing of the pandemic and the brutal authoritarianism of lockdown, now thoroughly discredited. Piping came back with a bang – but only just in time. We lost many potentially good young players, and bands and societies have all suffered a fall off in interest (and on the writing front the ever-popular MacStig is no more). By the Editor…

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The Pinstripe Highlanders – an Amateur London-based Piping Society

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Given the scale and scope of its journalism, readers of Piping Press must surely have their finger on the pulse of most parts of our piping world, but there is one small historic corner that has stayed largely under the radar since its inception in 1971. That corner, in London’s West End, is occupied by the Pinstripe Highlanders who have been meeting and playing their pipes together for 51 years….

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RSPBA Confirm New Venue for European Pipe Band Championships

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The RSPBA have confirmed the successful conclusion of contract negotiations with Aberdeen City Council and their entertainments body to take the Euro Pipe Band Championships to the granite city next June 24th. It is understood the arrangement is initially for one year only but the local authority are open to agreements for future years depending on the success of 2023. It is a major coup for the Association given that…

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