North Lanarkshire Schools Pipe Band has been saved. Councillors today rejected options which would have seen the cessation of music groups including the World Champion-winning band. The decision was taken at the council’s meeing in Motherwell which saw its budget for 2020/21 approved. A council tax rise of 4.84% is […]
By Elizabeth B. Somerville, Edinburgh I was seven years of age when I went for my first piping lesson from Pipe Major James Sutherland, late of the 2nd Batallion Seaforth Highlanders. I didn’t learn much in the first few weeks for I could already read music, and the ebony chanter, […]
By David V. Kennedy In the last few years, pipers have recognised that the pitch of the chanter of the Scottish piob mhor has risen to approximately B flat from A natural. Chanter makers seem to have responded to a popular demand to make higher pitched canters – mostly from […]
Yesterday, we kicked off the new year with the results of Michael Grey’s survey of pipe bands over the last century, the results of which were interesting indeed. Today, we feature another pictorial from the camera of John Slavin. This time it is the 2009 World Pipe Band Championships. That […]
Calum Brown won the last quarter final heat of the Scots Guards Association’s current Knockout series held yesterday at the Scots Guards Club in Haymarket, Edinburgh. The Inveraray & District Pipe Band piper, a native of the northeast of Scotland, won over Bradley Parker, formerly of Field Marshal Montgomery Pipe […]
By Pipe Major Peter MacGregor (WO2) On the weekend of February 22-23 the sound of bagpipes, drums and bugles was once again present at Redford Barracks in Edinburgh as the 2020 Army Piping and Drumming Championships took place at the Army School of Bagpipe Music and Highland Drumming’s home of […]
Current World Champions, Inveraray & District Pipe Band will put on this year’s prestigious pre-Worlds concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall on August 12. The name of the concert is ‘A Night in That Land’. Inveraray last played at the Pre-Worlds concert in 2013 at the band’s ‘Ascension’ show. […]
This article, first published in the International Piper, discusses the various properties of a skin bag that the piper should be aware of. By Captain John A. MacLellan Climatic conditions often have a greater effect on the general condition of pipe bags than the material of which they are made. […]
Bobby Allen and Duncan Winters won their respective heats at the annual Graeme Johnston Memorial juvenile solo piping competition today at The National Piping Centre Otago Street. The win was the third in a row at this competition for Bobby Allen. Results: Afternoon winners (MSR) – 1. Bobby Allen (Shotts […]
Concerned parents in a Scottish local authority have launched a petition in response to proposed cuts to music tuition in its schools. At the time of posting, the petition as been signed over 3,500 times. It can be found here. As part of major budget cuts, North Lanarkshire Council is […]
As of today, BagpipeNews is delighted to begin an occasional series of articles combed from the pages of The International Piper. We are grateful to Colin MacLellan for allowing us to delve into the pages of his parents’ short-lived monthly magazine. The International Piper was founded in 1978 by the […]
By Hugh Cheape We in Scotland might sometimes be criticised for regarding our own piping tradition genre. Participation in the Festival Interceltique in Lorient in Brittany in August enabled three Scottish t bands to experience the vitality, skill, and enthusiasm of a different but related tradition of the bagpipe family […]
Glasgow Police Pipe Band has appointed Duncan Nicholson as its new Pipe Major. Duncan replaces Alisdair MacLaren who stepped down from the position last month ahead of a return to his native Australia. A statement released from the band read: “Following the departure of Alisdair McLaren, the band would like […]
The estate of the late Colin Ross is selling some of the late Northumbrian pipemaker’s pipes at an auction early next month. Colin, who lived in Whitley Bay in the north-east of England, died last May after a short illness. He was a major figure in the revival of bellows-blown […]
