By CHRIS MacKENZIE
If you have a couple of hours to spare and you are feeling that your life is tough, then take the time to talk to the organisers of any piping competition, and they will regale you with the issues associated with running their event, your problems may pale in comparison.
When that event is on an island and the logistics, and costs, are at the mercy of the ferries, the airline, and of course the weather, then those woes can become seismic. Given that, the Lewis and Harris Piping Society keeping the Pipe Major Donald MacLeod Memorial Competition going for 30 years is an outstanding achievement and thanks are due to the society, and its sponsors for all the effort involved in keeping this most special of competitions going.
Yesterday, Friday, April 3, at the Caladh Inn, Stornoway, the eight competitors were Callum Beaumont, Ben Duncan, Alasdair Henderson, Finlay Johnston, Steven Leask, Stuart Liddell, Angus MacColl and Brodie Watson-Massey.
Click through to the Lewis and Harris Piping Society Facebook page to see recordings of yesterday’s competition.
The morning is devoted to the piobaireachd of Pipe Major MacLeod, and it was a terrific morning of music, almost all the pipers have been at the competition before, just Steven and Brodie were experiencing it for the first time, and their familiarity with Pipe Major MacLeod’s tunes was obvious, allowing nuanced performances of some of the most melodic tunes in the piobaireachd canon.
The afternoon session was the MSR, one of each from Pipe Major MacLeod’s extensive catalogue of tunes and one own choice. This was a delight from start to finish and the judges task was far from straightforward in picking a winner. The Hornpipe and Jig followed preceded by the playing of a Gaelic air which, as always, was accompanied by the audience singing along, and judging who gave the best slow air performance, Angus MacColl took the honours this year. There was a lovely moment ahead of Ben Duncan’s H/J when his birthday was acknowledged by a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday.
The overall winner was Finlay Johnston with Stuart Liddell runner up.
Piobaireachd:
- Finlay Johnston – Lament for the Iolaire
- Angus MacColl – Salute to the few
- Stuart Liddell – Lament for Angus Macpherson of Invershin
- Alasdair Henderson – Lament for John MacDonald, Inverness
MSR:
- Finlay Johnston
- Stuart Liddell
- Callum Beaumont
- Alasdair Henderson
Hornpipe and Jig:
- Ben Duncan
- Alasdair Henderson
- Brodie Massey-Watson
- Stuart Liddell
