Further to yesterday’s announcement of the PipingLive! festival going online for 2020, another iconic event is following suit. Cowal Highland Gathering has announced it will run a Virtual Gathering for 2020, from August 27-29. It will stream on the Gathering’s social media and YouTube channels over the three days. Organisers […]
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Piping Live! returns for 2020 with a digital festival
After a summer of cancelled events, Piping Live! Glasgow International Piping Festival has announced it will be live-streaming a mini-programme of this year’s event between August 8-14. In April, festival organisers had to cancel this year’s event due to the Coronavirus pandemic but after months of careful planning, the festival […]
Famous pipers: J. B. Robertson
James Blair Robertson was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1905. He was for many years a living legend among competing pipers and when he died, in London on October 2, 1988, one of the last remaining links with the leading pipers of the 1920s and 1930s was gone. Competitively, his […]
How Shotts won and lost the Worlds – on the same day!
In 2010 Shotts and Dykehead Pipe Band marked its 100th anniversary. In the Piping Times of April that year, the band’s then Pipe Major, Robert Mathieson told the following story about one of the band’s great Pipe Majors, John K. McAllister. By Robert Mathieson It was Saturday, June 25, the […]
Tributes paid to Robin Fleming CBE
Tributes have been paid to Robin Fleming CBE who died peacefully at his Oxfordshire home on June 26 aged 87. Robin was a family patriarch and a non-executive director of a well known private banking firm, Robert Fleming & Co., whose headquarters are in London’s Mayfair. The firm had been […]
My father the bagpiper, part 6
In this instalment of her father’s life, Edith Paterson (nee McHardy) takes the story to the 1920s and 30s. When we had been eight years at Little Drumlassie, a new laird lived at Whitehouse, and my father was invited to return as farm-manager. At the age of 62 years he […]
Lewis & Harris results / Tune mystery partly solved / Bergen-Belsen pipers
Ashley MacDonald, Director of the Lewis & Harris Youth Pipe Band writes: “The Lewis & Harris Youth Pipe Band [pictured] usually holds an indoor solo competition every year. It’s limited to residents in the Western Isles, from the Butt of Lewis to Barra, and with over 500 pupils playing/learning chanter […]
Sound propagation / Aboyne Games – place available
The second part of Alex Carruther’s article on the acoustical environment of the highland bagpipe out of doors has been uploaded to the site today. In his second part, Alex discusses how nature influences the transmission of sound. Alex’s piece appeared originally in the Piping Times over August and September […]
David Ross’ mistimed bar / The Bitch o’ Blazes query / 2021 Set Tunes
Roddy Livingstone’s memories of some luminaries of the London piping scene, that appeared on Monday’s Bagpipe.News, rekindled a further memory, this time from Colin MacLellan, chairman of the Solo Piping Judges’ Association. Colin writes: “When my father [Captain John A. MacLellan MBE] won one of his Northern Meeting Clasps in […]
Oban finally cancels for 2020
The 2020 Argyllshire Gathering was formally cancelled today. It had been due to take place in Oban, Scotland over August 26 and 27. The belated announcement will surprise no one and comes exactly three months after the Northern Meeting cancelled its competitions for 2020 due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. […]