There seems to be a sense of optimism among the pipe band community in Scotland that a competition season will return in 2022, writes the Editor. Bagpipe.News has been contacted this week – unprompted – by quite a number of individuals who speak of much positivity at band practices and […]
The medley has now been a feature of pipe band competitions for 50 years. Prior to this, it was MSRs all the way. Today, the pipe band medley at the top level is far removed from those early years – and even from fairly recent years. Listen to most Grade 1 […]
Reader, Fiona Stephen, has been in touch with some fascinating information about three members of her family who fought at the Battle of Magersfontein. Fiona’s information shows us that this iconic battle, immortalised in pipe music, is really not as long ago as we think. The battle was fought on […]
McCallum Bagpipes Ltd. is once again sponsoring both the Pipe Major Alasdair Gillies Memorial Recital Challenge and the Gordon Duncan Memorial Recital Competition at next month’s Piping Live! festival. The Kilmarnock, Scotland-based bagpipe manufacturing company has sponsored the festival’s flagship event since its inception. The ‘Alasdair Gillies Memorial’ evolved from […]
Scottish piper, John Dew, releases his first album next Friday (27th). Mackerel Sky is mainy self-composed and includes one piece of ceòl mòr (The Marquis of Argyll’s Salute, the tune Dew played at 2019 Royal National Mòd where he was the overall winner). The album was recorded during the spring […]
Any artist creates based on their own experiences and influences. Many will seek to develop new ideas evolving from the art which inspires them. Stravinsky developed tonal and rhythmic ideas from Rimsky-Korsakov, for example. Others will clinically remove the factors they enjoy the most from their favourite art and layer […]
1946-47 By Jeannie Campbell MBE The Second World War ended on September 2, 1945. It had lasted six years and one day. The military pipers started to return home and in 1946 the regular piping competitions were being restarted. On May 25, 1946, the Oban Times carried a notice for the resumption […]
After Monday’s post on transgender competitors at next year’s highland games in Scotland, some readers contacted us enquiring as to whether there have been any transgender pipers. We can only speculate that there must have been but that they, perhaps understandably, maintained a low profile. However, the modern era is […]
Reader, Ann Chapman who lives in Glasgow, Scotland, has a set of pipes she wishes to sell on behalf of her son. Ann tells us she bought the pipes – made by McCallum Bagpipes – for her son who learnt to play as a youngster through the Sheffield Pipe Band […]
Reader, Arthur Baird has been in touch with us in relation to the music of the late Pipe Major John Matheson BEM, of the Cameronians (The Scottish Rifles). Matheson [pictured] served originally with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers regiment in 1943 in India and Burma. In 1947 he gained his […]
