By Stuart Letford I stood on the railway platform waiting for the train. My belly rumbled like a lion’s den. It was the postman’s fault for making me miss breakfast. He was early this morning. Despite this we had our usual intense and inspirational chat. We laughed, we argued. We […]
Even for the experienced piper the variety of different bagpipes and prices can make buying a new, bespoke instrument seem a daunting process. Today, there are a healthy number of manufacturers and it’s fair to say that, in contrast to a generation or two ago, most are producing excellent instruments. […]
• From the October 2017 Piping Times By Peter McCalister Jack Taylor and Patrick Molard have done a masterful job of ‘translating’ the remaining unpublished tunes in Colin Campbell’s two volumes of canntaireachd. Several generations of pipers, including the influential Archie Kenneth, suggested that these tunes “lacked musical merit” but […]
ScottishPower Pipe Band – SP+R – Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, August 14. ScottishPower Pipe Band took to the stage at exactly 7.35pm last night and for the subsequent three hours – with a 20 minute interval – showed us exactly why this band is considered by many to be future […]
• From the June 2017 Piping Times By Allan MacDonald Side Lights on the Kilberry Book of Ceòl Mór, By Malcolm McRae and Robert Wallace (Piobaireachd Society, 2017). This has been republished recently (2016) and is a compilation of notes written by Archibald Campbell of Kilberry (1877-1963) while receiving instruction […]
From Scots Borderer to Ulster Scot … and Frontiers Beyond – New Tunes in the Auld Style by Iain Bell, (Iain Bell, 2018); £16. By Jenny Hazzard Iain Bell’s book comprises 42 original tunes, each with a background story. It begins with a concise, conversational account of the links between […]
By Iain MacInnes(from the April 2019 Piping Times) Simon McKerrell presents 71 tunes, all self-penned and original other than four traditional tunes which he has arranged for pipes, including Atholl Cummers (in jig time) and a wonderful setting of The Manchester Hornpipe. To have accrued such a mass of material […]
IN PRAISE OF HOME. CD Review by Chris MacKenzie. Piping Today #92, 2018. In contravention of the normal progression of bands in the Scottish traditional scene, Rura have taken songs out of their album rather than put more in. In Praise of Home is Rura’s third album and their first completely […]
ROAD TO THE NORTH CD Review by Stuart Milne. Piping Today #93, 2018. Assynt were a lovely surprise when they shared the stage of the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall’s New Auditorium with Iranian piper Mohsen Sharifian and his band Lian at Celtic Connections in 2018, and the Piping Live! launch […]
Finlay MacDonald is Head of Piping Studies BA (Scottish Music — Piping) degree course at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has been in demand as a performer and has toured with top Scottish bands such as Deaf Shepherd, Battlefield Band and Old Blind Dogs, and, as well as having […]
