In my first ‘Piping on Another Planet’ blog back in February, I gave a brief introduction to Ascension Island and discussed some of mine and my son, Ryall’s plans for the recording of our album, Mars Bay, a collection of themes developed from field recordings of the island’s sea birds, […]
The 10 invitees to compete at the 2020 Glenfiddich Solo Piping Championships have been confirmed. The pipers who will take to the stage – and, in brackets, the number of times they have won the overall title – are: • Finlay Johnston (2)• Callum Beaumont • Jack Lee (2)• Roddy […]
The details for the Scottish Piping Society of London’s online solo piping competition are now available on its website. The competition will include C Grade ((Piobaireachd and MSR) and Open Amateur categories as well as SPSL member events (Piobaireachd, March, Strathspey and Reel, and 6/8 March). There will be a […]
Robert W. Gore, inventor of Gore-Tex, the rubberised waterproof/breathable fabric, died last Thursday (17th) aged 83. Gore’s fabric invention was used in the manufacture of the company’s revolutionary pipe bag products in the 1980s, which quickly proved popular with pipers and pipe bands. Essentially, the fabric lets water/moisture out while […]
The late Tom Dingwall’s pipes will be sold at auction in Glasgow at the end of this month. The sale will include Tom’s outstanding antique Donald MacPhee set, pictured. Donald MacPhee was born in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire in 1842. His parents were natives of Islay. Donald was taught piping by a […]
Donald Lindsay, the Scottish piper who is now domiciled on a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, yesterday releasesd his latest recording. The History of Sleep, recorded with Richard Youngs, a Glasgow-based “experimental” musician. The album utilises Lindsay’s free-ranging, improvisational Lindsay System smallpipes chanter accompanied by Richard’s […]
By MacGregor Kennedy. A mile north of Dufftown where Fiddich meets Dullan is Balvenie. On the west side stands Balvenie Castle on an eminence, readily seen from the A941. It was in times past called the ‘Castle of Mortlach’ and was the centre of the locality long before Dufftown was […]
The Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society (LBPS) today marked in music a major milestone in Scottish history. The major milestone was the 700th anniversary of the so-called Declaration of Arbroath, the letter that was submitted to Pope John XXII in Avignon, France in the spring of 1320. The letter was […]
By Dugald B. MacNeill Pipers will talk endlessly about their pipe chanters and go to great lengths to get them just right, or what they believe is right. They will spend money on reeds and buy new pipe chanters to increase the chance of getting both the correct scale and […]
As the Piping Times always acknowledged, sometimes its Letters pages contained more enjoyable reading than the rest of the magazine. Here is an example. It is a letter written by Allan Hamilton – he of Pipers’ Persuasion – to Seumas MacNeill and published in the June 1996 PT. Allan had […]
