Where are you from and how did you get into piping? I am originally from Detroit. A friend of my dad, who was in the Essex and Kent Scottish Regiment in Windsor, asked if any of his kids were interested in learning the pipes, so I raised my hand. I got […]
Latest news
Tobruk anniversary to be marked in Perth
The 80th anniversary on the breakout and the subsequent fighting of the Second World War’s longest siege will be marked at Balhousie Castle in Perth tomorrow (Sunday). The 2nd Battalion The Black Watch played a key role in the latter stages of the siege of Tobruk, which ended on November […]
Lathallan’s Loos pipes / Jack records a ‘stoater’ of a tune / Remembrance Day marked in Berlin
A set of pipes that sounded at the Battle of Loos and which belonged to an east of Scotland school’s first piping instructor have been donated to the school. Harry Stott taught at Lathallan School near Montrose throughout the 1960s and 70s. However, much earlier, at the outbreak of the […]
The history of the Argyllshire Gathering, part 30
1962 By Jeannie Campbell MBE After the 1962 Argyllshire Gathering the Piping Times carried a full report of the event: “Once again the summer games season reached its culmination in the middle of September, and once again, at the beginning of the second week of the month, all roads led […]
New album from Tim / Bonar overall at Balmoral Classic
US piper, Tim Cummings has released an interesting new album. The Birds’ Flight is the culmination of several years’ worth of collaboration between Tim and Pete Sutherland (fiddle, song), and Brad Kolodner (banjo). The Vermont-based composer and multi-instrumentalist has included traditional pipe tunes restyled as Appalachian-style hoedowns and waltzes. Tim […]
Dan Nevans: A debt that can never be repaid
I have never been in any branch of the armed forces. I wasn’t in the Boys’ Brigade or the Boy Scouts either. Other than playing in a pipe band I didn’t grow up with any connection to any sort of military tradition. I have friends who serve currently and have […]
Famous pipers: Dugald McLachlan
Dugald Campbell McLachlan (1893-1958) was a founding member of the Camelon Pipe Band and its Pipe Major for two decades prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. His father, Peter (1859-1913) was a piper who worked as a gamekeeper at Lochearnhead before taking a job at a chemical […]
Piping in London – Part 2
By Jeannie Campbell MBE The Caledonian Society of London was instituted in 1839 and had its first formal session in 1839-1840 although some activities had started as early as 1837. The impetus seems to have been a desire by professional Scots, particularly those from the Lowlands, to create an alternative […]
Lou Lanaro – the last and the first
By Wilson Brown (NPC Piping Instructor and Tuition Co-ordinator) On March 20, 2020, the National Piping Centre (NPC) closed its doors to students and, like most of the world, went into lockdown. The last student to be taught in person was Lou Lanaro, a 72-year-old piper from Collingwood, Ontario. Lou […]
NPC’s junior comp. / Jack on the radio / Bands needed for St. Andrew’s parade / Piper’s fundraising trip / Roddy’s recital rescheduled again
Entries are open for the National Piping Centre’s annual junior solo piping competition which returns next winter … in person. The competition will take place in Glasgow on February 19, 2022 across the organisation’s two campuses – in McPhater Street in the city centre and in Otago Street in the […]