GREY’S NOTES by Michael Grey. Piping Today #82, 2016. There was a time when I thought that one of the hardest things I’d ever done in my life was to play Peter MacLeod’s tune Donald MacLean, twice through in the jig final at the Northern Meeting. John Burgess, ever the […]
1949-1950 By Jeannie Campbell MBE In 1949, competitors for the Open Piobaireachd had to offer four tunes, The End of the Great Bridge, Lament for MacDonald’s Tutor, Scarce of Fishing and The Vaunting. For the Gold Medal no tunes were listed but for the Northern Meeting Gold Medal the requirement […]
1937-39 By Jeannie Campbell MBE In 1937 the balls and games of the Argyllshire Gathering were on September 15 and 16. Five clan chiefs attended the opening ball held at the Gathering Halls on the evening of the 14th. They were: Col. MacDougall of MacDougall, chief the MacDougalls; Stewart Appin, chief of […]
Archie MacNeill (1879-1962), is probably best known as the composer of Donald MacLean’s Farewell to Oban, The Detroit Highlanders, David Ross of Rosehall and a few other great tunes that have stood the test of time. Archie, though, was an important figure in piping and, in fact, could be regarded […]
By Seumas MacNeill Archie MacNeill composed Donald MacLean’s Farewell to Oban in 1938 at a time when he was probably at his most prolific in producing tunes. That was the year of the ‘Crisis’ (which itself was responsible for the production of a tune by Willie Fergusson), the time when […]
By Archie MacLean My father, John MacLean, was born in the solitary house on the small tidal island of Kirkibost, North Uist, where his father, Angus, was the herdsman. My father’s birth certificate shows his birth date as April 23, 1900. There was no doctor present at the birth (not […]
After our story yesterday about next month’s piping tribute to the soldiers captured at St Valèry-en-Caux in June 1940, several readers have reminded us about an article that appeared in the June 2002 edition of the Piping Times. The article included a photograph of the pipers of the 2nd Battalion […]
