Donald Drone is struggling to find the elusive wee hook to inspire his composing, and all he receives is barbed comments from his better half. Thanks to the cartoon creator, Iain Bell, for his work and permission to publish the cartoon.
Tag: Iain Bell
Iain Bell shares a couple of tunes and talks of the Ulster Scots traditions that inspired his book
Iain Bell is a piper, composer, tune book publisher and the creator of the Donald Drone cartoon series that was a well-loved feature of the Piping Times magazine. His tune writing emerged at the age 13, after he had experienced a few years in a pipe band, but his serious […]
Iain Lowther appointed at QVS / Donald Drone
Iain Lowther has been appointed as the new Piping Instructor at Queen Victoria School, Dunblane. He takes over from Gordon Ross, ex-Gordon Highlanders. Iain, pictured, taught piping at The National Piping Centre (TNPC) after retiring from the Army where he was a Scots Guards Pipe Major. He is also the […]
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 […]
Piping hot! / Second virtual Cowal hailed a success / Donald Drone cools off
Reader Dave Alton from Australia asks about pipe maintenance in the tropics. He writes: “I live in Darwin in northern Australia – the tropics. There are three seasons here: the wet or monsoon (January-May) which is characterised by torrential rains, the dry (May-October) when virtually no rain falls, and the […]
McCallum’s to supply bagpipe for Queen’s celebrations / Donald Drone enjoys the ‘craic’ at band practice
McCallum Bagpipes is to suply a set of bagpipes as part of efforts to mark the Queen’s platinum jubilee in 2022 around the UK and the Commonwealth. As we reported exactly two months ago, pipers are asked to help mark the milestone by playing a tune composed for the occasion […]
Keep making good friends in your own ‘piping times’
After only two days, the National Piping Centre’s crowdfunder target for the project to digitise the Piping Times and Piping Today magazines has reached one third. It would appear that this campaign is clearly resonating with the piping world. For younger readers, it may be instructive for us to take […]
Donald Drone on pipeline / SFU’s
• Our thanks go once again to the indefatigable Iain Bell for this month’s Donald Drone cartoon strip. Kevin MacLean of Simon Fraser University Pipe Band sent us this video of the Canadian Grade 1 band’s latest virtual recording. The band recently recorded Finlay MacDonald’s composition for his son, Elliot […]
Riddle solved / More on NM ceilidh photo / Willie Ross and Army School / Donald Drone
We received, surprisingly, quite a few correct answers to yesterday’s April Fool’s Day riddle, pictured above. Thomas MacKenzie of Halifax in Nova Scotia, Canada, was first with the correct answer to Tim Cummings’ clever musical cyrptogram. The answer is: Cabbage, Aged Beef, a Bad Egg – Egad!(Dad added decaf café) […]
Europeans cancelled; plus more games fall
Unsurprisingly, the European Pipe Band Championships has been cancelled for 2021. The news comes two days after the announcement that the British and the UK Championships were cancelled. The ‘Europeans’ were scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 21 at Bught Park, Inverness, but with uncertainty around COVID-19 restrictions and […]
