By ROSS McNAUGHTON. We invite you to showcase your talents at the esteemed Pitlochry Highland Games on September 14, 2024. There will be a street march competition; Grade 4B competition; Grade 4A competition;, Grade 3 MSR competition (Grade 4A bands can play up in this event); and a Grade 3 medley competition. Secure your participation by promptly submitting your entries through our new online form, as band numbers are limited. Don’t miss this exceptional opportunity to shine at this prestigious event! Entries should be made through our web page here. https://www.pitlochryhighlandgames.co.uk ..read more

By JEANNIE CAMPBELL MBE • PART 5 • MAY KOSB Pipe Band opens the BBC in Edinburgh on May Day The opening of the Edinburgh Station of the British Broadcasting Co Ltd by the Lord Provost took place in the Usher Hall on May 1st at 8pm. There were speeches by Sir Alfred Ewing KCB Principal of Edinburgh University and J C W Reith esq Managing Director of the British Broadcasting Co plus a wireless concert from London, and the band and pipers of the 1st Batt KOSB. In Aberdeen the university students’ gala week took place, starting at the beginning of May. Despite the bad weather, a torchlight pr ..read more

TRITON Rule of Three CD Review by Alex Monaghan. Bagpipe.news May 2024. 14 tracks, 58 minutes Hailing from the north-eastern seaboard of North America, this trio features Tim Cummings on whistles and cauld wind pipes, Jeremiah McLane on keyboards, and Alex Kehler on strings and occasional vocals. Singer Elisabeth Giroux guests on one track, but otherwise it’s just the trio, admittedly with a fair amount of multitracking. Triton’s repertoire is eclectic – Scottish, French, Swedish, Northumbrian, and some of their own transatlantic compositions. The opening two tracks showcase Border pipes ..read more

•Ryan Cupples-Menendez at North Uist in 2019 when he won the strathspey and reel and got prizes in the march and jigs. South Uist Games and North Uist Games have lined up their dates either side of the Highland and Islands Young Piper of the Year competition, giving a three day run of solo piping events from July 17 to July 19. The South Uist Games Piping competitions will take place on Askernish Machair on July 17th. For further information please email southuistgames@gmail.com or contact Margaret Mary Findlay on 07742101007. •Angus Macphee was the overall winner of the South ..read more

•Overall winner Cameron Bonar pictured playing in Pipe Idol at Piping Live! 2023. To mark 20 years of adult amateur competitions, the CLASP held an online World Amateur Champion of Champions Solo event on April 27. The overall winner of the competition was Cameron Bonar, who received a set of David Naill DN2 pipes as his prize. The competition was organised as a live online event, and a YouTube link to rewatch the full competition is below. The Competition League for Amateur Solo Pipers (The CLASP) was set up by The National Piping Centre in 2003 to give adult amateur pipers a competition plat ..read more

A large entry competed yesterday, May 26, at the annual Atholl Gathering on the grounds of Blair Castle, Scotland’s first major outdoor solo piping contest of the year. Brodie Watson-Massey was the Overall Winner winning the B Grade Piobaireachd and placing fifth in the MSR and fourth in the Hornpipe & Jig. For the second year in a row, Arran Green was the Junior Overall winner. The full results are as follows: P/A Piobaireachd Sandy Cameron Calum Brown Steven Leask Cameron May Eireann Iannetta-MacKay B Piobaireachd Brodie Watson-Massey Andrew Ferguson Bobby Allen Dan Nevans John MacDon ..read more

A reed pressure gauge allows me to set reeds to a specific strength rather than relying on subjective categories of soft, medium or hard. The gauge itself is basically a larger version of a practice chanter top with a fine pressure gauge fixed on top. The unit fits over the chanter and reed. You blow through it to sound the reed and the gauge registers the pressure in inches of water. To establish the strength of a reed, I take a reading from the gauge when the high A is blown at the correct pressure. Pipers who own one of our gauges can measure their existing reed and order some the same stre ..read more

• PART 56 • BY JEANNIE CAMPBELL MBE. The 1991 Gathering was on 21st and 2nd August. The programme reverted to A5 size with a colour picture of PM J Motherwell, Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders on the front. The Oban pipe band played at the Games on the second day. The Silver Medal The Silver Medal competition was not covered in the Piping Times but it took place in the Corran Hall, starting at 9am with 23 entries. Four tunes were to be submitted from a list of eight. The set tunes were The Lament for Donald of Laggan, The Desperate Battle of the Birds, Grain in Hides and Corn in Sacks, The ..read more

There is a very healthy entry again this year for the Atholl Gathering, which takes place on Sunday, May 26 at Blair Castle, Blair Atholl in Pitlochry. Organisers would like to remind competitors and judges that all events will start at 0930 to allow competitions to finish in reasonable time. A/P/Open GRADE PIOBAIREACHD  Calum Brown 9 Ben Duncan 19 Angus MacPhee 39 Sarah Muir 49 Darach Urquhart 67 Eireann Ianetta-Mackay 29 Jamie Forrester 23 Cameron May 42 Sandy Cameron 12 Steven  Leask 34 Greig Canning 13 John Mulhearn 52 •Roddy MacLeod was the overall winner of the ..read more

From The Ground CD Review by Stuart Milne. Bagpipe.news May 2024. Long has nature served as one of mankind’s greatest muses in all art forms, not least the music of the Great Highland Bagpipe. Just think how many classic tunes are named after bens, glens, paps, and the various animals that roam them (the unfortunate womenfolk of the composers are sometimes given short shrift by comparison). More recently, entire projects have emerged from the traditional music scene paying homage to and calling for the rescue of our shrinking natural world, not least the magisterial Spell Songs ensemble ..read more