Archive

Across all grades, 207 bands have entered the 2025 World Championships on August 15th and 16th at Glasgow Green, Glasgow, an increase of three over last year’s event. As pipes|drums concluded in April, 14 bands are entered in Grade 1, the same number as in 2024. Five non-UK bands are […]

The prominent Canadian piper and pipe-major William John “Bill” Gilmour died on June 7, 2025, at 88. Gilmour is one of the most accomplished pipers in Canadian history. In addition to serving with the Canadian military for decades, including as pipe-major of the Royal Canadian Air Force Pipe Band, one […]

While the World Championships are by far the biggest competition in the pipe band world, they have come at the cost of continually declining attendance at the smaller events and even other major championships, as bands increasingly focus on and invest in succeeding at or simply attending the World Championships. […]

With eight first-place rankings from the eight judges, Greighlan Crossing were the easy overall winners of the Grade 3 band competition, the top-graded event at the annual Penticton Scottish Festival, held in sunny weather in the Southern Interior of British Columbia, the hub of the South Okanagan region on Canada’s west coast.

A 10-minute skip and a hop from the main action of the Piping Live! festival on August 10th will be a performance by the Ross Miller Band at the Stereo Glasgow, a historic building by Scotland’s great architect, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, in Glasgow’s city centre. Miller is famous among Highland […]

Ian K. MacDonald enjoyed three firsts in the four Professional solo piping events at the 2025 Kincardine Scottish Festival & Highland Games in spectacular weather at Victoria Park in sight of Lake Huron.

Field Marshal Montgomery won the 2025 All-Ireland Championships against a field of three other Grade 1 bands, gaining their record twenty-eighth victory of the event.

We continue to consider the parallels of piping and drumming and a good walk spoiled . . .

Grade 1 Johnstone has started a search for a new leading-drummer after Gavin Orr announced he will resign after the 2025 World Championships. Orr had been lead-drummer since late 2022, with Pipe-Major Donald Mackay running the band. He had been a corps drummer with Grade 1 Inveraray & District for […]

This August, Scotland’s Kyle Warren will release Play, his third collection of original compositions and arrangements. The book of 50 tunes, all by Warren, follows Tunez (2010) and EAT SLEEP PIPE REPEAT (2020). A former member of Field Marshal Montgomery and the pipe-major of the then Grade 2 Hawthorn of […]

As part of R.G. Hardie & Co.’s news that they’ve remodelled and narrowed their extensive line of bagpipes, we received a video of Highland Society of London Gold Medallist and Glenfiddich light music champion Connor Sinclair playing a new set of redesigned Peter Henderson pipes. Along with the world-famous Callum […]

“The celebration brought a real sense of closure to the FMM chapter of my life.” – Richard Parkes. About 100 guests attended the invitation-only event at Dunadry Hotel and Gardens in Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Originally from Crieff, Scotland, and now living in Glasgow, John Dew has a bachelor’s degree in traditional music from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. He has been making a career as a music composer, arranger, and producer, in between playing with the Grade 1 Inveraray & District and vying for […]

R.G. Hardie & Co. of Glasgow is taking a different approach by simplifying its offerings to make choosing that much easier. Equally important, the company is enabling its worldwide network of dealers to keep in-demand Peter Henderson- and Hardie-branded pipes in stock and ready to ship to pipers eager to get their hands on their new instrument.

Stuart Easton of Palmerston North, New Zealand, closed on Frank MacKinnon’s record on 14 by winning his twelfth R.U. Brown Cup for light music. Willie Rowe of Fielding, New Zealand, won the Everest Cup Piobaireachd contest and was second in the Brown Cup to gain the overall prize.

Field Marshal Montgomery won Grade 1 against two other bands, marking the first competition for the 13-time World Champions under Pipe-Major Matt Wilson, who succeeded pipe band legend Richard Parkes last autumn.