Archive

Eric Rigler’s influence on how normal people think of “the bagpipes” cannot be understated. In Part 4 of the exclusive pipes|drums Interview, he takes us to the moments when Hollywood decided bagpipes are serious instruments that deserve a place alongside world-class orchestras and ensembles, scored by some of the greatest screen composers on earth. Credit […]

Scotland’s National Piping Centre is introducing participant fees to its National Youth Pipe Band of Scotland “Ensembles” program, “a decision we have not taken lightly and one we ultimately believe is in everyone’s best interest,” according to NYPBS Director Steven Blake. “In the short term, this is a substantial change […]

Cameron Bonar won the Gordon Duncan Memorial Kitchen Piping medley competition, and Jack Martin, a member of Grade 2 North Stratton, won the Skye Richendrfer Memorial Jig. Each event paid homage to great contributors to the piping and drumming world. With three firsts and a second, Craig Sutherland came away with the Open Piping aggregate trophy.

Not only are there just around 50 tickets remaining for Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia’s “SOLAS” Pre-World’s Concert on August 13th at the 2500-seat Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, but the band is reporting that its hot new merchandise is also in short supply. The pre-sale for SOLAS gear, which includes shirts, […]

In British Columbia’s remote southern interior, Kamloops boasts a population of more than 100,000, and the city expanded with the annual Kamloops Highland Games. A relatively small gathering of pipers, drummers, and pipe bands competed and performed as part of the British Columbia Pipers Association’s summer circuit.

Angus MacPhee of Inverness was the overall winner of the senior solo piping at the annual Inverness Highland games at Bught Park in scorching 32°C sunshine.

Edinburgh – June 12, 2025 – Dublin’s St. Laurence O’Toole won the 2025 UK Championships in a three-band Grade 1 MSR competition at the Royal Highland Showground in Ingliston, on the west side of Edinburgh, the first time a major RSPBA competition was held in Scotland’s capital city in decades. […]

We conclude the “Castle Recordings” with the eighteenth and final installment of piobaireachds in our exclusive series of performances captured on reel-to-reel tape at Edinburgh Castle in the early 1960s by the late Captain John A. MacLellan MBE. “The Gathering of the MacNabs,” “Lament for the Castle at Dunyveg,” “Lament for the Departure of King James,” “Lament for the Little Supper,” “Lament for MacDonald of Kinlochmoidart” No. 1, and “The Young Laird of Dungannon’s Salute.”

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 . . .