Archive
George “Geordie” Pryde, the long-time Leading-Drummer of the Powell River Pipe Band of British Columbia, and a former member of the Edinburgh City Police Pipe Band in the 1950s under Pipe-Majors Donald Shaw-Ramsay and John Burgess, died on January 3rd in his ninety-third year. Born March 5, 1921, in Newton […]
In the 20 years since the annual January Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow launched, Highland piping has generally been in the background, especially when . . .
In the third instalment of our exclusive interview for pipes|drums subscribers, the renowned solo piper and pipe-sergeant of the Grade 1 and six-time World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band delves into becoming and staying competitive on a world level for many years, teaching programs and succession planning for leaders. Jack Lee delves into the problems, challenges and rewards for pipe bands today, and the increasingly difficulty of satisfying and sustaining the demand for ever more and talented personnel, and the need for professionalism within the ranks, and how vital Leading-Drummer Reid Maxwell has been to the band’s success.
The annual Winter Storm piping and drumming competitions drew large entries, despite recent weather-related travel havoc throughout North America leading up to the event. Put on . . .
Our annual predictions for the piping and drumming and pipe band year ahead, as our panel of experts called them. We also review our prognostications from this time last year to see how we did, and include some more one-off predictions for 2014.
The 143rd Annual Waipu Highland Games were both the last piping and drumming events of 2013 and the first of 2014, with Martin Frewen of Auckland enjoying the most solo piping success, and Nathan Samu and Angus Crowe on top in the solo snare drumming. Frewen won five of the six Grade-A piping events, including the Helen McGregor Memorial Solo Piping recital on New Year’s Eve. Angus Crowe won the second annual Robert Turner Drumming Championship . . .
Martin Frewen of Auckland won both events at the first Auckland & District Pipe Band Northcote Invitational Challenge Solo Piping Competition, which required contestants to play a double MSR and a Freestyle Medley. The contest was held in an . . .
The ball has dropped on the year that was 2013 in piping and drumming, and the standard we saw in the last 12 months was, without doubt, the greatest ever, so again . . .
It’s time for Trailing Drones’ second annual Raspberry Awards, the accolades given by Harry Tung to the year’s most notably dubious achievements in piping and drumming. There was a bountiful harvest to nosh from, and Harry’s hardest task was picking which to regurgitate, to spew forth in his usual tongue-in-cheeky diatribe of frothy goodness. And the 2013 Raspberries go to . . .
Only 13 bands in history have been official World Pipe Band Champions, and the future of one of them, Dysart & Dundonald, is in jeopardy after announcing cancellation of its . . .
The Grade 1 Vale of Atholl Pipe Band has made another leadership change, this time very much planned, with the appointment of Alistair “Bongo” McNab to the role of . . .
Canterbury Caledonian continued its success at the annual Jenny Mair Square Day competition at Palmerston North Square. Canterbury won first overall, taking both piping and drumming titles. Earlier in the year the band won the New Zealand Pipe Band Championship. The Square Day contests were started in 1980 and are held on the second Saturday in December. The events have gained a reputation for being relaxed and well run, and generally regarded, especially at Grade 1 level, as the most important New Zealand contest outside of the annual national championship.
Andy Fuller of Adelaide, Australia, reviews Fergus Muirhead’s ‘A Piper’s Tale – Stories from the World’s Top Pipers,’ a 204-page book that he finds – perhaps surprisingly – very engaging for pipers, drummers, enthusiasts or even the great masses unafflicted by the strange, benign virus that is the GHB
In the second part of our exclusive interview with world renowned piper Jack Lee, he discusses his history in pipe bands, including the Port Moody, City of Victoria, CP Air, and, of course, Simon Fraser University. In Part 2, Lee speaks frankly about prizes narrowly missed and the critical nickname by the haters for SFU as “The Borg” – an unstoppable force in the Pacific Northwest that sucks in all around it. He goes into the early days of SFU, and the origins of quality piping and drumming in British Columbia that helped set up a positive environment in which the eventual six-time World Champions could evolve.
Scott McCann, Staunton, Illinois, was the overall winner of the seventh annual Balmoral Classic, which incorporates the United States Junior Solo Highland Piping Championship . . .
The amateur solo piping competitions introduced to the Newark, New Jersey, Metro Express workshops last year by Scotland’s National . . .