Archive
Iain MacDonald (Regina) reports from the epicentre of piping (and drumming) . . .
“If your goal is to understand what’s happening and to assess how good it is, you will never achieve it.”
Christopher Couperthwaite of Germany was the overall winner of the CLASP Grade 2 World Solo Amateur Piping Competition at Piping Live! 2026, held at the National Piping Centre’s Otago Street branch.
After two knee-knocking, stomach-churning, why-did-I-ever-volunteer-for-this? performances, Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia emerged winners of the 2026 International Quartet Competition at a packed Strathclyde Suite in the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
We’re asking one important question each day of Piping Live! 2026. Here are responses from Tuesday, August 11th, on whether it’s time for the Grade 1 and Grade 2 MSR events to be replaced with something else (including retaining the MSR in a different way).
The second heat of Piping Live!’s 2026 Pipe Idol competition was won by 16-year-old Lachlan Rennie, chosen by an unidentified group of three judges to go through to the four-piper Grand Final on Thursday, August 13th.
Iain MacDonald (Regina) reports from the epicentre of piping (and drumming) . . .
pipes|drums’ intrepid photographer, Alister Sinclair, is once again armed with his Nikon and a multitude of Nikkor lenses and his canny eye for a great shot, prowling the scene at Piping Live! 2026. We’re pleased to provide a potpourri of images each day from the world’s greatest piping and drumming […]
The Competition League for Adult Solo Pipers (CLASP) also seized the opportunity that Piping Live! and Worlds Week presented, with hundreds of overseas pipers in town to potentially participate in the “World Solo Amateur Piping Competition” at the Otago Street premises of the National Piping Centre.
The RSPBA’s Glasgow & West of Scotland Branch took advantage of the influx of pipe bands in Scotland for the World Championships by holding the British Solo Drumming Championship at the National Piping Centre’s Otago Street premises, where Australia’s Steven Shedden, leading-drummer of Grade 1 Hawthorn, was victorious.
The first heat of Piping Live!’s 2026 Pipe Idol competition was won by Liam Nicolson of Melbourne, Australia, chosen by an unidentified group of three judges to go through to the four-piper Grand Final on Thursday, August 13th.
The 2026 Piping Live! Festival kicked off with the Masters Solo Piping Competition at the National Piping Centre, and it was Alasdair Henderson who won the overall title and thus gained an invitation to the 2026 Glenfiddich Championships in October.
The Perth Highland Games are the final pipe band competition before the World Championships, so they attracted a reasonably good entry from bands not from Scotland, seizing the opportunity to air some of their competition material for RSPBA judges and an appreciative crowd.
As a service to the many pipe band enthusiasts making their way to Glasgow for Piping Live! and the World Pipe Band Championships, we’re pleased to publish the 2026 edition of the pipes|drums Guide to World’s Week Grade 1 Band Practices. Thirteen bands are entered in Grade 1 at the […]
Aaron Ingram was the overall winner of the Carloway Show & Highland Games Piping Championship at the Carloway Showground against five other local competitors. Ingram received the Finlay MacNeil Cup for the achievement
Air travel with Highland pipes can be fraught with anxiety. Knowing airlines’ policies, rules, and procedures – and your rights as a musician-passenger – can mitigate the risk of having your delicate baby banished to the hold.