Archive
In Part 1 of his “Building Leaders” series, exclusively for pipes|drums subscribers, James Laughlin stressed the vital need for pipe-majors, lead-drummers, pipe-sergeants, and anyone in a pipe band or association with a management role to have a “possibilitarian” perspective. In Part 2, he delves into the essential aspect of effective recruitment for building and sustaining […]
After the thousands of entries were assessed, Shawn Tobin of Nepean, Ontario, was the ONLY one to get the top six Grade 1 at the World Pipe Band Championships absolutely bang-on, making Shawn our 2026 pipes|drums Pick the Six winner! For his canny prognostication, Shawn will receive $7,000+/£ 3700+ in […]
Harry McNulty, one of the pipe band world’s most accomplished and widely respected figures, died on September 8, 2026, at the age of 93. A successful pipe-major with both the Lothian & Borders Police and British Caledonian Airways, McNulty was one of only a few in history to lead more […]
The singular Raasay Restitution solo piping competition once again put the accent on Hebridean culture and fun, this year moving from the Raasay Community Hall to the Raasay House Hotel, and it was Rachel Gray who won the “Pìobaireachd Song” event and Gary West who took the Dance Music contest, each coming away with terrific prizes.
Roybridge, Scotland’s Sandy Cameron was the aggregate winner across the top Senior events at the popular annual Blairgowrie & Rattray Highland Games, where a total of 60 pipers competed in the various events.
Winning three firsts and two seconds in the five events, Stuart Liddell of Inveraray, Scotland, gained the Chatsworth Champion Piper trophy at the annual Chatsworth Country Fair, held on the sprawling manicured grounds of Chatsworth House.
Braemar, Scotland – August 5, 2026 – The annual Braemar Gathering was held in the rolling Royal Deeside landscape in good weather, and it was Ben McClamrock of Washington, DC, who won the traditional Piobaireachd Gold Medal, while Zephan Knichel, Lynnwood, Washington, gained the overall trophy by winning both light […]
Results from the second and final day of competitions at Eden Court Theatre in Inverness
Results from the world’s top non-invitational solo piping competition
The 2026 Pipe-Major Alasdair Gillies Memorial Challenge Recital was another spectacular night of incredible musical creativity and technical brilliance by five of the world’s greatest Highland pipers. Callum Beaumont, Alasdair Henderson, Finlay Johnston, Angus D. MacColl and Connor Sinclair each performed for 15-20 minutes, every second of which had the packed Strathclyde Suite at […]
Oswald “Ozzie” Reid, whose decades as a pipe-major, teacher, judge, and administrator made him one of the more influential figures in the development of piping and pipe bands in the western United States, has died at age 90. Born in Northern Ireland in 1936, Reid immigrated to the United States […]
The Raasay Restitution Competition at the Raasay House Hotel, Isle of Raasay, Scotland, on September 5th is one of the world’s most creative events for pipers, as 12 pipers will be assessed not simply on their technical and expressive ability playing traditional pipe tunes, but on their feel for step-dance […]
Inverness is set for two packed days of top-flight solo piping as the 2026 Northern Meeting brings the world’s leading players together for the most prestigious non-invitational gathering on the competition calendar. Entries and judges are set, with the action running Thursday, September 3rd, and Friday, September 4th, all events […]
Wilson Young, the legendary former Red Hackle leading drummer, World Solo Drumming Champion and highly influential adjudicator and educator, died in his nineties on August 24, 2026.
Kyle Shead of Glasgow won the Competing Pipers’ Association’s Bronze Medal for Piobaireachd, held at the National Piping Centre’s Otago Street branch.
William Lyons died following a short illness on August 28, 2026. Born on May 27, 1940, he learned to play the bagpipes as a boy with the Corbet Pipe Band, just outside Banbridge in County Down, Northern Ireland. He was taught in the post-war years in this quiet part of Ireland before enlisting in the British Army as an Infantry Soldier/Piper in the Irish Guards in 1957.