Two of Inveraray & District Pipe Band’s finalists Continue reading
Tag Archives: RSPBA
Argyll Pipe Band promotions for 2010
The National Council of the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association has announced Continue reading
Scottish Piping Championship to be at Dumbarton from 2009-2012
The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA) has chosen Dumbarton as the venue for the prestigious Scottish Piping Championship for the next three years.
In a massive boost for the area, Dumbarton will host the event in Levengrove Park until 2012 after seeing off serious competition.
Gordon Hamill, an organiser for the Dumbarton District Pipe Band, is delighted: ‘I think Levengrove Park is chosen as a hosting venue because it is a fantastic setting and it is probably one of the best venues that the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA) could use, what with Dumbarton Castle and the Rock in the background.’
Mr Hamill, who is also the vice chairman of the RSPBA, feels that the excitement of the championships in the area brings more people into piping. He points out that: ‘West Dunbartonshire is one of the few areas that doesn’t teach piping in schools so we are the only band in the area who teach children piping and drumming skills’.
The shining success of the Inveraray & District Pipe Band in Mid Argyll, under dedicated Pipe Major Stuart Liddell, is a template for what piping can do for young people – with all of the transferable skills of confidence, discipline, teamwork, synchronisation, co-ordination and integration of the physical with the music and the aesthetic (except for the pipers’ attempt to dance the Strathspey!).
Inveraray now has two bands and the competition for places is intense. The town has also benefitted from the star dust their world champion band has sprinkled on it.
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Inveraray Pipe Band Drum Major to work with Oban Pipe Band
Steven MacWhirter, from Northern Ireland but now a Glasgow based drummer and drum tutor has agreed to help Oban Pipe Band develop its Drum Corps.
Steven is Drum Major for the highly successful 2008 World, European and Scottish Champion Juvenile Pipe Band, Inveraray and District. The Royal Scottish Pipe Band Asssociation (RSPBA) has accepted the Inveraray Band’s application for promotion to Grade 2 competition in 2009 and, with Pipe Major Stuart Liddell, Steven will be heavily involved in working for the step-up to that grade.
Steven won the World Solo Drumming Competition in 2006 and has played for several years with Canada’s Simon Fraser University pipe band, including its winning performance at the 2008 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow.
Oban’s Pipe Major, Iain Hurst, himself an award winning piper, worked to bring Steven’s expertise to the Oban band. The have recently lost a couple of drummers and Steven will work both with the existing drummers and with new recruits.
See For Argyll’s video story of Inveraray & District Pipe Band at the Inveraray Parade on Remembrance Sunday
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Inveraray Pipe Band plans for RSPBA promotion for 2009
Inveraray Pipe Band, under Pipe Major Stuart Liddell, won the World Championship this year in their first appearance in the Juvenile section. They also won the section at the Cowal Gathering and were then made Champion of Champions for the Juvenile Grade in 2008. And they were World Best Drum Corps in the under 18 section.
Stuart Liddell, the band’s inspirational and selfless PIpe Major is himself an international champion piper who plays with the Simon Fraser University band, winning the Grade 1 premier section in the World Championships in Glasgow this year.
We reported earlier that Mr Liddell was planning to establish a Grade 2 band to give his young members somewhere to move on to in time. We now understand that his plans are to move the entire band up to Grade 2, if the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association (RSPBA) gradings people approve; or, failing that, to move to Grade 3.
His plans to support a possible Grade 2 promotion involve strenthening the drumming section of the band. He has recruited his colleague, World Champion solo drummer from Simon Fraser University, Northern Ireland’s Steven McWhirter, to join the new band, along with William Quinn, a former under-18 World Champion drummer from Dunoon and some other talented new members from Oban and Northern Ireland.
As with everything Stuart Liddell does, the planning and organisation are immaculate. The new band will meet and practice for the first time this weekend, followed shortly by further practice sessions. The tune repertoire will be agreed and worked up. The rest of us can sit back and wait for the pleasure of listening to them and seeing them in action.
We will report on the grading decision of the RSPBA when it is known but either way, this is a talented and highly motivated band whose achievements sprinkle gold dust on Argyll.