LBPS Annual Competition 2024
Saturday 30th March
– in the rooms of the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society,
127 Rose Street South Lane, Edinburgh EH2 4BB
This year’s competition has a different format. We encourage you to have a go at competing and/or performing in a supportive atmosphere where you will meet great people, have a chance to listen to a wide range of playing and receive constructive feedback on your performance.
The venue is the historic rooms of the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society in the centre of Edinburgh (where we held a Collogue a few years ago). The venue is just off Rose Street (parallel to Princes Street) in the centre of Edinburgh,. and is just along from Waverley train station and the main bus station.
The rooms will be open from 09.45 with tea and coffee available on arrival. The first class – the Skeely Piper competition – will commence at 10.30 prompt. The Composing competition follows immediately after. Entries can be performed by a single piper or by duets, trios, quartets and more – and be accompanied by musicians playing other instruments including voice.
There will be space available for tuning.
The theme for the Skeely Piper competition is: a tune or tunes associated with Scottish topography, e..g Tullochgorum, Tweedside, Crags of Stirling, The Waters of Kylescu, Inveraray Castle, Bonnie Milldams o’ Norham, Atholl Braes, Gallowa’ Hills, Loch Tay Boat Song, Hills of Glenorchy, Flow Gently, Sweet Afton, the Braes of Castle Grant etc. A rich seam, indeed, we are sure you’ll agree
Anyone residing overseas – this includes people based in the British Isles who can't make it on the day – can enter these classes and they should record a video that will be shown and judged on the day. Please see the Competition Rules for full details of the deadline and how to submit yo3ur entry.
Running order for the day:
10.00 - Arrival. Tea and coffee
10.30 - Skeely Piper competition
c11.15 - Composing competition (followed by a group performance of the winning tune)
c11.45 - ‘Open mic’ performances
12.30-14.00 - Lunch
14.00 - ‘Open mic’ performances and group playing sessions led by an LBPS Ambassador
c15.30 - Results and presentations
The Booking Form is below. Please complete the form and pay via PayPal.
BOOKING
Entry fees:
Members: £2.50 per class
Non-members: £3.50 per class
Spectators: Free
Annual Competition Booking Form 2024
December 2023 Issue of Common Stock
The latest issue of Common Stock is available to logged-in members HERE
To download the issue, click the 'Open' button at the bottom right of each double-page and use the bottom link of the menu pane on the left side
The 40th Anniversary Burns Supper
Saturday 27th January 2024
The venue for the Burns Supper is The Globe Inn in Dumfries, an establishment that was, in fact, Burns’ 'local’. It still has his favoured chair, his bed and a few other items from the period.
The Globe Inn is now a fine dining establishment and our event will be held in the private dining room. The Committee feels that this adds due weight to such a milestone event in our history, and as such, tickets for a three-course meal and some wine are priced at £55 each.
We are currently pulling together speakers for the evening, and hope to announce these soon, but can confirm so far that Chris Bacon will pipe in the haggis, Stuart Letford (Convenor) will deliver The Immortal Memory, Billy Young of Langholm will deliver Tam o’Shanter and Holy Willie’s Prayer.
- Chris is a longtime member of the LBPS and a superb exponent of Border pipes. He lives in Allendale, Northumbria and has been involved in piping and cultural events for many years. In recent years, he was the organiser of the LBPS Pibroch Weekend with Allan MacDonald.
- Stuart Letford is the current Convenor of the LBPS, and joined the Society in the mid-1990s. He was the last editor of the Piping Times and manager of the College of Piping. As a member of the Vale of Atholl Pipe Band he has performed in many piping concerts.
- Billy Young is a very weel kent figure in the Scottish Borders and is renowned for his delivery of Holy Willie’s Prayer and Tam o’ Shanter. In the Globe Inn in September 2012, Billy won the fiercely contested Tam o’ Shanter World Championship.
Billy Young reccieves his trophy from Southern Scottish Counties Burns Association (SSCBA) President Jane Brown at the 2012 competition. World Federation President Bob Stewart looks on.
We hope to visit Ellisland Farm the following day, as well as the Burns Mausoleum. If there is time, we may visit Angus MacKay’s cairn by the Nith and Willie Nicolson’s grave down in Borgue.
As you may know, Nicolson was a piper and a poet, and Gordon Mooney wrote a great article about him in the June 1998 edition of Common Stock: click here to view the article.
The Globe Inn is not a hotel, however, but Dumfries has plenty of accommodation options.
A ‘Burns Tour’ of The Globe can be had for an extra £10.
BOOKING FORM
The LBPS Collogue and AGM
Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the LBPS!
The LBPS Collogue and AGM was held on 16th September 2023 in the Burgh Halls in Linlithgow, West Lothian.
We had a memorable 40th-Anniversary Collogue last month in Linlithgow, a town that played a pivotal role in the early years of the Society. We had congratulatory messages from founder members Mike Rowan and Gordon Mooney; and Jeannie Campbell, another long-term stalwart, spoke about those early years.
The format of Jeannie’s presentation was in an ‘interview’-style with Convenor, Stuart Letford. It was observed by a few attendees that we should consider repeating this format at next year’s Collogue and for it to include a key figure in the middle years of the LBPS’ history. Watch this space ….
The day itself ran almost blemish-free were it not for the IT gremlins that affected Bruce Hitchings’ presentation. Bruce dialled in from his US home in Arizona and his subject was the harmonic nature of the bagpipe. This is a ‘big’ subject and one that can at times be above most people's heads, but Bruce did well in conveying this to those present.
The Committee’s grateful thanks go to Jeannie, Bruce and to Judy Barker, Matt Seattle and Pete Stewart for their excellent presentations.
Photo by Pete Stewart
Colin Melville, winner of the LBPS 40th anniversary composing competition, receives his winning cheque from Stuart Letford.
Photo by Pete Stewart.
Collogue participants playing Colin Melville's tune The Lowland & Border Pipers' Society.
The agenda for the day was as follows:
- 10.30 Convenor’s Welcome plus a mass playing of Colin Melville’s tune for the LBPS.
- 10.45 The Early Years of the LBPS (including the history of College of Piping) – Jeannie Campbell in conversation with LBPS Convenor, Stuart Letford.
- 11.30 Devising Harmonies – Matt Seattle on his approach to devising ingenious harmonies.
- 12.30 Singing Whilst Piping – Judy Barker has long been acknowledged as a skilled exponent of singing whilst accompanying herself on smallpipes. She explains how she does it – and offers tips on how we could, too.
- AGM
- 14.15 The David Young mss – Pete Stewart explains why we need to know more about these often-overlooked manuscripts and why the LBPS is considering publishing them in book form next year.
- 14.45 The Harmonic Nature of the Bagpipe – Bruce Hitchings MBE BEM is an authority on the harmonic dynamics of bagpipes and explains this often complicated subject to us.
- 15.30 Session for all: The set tunes for a mass session in the afternoon are: The Linlithgow March / Lord Randal and The Twa Corbies / Tail Toddle / The Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society / Chevy Chase / Belle Bergère (a French Valse) / Happy We’ve Been A’thegither.
The scores for the tunes that everyone played are available here.
June 2023 Issue of Common Stock
The latest issue of Common Stock is available to logged-in members HERE
To download the issue, click the 'Open' button at the bottom right of each double-page and use the bottom link of the menu pane on the left side
Colin Melville’s entry wins the 40th Anniversary Composing Competition
Colin Melville of Munlochy, near Inverness, is the winner of our 40th anniversary composing competition. We received 21 entries.
Colin’s entry is a four-part tune that will be henceforth titled, The Lowland & Border Pipers’ Society. He wins £400 plus a full run of the LBPS’ music collections and CDs.
Colin, who used to play with The Tannahill Weavers for over a decade, said: “I am absolutely delighted my entry was deemed by the judges to have merit enough to take the top spot.
“I’d had fragments of the melody in the back of mind for a few years and the first part came quite quickly. This competition was the ideal opportunity to work on it and form something fuller.”
Judges, Gary West and John Purser, said: “We feel that Colin’s entry is a splendid tune which has every chance of becoming a standard within the lowland and border bellows pipes repertoire.
“Like all the best tunes, it is not overly complex, and every phrase does its job very well. It is the kind of tune that all levels of player should be able to play, and to learn without too much difficulty. I can certainly imagine it becoming something of a theme tune at LPBS gatherings, and indeed well beyond our immediate community, too.”
LBPS Convenor, Stuart Letford, said: “The committee had thought that, with many other piping organisations having tunes named for them, it was time the LBPS had one, particularly in this its 40th year. Colin’s tune fits the remit we asked composers to take cognisance of and the judges agreed that his tune was the clear winner. Indeed, I understand both had it as their respective choices before comparing notes.
“We look forward as an organisation to playing this tune whenever we meet. It is a lovely tune. “
Please click Read More to see the score.
LBPS 40th Anniversary
The LBPS is pleased to announce that 2023 is the year of the 40th anniversary of the society and the committee is planning some exciting celebrations during the year to mark the occasion.
December 2022 Issue of Common Stock
The latest issue of Common Stock is available to logged-in members HERE
To download the issue, click the 'Open' button at the bottom right of each double-page and use the bottom link of the menu pane on the left side
June 2022 Issue of Common Stock
The latest issue of Common Stock is available to logged-in members HERE
To download the issue, click the 'Open' button at the bottom right of each double-page and use the bottom link of the menu pane on the left side
LBPS Annual Competition 2022 – The Results
The LBPS Annual Competition 2022 was held in Linlithgow on Saturday, 9th April 2022.
It was the first time the Society had been to this historic town. The town's old municipal building, the Burgh Halls proved to be a superb venue and was only a five-minute walk from the railway station. The town itself is conveniently situated roughly halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh.
December 2021 Issue of Common Stock
The latest issue of Common Stock is available to members HERE
To download the issue, click the 'Open' button at the bottom right of each double-page and use the bottom link of the menu pane on the left side