PL! 2 – devine duos, teen idols, and fearless fours

legendary snare-work closed off the Pipes+Drums event in great style to the appreciative crowd, overflowing well outside of the marquee tent, even standing in the occasional rain to hear the show.

The launch of the new Duncan MacRae line of pipes from McCallum Bagpipes followed the Pipes+Drums recital, with virtuoso pipers Angus MacColl, Willie McCallum and Stuart Liddell each performing with the new drones on their shoulder. Of course they sound brilliant! Those dudes are playing them. In all seriousness, not a few sets of the new pipes would have been sold with this crew endorsing the product, which is based on exact recreation of the classic MacRae turn-of-the-previous-century instruments.

Inside the Piping Centre’s auditorium were a few events. Last year’s double Gold Medallist, Dougie Murray, delivered the day’s lunchtime recital to a solid crowd, and later in the afternoon was the launch of a new collection of music from the late Calum Campbell of Benbecula, Ceal Chaluim. Several pipers performed music from the collection, including Roddy MacLeod and John-Angus Smith, while Julie Fowlis contributed some stunning vocals.

Along with the Sherriff Invitational and the Nicol-Brown, Pipe Idol is one of the big three events for young pipers, with the annual knockout type competition each day pitting four under-18 players against each other. Tuesday’s Round 2 featured Rebecca Tierney (Scotland), Alastair Donaghy (NornIrn), Robbie MacIsaac (Scotland) and Fergus Barry-Corderoy (Australia) to a good crowd at the Street Café, and it was MacIsaac who was chosen by the “secret” judges to move on to the Grand Finale on Thursday.

The evening band practices outside of the National Piping Centre are a great daily event at Piping Live!, and the day’s featured band were the aforementioned Stuart Highlanders, who . . .