October 19th 2019

Steven McWhirter of Inveraray & District was awarded the 2019 World Solo Pipe Band Drumming Championship held at Glasgow Caledonian University. It was his ninth straight win of the title – beating his own record – and his tenth overall.

Congratulations to our own Mikey Mc Kenna on finishing 3rd overall, to Craig Lawrie who finished in 7th position overall in the Senior Final and also to Aoife Bissett who finished 3rd in the Juv Section 5 Tenor Drumming.

The adult event, which had the slogan of “Live, Loud, Unmissable,” comprised three rounds. Pre-qualified competitors got a pass to the second round after doing well in designated events held over the winter and spring. There was ultimately a final round of 12, each having to play an MSR and a Hornpipe & Jig.

Overall

1st Steven McWhirter,Inverary & District

2nd Gareth McLees, Field Marshal Montgomery

3rd Michael McKenna, St. Laurence O’Toole

4th Blair Brown, St. Thomas Alumni

5th Grant Cassidy, Uddingston Strathclyde

6th Jake Jørgensen, ScottishPower

August 16th & 17th

Inveraray & District marched off with the title of 2019 World Pipe Band Champions following two days of intense competition at Glasgow Green in an amazing display of pipe band virtuosity. The Grade 1 competition comprised 15 bands playing in mirrored events on both Friday and Saturday, all performances counting towards the final result.

O'Toole's began the weekend well with a win in Friday's MSR competition, but it was to be Inverary's weekend and we congratulate them on their fine win in what can only be described as an endurance test.

The march past began at 5:30 pm, and the final result was announced at nearly 8 pm. Bands on the field had to weather significant rain while they waited. 

Grade 1 (15 competed, 2 X medley and 2 X MSR)

1st Inveraray & District (Scotland) (41 total ranking points)

2nd Field Marshal Montgomery (Northern Ireland) (44)

3rd St. Laurence O’Toole (Ireland) (58)

4th ScottishPower (Scotland) (65)

5th Simon Fraser University (Canada) (68)

6th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate (Scotland) (93)

7th Police Scotland Fife (Scotland) (108)

8th Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (Scotland) (120)

9th Glasgow Police (Scotland) (176)

10th Johnstone (Scotland) (177)

11th 78th Fraser Highlanders (Canada) (181)

12th Canterbury Caledonian Society (New Zealand) (182)

13th Lomond & Clyde (Scotland) (185)

14th Glasgow Skye Association (Scotland) (200)

15th Police Service of Northern Ireland (222)

Best Drum Corps : St. Laurence O’Toole

Full summaries for all grades can be found here - WPBC 2019 Summaries

The live streams for all Grade One performances can still be accessed at the following links :

Saturday MSR

Saturday Medley

Friday MSR and Medley

27th July 2019

The Scottish Championships, the fourth and penultimate RSPBA major competition before the World Championships on August 16-17, were held at Levengrove Park, and Inveraray & District took home the prize. It was the second straight major championship for the 2017 World Champions, paving what would appear to be a strong path to the World Championships August 16-17 in Glasgow.

ScottishPower won the Grade 1 drumming, the first drumming championship win for the band under Lead-Drummer Jake Jørgensen.

Piping judges in almost all instances were in virtual lockstep with one another.

The weather was deplorable, with constant rain leaving bands challenged to keep instruments dry and judges soaked standing out in the open for hours at a time. For the second major championship this year, the massed bands were cancelled due to bad weather, and prizes were announced to pipe majors and leading drummers at the hospitality tent.

Grade 1 (medley, 12 competed)

1st Inveraray & District (1,1,2,2)

2nd ScottishPower (4,3,1,4)

3rd Field Marshal Montgomery (ens.pref.) (3,4,5,1)

4th St. Laurence O’Toole (2,2,6,3)

5th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia (5,6,3,7)

6th Police Scotland Fife (8,8,4,5)

Judges: Brian Switalla, John Wilson (piping); Greg Dinsdale (drumming); Alan Ronaldson (ensemble)

6th July 2019

The O’Toole's took the 2019 All-Ireland Championship in the closest of ways, winning both the Medley and MSR events by ensemble preference.

Congratulations to all on some great performances on the day..........scroll down to listen to the winning MSR and Medley.

MSR

1st St. Laurence O’Toole (1,2,2,1) (ens.pref.)

2nd Field Marshal Montgomery (2,1,1,2)

3rd Police Service of Northern Ireland (3,3,3,3)

Judges: Tom Brown and Bill Garrett (Piping)

Paul Turner (Drumming)

Jim Campbell (Ensemble)

Medley

1st St. Laurence O’Toole (2,2,1,1) (ens.pref.)

2nd Field Marshal Montgomery (1,1,2,2)

3rd Police Service of Northern Ireland (3,3,3,3)

Judges: John Moles and Alan Ronaldson (Piping)

Sandy Steele (Drumming)

Ciaran Mordaunt (Ensemble)

29th June 2019

Results for the Grade 1 championship, held at Bught Park,Inverness. Conditions took a nosedive about fifteen minutes before we were due into the final tuning arena and consequently we played in probably the worst of the days weather - soaked to the skin !!

Grade 1 (MSR, 12 competed)

1st Inveraray & District (2,3,1,1)

2nd Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Celedonina (3,2,2,5)

3rd Field Marshal Montgomery (1,1,11,2)

4th ScottishPower (4,4,5,3)

5th St. Laurence O’Toole (5,5,3,6)

6th Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (6,6,4,7)

Drumming: Inveraray & District

Judges: Donald MacPhee and Tony Sloane (Piping)

Stuart Coils (Drumming)

Jennifer Hutcheon (Ensemble)

Full summaries for all grades can be found on the RSPBA website - click here

Listen to the O'Toole's performance below.......

15th June 2019

The UK Championship was won by St. Laurence O’Toole, taking the second major in the RSPBA’s five-championship season.

The band’s second major win was achieved in convincing and rare straight-firsts style.

Due to the horrendous weather throughout the day, the march past was cancelled and the awards ceremony was reduced to only centre bands, with only pipe-majors and lead-drummers participating in the prize-giving.

Congratulations to Alen & Stephen and all the band on a great day's work.

Grade 1 (Medley, 12 competed)

1st St. Laurence O’Toole (1,1,1,1)

2nd Field Marshal Montgomery (2,2,2,3)

3rd Inveraray & District (4,3,3,4)

4th ScottishPower (5,5,5,2)

5th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate (3,4,7,5)

6th Police Scotland Fife (6,6,6,6)

Best Drum Corp : St. Laurence O’Toole

Judges: Harry Stevenson and Tom Brown (Piping)

Ciaran Mordaunt (Drumming)

Jim Baxter (Ensemble)

Full summaries for all grades can be found on the RSPBA website - click here

Scroll down for a listen to the O'Toole's winning medley.

18th May 2019

Results from the first major of the season at St.James' Playing Fields,Paisley, on what turned out to be a cool and intermittently rainy day.

Full breakdowns for all grade can be found on the RSPBA website  - click here

Scroll down to listen to the band 's very impressive performance.

Grade 1 (MSR, 12 competed)

1st St. Laurence O’Toole (2,2,1,2)

2nd ScottishPower (1,1,3,3)

3rd Inveraray & District (5,4,2,1)

4th Peoples Ford-Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia (3,3,4,5)

5th Field Marshal Montgomery (4,5,7,4)

6th Police Scotland Fife (6,9,5,7)

Drumming: St. Laurence O’Toole 

Judges: Maurice Rhodes, Bob Worrall (piping); Paul Brown (drumming); Cameron Edgar (ensemble)

Read the Pipes|Drums story here

Read the Pipingpress.com review of the Grade One competition here

August 18th 2018 

The O'Toole's took third place overall at the World's with Stephen Creighton's drum corp taking their fifth World Drumming Championship and also the REPBA Champion of Champions Drumming title.

Field Marshal Montgomery were declared 2018 World Pipe Band Champions after a day of overcast and sometimes rainy conditions at Glasgow Green  against 11 other finalists in the Grade 1 competition - it was tyheir first major championship win of the 2018 season and the twelfth World Championship title for the band. 

The stands at the main arena were never completely full for the Grade 1 events, and often as much as half empty and only a handful of seats were occupied for the Grade 2 Final.

The final prizes in Grade 1 were announced after 8:30 pm.

Full summaries for all grade can be found here - WPBC 2018 SUMMARIES

Grade 1
Overall
1st Field Marshal Montgomery
2nd Inveraray & District 
3rd St. Laurence O’Toole
4th Scottish Power 
5th Simon Fraser University
6th Police Scotland Fife 
Drumming : St. Laurence O’Toole

August 16th 2018

This article is reproduced from the excellent pipingpress.com website which is run by Rab Wallace and is a great resource for all the latest news and views from the piping world.

"Turas Ceoil - Resume" :  St.Laurence O'Toole Pipe Band at the Peak of their Powers

I think I know after nearly three hours of listening to them at close quarters what makes St Laurence O’Toole the band they are, writes the Editor. There is a spine of excellence running from the pipe major through their heartbeat, bass drummer John Dunne, to the admirable Creighton, D/Sgt. Stephen of that ilk. Pipe Major Alen Tully has a quiet command about him and Stephen homes in on every eyebrow fluctuation. John is just John, probably the best bass of the lot. Again, a keen eye on the P/M.

Underpinning all of this is the band’s sound. Accurate to a fault, full, projecting, thrilling. You run out of superlatives. I don’t think there was a waver at all during last night’s show and when an outside tenor started to misbehave out came the drone cork to do the necessary.

This was promoter Glasgow Skye’s 24th Worlds Week concert and a major success for them and their main organiser Kurt Mackintosh. A great way for the Skye to celebrate their 50th Anniversary.

The evening began with a short film and voiceover restating the band’s ethos of excellence in performance, hard work, friendship. To that end there were clips of them enjoying themselves after contests. These really summed up what SLOT are all about. Yet for all their mastery and success (they are the current UK and Scottish Champions) the band struggles for proper recognition in its homeland. I remember Alen’s father, former P/M Terry, telling me in 2010 when they last won the Worlds that they hadn’t even been given a civic reception by Dublin’s mayor. Well we appreciate them. And at last night’s finale 2,000 plus people got to their feet to underline just that.

The concert was spilt into four quarters emphasising the band’s musical journey, a journey which paid homage to their founders, their history, their country’s rich musical store and their emergence at the top of the pile in the pipe band world.

We were treated to music from every genre. It was delivered on stage in two sections of an hour each. There was nary a slip or dropped gracenote the whole time. I was only a few feet away from the fingers, so trust me. This band is full of brilliant pipers – 22 played. There ain’t no weak link. They exude a calm that comes from innate ability and serious endeavour. Some of them are very young. SLOT are future-proofed.

And as long as they have Steven Creighton driving them on they will be at the top of Grade 1 years without number. Not since watching the great Alex Duthart up close have I seen a percussionist living his music the way SLOT’s leading tip does. He’s there with the pipers on every nuance, every phrase ending, lifting the mono-dynamic of the pipes to another musical level. Wisely Stephen had positioned his corps behind a wall of perspex sound baffles and this killed the drum corps curse of Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, a curse which has taken the shine off many an otherwise enjoyable evening on the biggest night of Worlds Week. More than anything Stephen enjoys what he is doing and his beaming countenance was a feature of the concert.

He makes the perfect team with his Pipe Major, the quiet spoken Alen, a gifted piper in his own right. Another star of the evening was the compère, the humourously self-effacing Eric Stein from New York. Eric told a story of when visiting Alen when he was a boy of seven the youngster boasted of now knowing twenty pipe tunes. Asked to play one and expecting the Minstrel Boy the prodigy produced all six parts of Highland Wedding.

Everyone who left the auditorium last night was uplifted by St Laurence O’Toole’s music and the understated brilliance of its delivery. It is no surprise their shows are so popular and I am sure the recordings of Turas Ceoil will prove likewise.

July 28th 2018

The O'Toole's won their second major title of the 2018 season in what could only be described as challenging conditions, with sun and alternating showers throughout the day............topped off with a a gale force wind as you entered the Grade One arena !

The band drew their number one MSR  - Links of Forth, Blair Drummond and The Smith of Chilliechassie - emerging with a first and second in piping, a first in drumming and a fourth in ensemble which was enough to take the title overall by one point from Inverary & District.

Congratulations to Stephen and his corp on  another major championship drumming title too.

Grade 1 (MSR, 15 competed)

1st St. Laurence O’Toole (1,2,1,4)

2nd Inveraray & District (2,1,4,2)

3rd Field Marshal Montgomery (3,4,2,3)

4th ScottishPower (7,3,3,1)

5th Police Scotland Fife (6,6,5,6)

6th Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (4,5,11,9)

Judges:

Jim Wark and Ronnie McShannon (Piping)

Sandy Steele (Drumming)

Paul Turner (Ensemble)

Full summaries can be found here -  Scottish Championships 2018 Results

Take a listen to the band's winning performance below........

July 7th 2018

The 73rd All Ireland Pipe Band Championship was close in the two-band Grade 1 event, but ultimately Field Marshal Montgomery of Belfast took its 25th title, based on lowest total ranking points across the two events.

FMM won the Medley event with St.Laurence O’Toole taking the MSR after a tie was broken by David Brown’s ensemble mark.

The competition alternates venues each year between Ireland and Northern Ireland, with the Irish Pipe Band Association and the Royal Scottish Pipe Band Association Northern Ireland Branch hosting, respectively.

Medley

1st Field Marshal Montgomery (1,1,1,2)

2nd St. Laurence O’Toole (2,2,2,1)

Judges: Jim Semple, Colin Moffett (piping); Ciaran Mordaunt (drumming); Tony Sloan (ensemble)

MSR

1st St. Laurence O’Toole (2,2,1,1) (ens.pref.)

2nd Field Marshal Montgomery (1,1,2,2)

Judges: John Wilson, Tim Farrelly (piping); Jim Baxter (drumming); David Brown (ensemble)

Take a listen below to the band's medley performace on the day ..........

June 30th 2018

Inveraray & District won the third major competition of the RSPBA season, the European Championships, held again in the north of Scotland at Forres, near Inverness.

Weather was sunny and warm, and the multi-beer-tent verdant setting was its usual welcoming and friendly atmosphere, making it one of the most popular venues in the RSPBA season.

The Grade 1 prizes were announced around 7:15.

There were 15 in the Grade 1 event, but the Grade 2 competition was one of the smallest in decades, with only nine bands competing.

Only two weeks after the UK Championships at Belfast, several bands from Northern Ireland and Ireland elected to give the European a miss likely due to travel and accommodation costs.

With the first major win of the 2018 season for the 2017 World Champion Inveraray & District, the contest marked the third different band to win a major championship this year,

following the success of ScottishPower at the British Championships and St. Laurence O’Toole at the United Kingdom Championships.

Grade 1 (Medley, 15 competed)

1st Inveraray & District (3,1,2,1)

2nd Field Marshal Montgomery (1,3,1,3)

3rd Scottish Power (2,2,4,4)

4th St. Laurence O’Toole (4,4,3,2)

5th Police Scotland Fife (6,7,5,5)

6th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia (7,6,6,6)

Judges: John Moles, Alvis Kerr (Piping)

Alex Dudgeon (Drumming)

Jim Campbell (Ensemble)

Full results for all grades can be found here - EUROPEAN PIPE BAND CHAMPIONSHIP SUMMARIES

Take a listen to the SLOT performance below - the band drew their Rainbow Medley selection.

June 16th 2018

 St. Laurence O’Toole walked off winners of the 2018 United Kingdom Championships at Stormont, the second RSPBA major competition of the season.

This is the first major win for the band since the European Championships in 2016.

Just for reference, in the video of the band's performance below, the announcer left the microphone turned on - which resulted in the echo you can hear as we were marching into the circle .

Not ideal.....and the guys (particularly the drummers) did extremely well to hold it together.

Grade 1 (MSR, 16 competed)

1st St. Laurence O’Toole (1,2,1,3)

2nd Inveraray & District (ens.pref.) (3,3,2,1)

3rd Field Marshal Montgomery (2,1,4,2)

4th ScottishPower (5,6,3,4)

5th Police Scotland Fife (4,5,5,5)

6th Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (6,4,7,9)

Judges: William Garrett, Alan Ronaldson (piping); Gordon Craig (drumming); Peter Snaddon (ensemble)

May 19th 2018

Results from the first major of the season at St.James' Playing Fields,Paisley on what turned out to be a scorcher of a day.

Scroll down to listen to the band 's very impressive performance.

Grade 1 (Medley, 14 competed)

1st ScottishPower (ens.pref.) (3,1,2,1)

2nd Inveraray & District (2,2,1,2)

3rd Field Marshal Montgomery (1,4,5,6)

4th St. Laurence O’Toole (5,7,3,5)

5th Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia (6,8,6,3)

6th Police Scotland Fife (8,3,4,8)

Judges:

Peter Hunt, Robert Shaw (piping)

Lee Innes (drumming)

Robert Mathieson (ensemble)

11th / 12th August 2017
Once again,the Grade One competition took place over two days with 20 bands battling it out in the Friday qualifiers for 12 places in the Saturday final.
After the dust had settled,the band to emerge as World Pipe Band Champions for 2017 was.........Inverary & District and congratulations to P/M Stuart Liddell and D/Sgt. Steven McWhirter and all the band on their achievement.
The O'Toole's gave some really strong performances over the two days  - with our drummers winning the medley section in the final on Saturday.
With two great runs in the final,we came away in 3rd in the MSR and 2nd in the Medley - giving us 3rd overall.
Sadly,it's now all over for another year.........but we'll see you again in 2018 !!

Grade 1 (MSR)
1 - Inverary & District (2,2,1,1)
2 - Field Marshal Montgomery (1,1,2,2)
3 - St.Laurence O'Toole (6,5,3,4)
4 - Scottish Power (3,4,6,7)
5 - Shotts & Dykehead (4,3,10,5)
6 - Peoples Ford - Boghall and Bathgate Caledonia (5,7,8,3)

Piping Adjudicator 1: John Wilson
Piping Adjudicator 2: Donald MacPhee
Drumming Adjudicator: Alex Dudgeon
Ensemble Adjudicator: Anthony Sloane

Grade 1 (Medley)
1 - Inverary & District (1,3,2,1)
2 - St.Laurence O'Toole (3,4,1,4)
3 - Scottish Power (4,2,6,2)
4 - Field Marshal Montgomery (2,1,5,6)
5 - Simon Fraser University (5,5,3,3)

Piping Adjudicator 1: Thomas Brown
Piping Adjudicator 2: Samuel Young
Drumming Adjudicator: Gregory Dinsdale
Ensemble Adjudicator: Robert Mathieson

Full summaries for all grades can be found on the RSPBA website - click here 

Here are some of the band performances from the weekend...........enjoy

29th July 2017
 Inveraray & District emerged as overall Scottish Champions,with St.Laurence O'Toole taking the drumming prize.
O'Toole's drew the number two set - beginning with The Donegal Lass - and gave a very credible performance,given the atrocious weather conditions.
The band finished in third position overall.
A big congratulations to Lead Drummer Stephen Creighton and his corp for yet another major championship win

Grade 1 (medley, 14 competed)
1 - Inveraray & District (1,1,3,2)
2 - Field Marshal Montgomery (4,2,2,1)
3 - St. Laurence O’Toole (5,4,1,5)
4 - ScottishPower (2,6,7,3)
5 - Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (3,3,8,8)
6 - Police Scotland Fife (7,5,5,6)
Drumming : St,Laurence O'Toole

Judges:

Gordon Lawrie and Ken Eller (piping)
Gordon Parkes (drumming)
Nat Russell (ensemble)

Full results can be obtained from the RSPBA website - click here for the Grade One summaries.

Have a listen to the performance below........

24th June 2017

The 2017 RSPBA season marched on in the north of Scotland, where Inveraray & District took home the European Championship at the lush Grant Park in generally good weather. The previous two championships, the British and UK, were won by Inveraray & District and Field Marshal Montgomery, respectively. A fifth in drumming essentially destroyed the hopes of Field Marshal Montgomery to win the event, although surpassing Inveraray’s near-perfect rankings from the four judges made winning for any other band extremely unlikely. With a fifth, Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate Caledonia returned to a championship prize-list for the first time since 2015. vale of Atholl, with new lead-drummer Adrian Hoy, finished second in drumming, the bands highest finish at a major for more than a decade.

Grade 1 (medley, 14 competed)
1 - Inveraray & District (1,2,1,2)
2 - Field Marshal Montgomery (2,1,5,1)
3 - ScottishPower (3,3,6,4)
4 - St. Laurence O’Toole (8,7,3,3)
5 - Peoples Ford Boghall & Bathgate (5,4,9,5)
6 - Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (4,6,8,7)
Drumming : Inveraray & District

Judges:
Terry Lee and Bob Worrall (piping)
Willie Black (drumming)
Gordon Craig (ensemble)

Full results can be obtained from the RSPBA website - click here for the Grade One summaries.

Have a listen to the performance below.........

10th June 2017

The second major championship of the season was held in the grounds of Stormont Estate,just outside Belfast,in what turned out to be a pleasant day with plenty of sunshine.

The band drew the number two medley set  - starting with the Donegal Lass - on the line,and gave a rousing performance  of this crowd pleaser.

This performance was to bring the band a third place overall and a return the top three.

Grade 1 (medley, 14 competed)

1 - Field Marshal Montgomery (1,2,1,1)

2 - Inveraray & District (3,1,2,2)

3 - St. Laurence O’Toole (4,4,3,3)

4 - ScottishPower (5,5,7,4)

5 - Police Scotland Fife (7,3,6,5)

6 - Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia (2,6,10,7)

Drumming : Field Marshal Montgomery 

Judges:

George Wilson, and Jennifer Hutcheon (piping)

Mark Wilson (drumming)

David Brown (ensemble)

Full results can be obtained from the RSPBA website - click here for the Grade One summaries.

Have a listen  to the performance below.........

20th May 2017

The first major of the season kicked off in Paisley and was held again at St.James Playing Fields within earshot of the M8 motorway and Glasgow International Airport. 

Weather was variable, with intermittent showers and a high of 14 degrees.

The Grade 1 contest featured 16 contestants, including two from Canada (Dowco Triumph Street and Simon Fraser University) and three bands (Buchan Peterson, Johnstone, and Police Service of Northern Ireland) making their debut in the top grade.

The O'Toole's were drawn to play at 3.15pm and gave a very good performance for what was the first outing onto the grass this season.

When the results were announced,the band came in with a solid enough 4th placing.

Congratulations must go to D/S Stephen Creighton and his drum corp though on winning the yet another major championship and being crowned British Champions for 2017.

Well done to all..

Grade 1 (MSR, 16 competed)

1 - Inveraray & District

2 - Field Marshal Montgomery

3 - Shotts & Dykehead Caledonia

4 - St. Laurence O’Toole

5 - Police Scotland Fife

6 - Scottish Power

Drumming: St. Laurence O’Toole  

Judges: Colin Moffett, John Connor (piping); Harry Russell (drumming); Cameron Edgar (ensemble)

Have a listen to the band's performance below.....