piping and dancing for all occasions

On these pages we will try to give some alternative links to sources of information on bagpipes of all types, from London and elsewhere.

London Piping Links
Castle Pipers, also known as the Elephant and Castle Pipe Band. We play Monday evenings from 7-9pm at the Newington Tenants Community Centre, or from 8pm on the first Monday of each month when the local councillors use the centre for a surgery.
We can arrange a Scottish or Irish piper for most occasions.

We have had close links with the Somme Battlefield Band for many years.

We were proud to be involved with the establishment of the Pipers' Memorial at the Longueval at the Somme when the names of the Irish regiments were added. See this link http://www.webmatters.net/france/ww1_longueval_p1.htm

Some of our members also play with the London Scottish Pipe Band which is a TA band based in Horseferry Road, Victoria. Some others play with the London Irish Pipe Band. The two groups  are now under the combined umbrella of the London Regiment, but it is possible to play music with them without discussing foreign policy and they're quite friendly really. London Scottish play Thursday nights, London Irish play Friday nights at Flodden Road.

The Piping Society of London have various meeting places and dates now and provide tuition for learners.

A new band, the Green Hackle Pipe Band have set up and are ready to teach beginners. Several of their members are regular visitors to us on Mondays. They practice on occasional Saturday afternoons in Putney.

If you want to try Scottish dancing the way nature intended: not too much worry about detail, lively with a range of partners and beer which goes down quite easily, the Ceilidh Club has dances at least once a month at Cecil Sharp House in Camden. I have played for them in the past in exchange for free tickets and had a good time.


International Piping
Strakonice Piping 2006
(Mezarodne Dudacki Festival ~ International Bagpipe Festival)

William Kennedy Festival
I went last November and had a really good time ... Armagh City 15-19/11/06. Check out the line-up at www.armaghpipers.com


Bagpipe Makers and other bagpipes
There are very many highland pipe makers - I won't list them all here.
Some alternatives that might be interesting are:
Pavel Cip, who makes several types of Czech and East/Central European Bagpipes. He's a nice bloke too.
World of Bagpipes shows a good range of world bagpipes.
Jens Guntsel makes some rather strange bagpipes in east Germany, check out dudelsackwerkstatt.


If you are looking for help and advice with buying or playing bagpipes, I would recommend contacting a bagpipe forum such as the Bagpipe Forum   or Viper Piper (which are two places where I post) or Bob Dunsire's page which also has a forum.

If you're interested in other instruments, and particularly in traditional english music, try Greenwich Traditional Musicians Co-operative who have a session every Tuesday night at the Lord Hood in Greenwich.