In the December 2010 issue we printed the text of the original 1981 announcement calling anyone interested in Lowland piping to a meeting in Edinburgh. The Society archive contains a sheet of contact prints of photos taken at the first competition held in 1984, from which this photo has been reclaimed.

Gentleman-piper Mike Rowan at the School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh during the first LBPS annual competition in 1984.

Mike Rowan was the original instigator of the Lowland and Border Piper’s Society. Recently, writing about the founding he recalled;
“I contacted Hugh Cheap and Gordon Mooney and together we set up the first meeting in the MacEwan Hall in Edinburgh in 1981 and went on to found the Lowland and Border Pipers’ Society. At that time there were 2 working sets of Lowland pipes (one turned out of aluminium by Gordon Mooney!) and no makers and no information on the history of the instrument, though there were a few dead sets in museums. Effectively the lowland pipes were dead. As the first chairman I also set up the first competition award - the Mains Castle medal - where I lived at the time.”
Since then the Society has spread across the world: Mike Rowan adds:
 "Forming the society was one of the things in my life that I am most proud of. To see so many members round the world and so many hugely talented young musicians roaring away on the smallpipes is wonderful."

The Society now holds a large and well-catalogued [thanks to Julian Goodacre] archive of photos of Society events. If you have photos of any LBPS competition or any other event featuring lowland or border pipes, we would be delighted to receive copies. Contact the editor, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
This is a plea specially aimed at the person who took photos at this year’s competition!