2012 Edinburgh Military Tattoo

Roaring through the gloaming -

a diamond formation of Tornadoes and Typhoons

from RAF Lossiemouth and Leuchars

welcomes us to the 2012 Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

The serried fanfare is William Walton's music

from the 1955 Sir Laurence Olivier film Richard III.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The Massed Pipes and Drums surge through the great castle gates

and across the drawbridge to the tune The Croft.

14 bands are represented,

drawn from across the Commonwealth, in this Diamond Jubilee year,

and overseen by the maestro, Major Stephen Small,

the director of Army bagpipe music and Highland drumming.

The music has been selected to reflect activities

across the croft in a year.

Crodh Chaillean, Colin's Cattle.

Proudly sporting the uniform of his antecedent regiment,

the Royal Scots,

Senior Drum Major Mick Hay, Royal Regiment of Scotland,

leads the break into slow time.

The Herding Song.

The march, Cutting Bracken.

The reel, Clean Pea Strae.

And another reel, The Wind That Shakes The Barley.

Here's a quirky reel, Na Goisidich, The Gossips.

And a fresh and syncopated arrangement of yet another reel,

Speed The Plough, closes this set.

-CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

-Apart from his highly visible role,

it's the Senior Drum Major's task

to devise the beatings for the drummers.

Pipes and drums, by the centre, quick march!

We continue with a new tune by Major Stephen Small,

The Seeds of Life.

Formed into a diamond in the rough,

we continue with The Sheiling

and later, a waltz of Major Stephen Small's devising,

The Harvester's Lullaby.

Corporal Mark Lovell of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards,

with his distinctive red and white bearskin,

is the timekeeper for the Massed Pipes and Drums,

and dovetails into the popular hornpipe, Harvest Home.

The last two jigs are also new compositions.

Burning the Peat and Tilling the Land.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The Massed Pipes and Drums.

Returning to the Esplanade are the pipes, drums and dancers

of Queen Victoria School, Dunblane,

along with Australian pipes and drums

from the Scots College, Sydney.

This is the first time

that schools from the northern and southern hemispheres

have performed together at the Edinburgh Tattoo.

All of these tunes and the choreography

celebrate the weaving traditions

which are still an important rural industry in Scotland.

These compositions

by the Queen Victoria School Pipe Major Gordon Ross

are named for the good broadcloth tradition of Tweed.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The Queen Victoria School and Scots College.

With music from the animated motion picture Brave,

penny whistle virtuoso Dinger Bell,

from the Corps of Army Music,

leads Patrick Doyle's inspired theme, Fate and Destiny.

Flight Lieutenant Matthew Little,

Director of Music for the Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment,

assembles a glittering tri-service ensemble.

Joining the soloists are the Minden Band of the Queen's Division,

the bands of the Royal Air Force Regiment,

Her Majesty's Royal Marines Scotland, the King's Division

and the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Students from Stewart's Melville and Mary Erskine's colleges, Edinburgh,

gather in the lee of the standing stones.

Pipers from the Royal Regiment of Scotland

and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards add another texture.

The music from Brave.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

"John Barleycore was a hero bold Of noble enterprise

"For if you do but taste his blood 'Twill make your courage rise."

Accompanied by the band of the Royal Regiment of Scotland,

Billy Forsyth's Tattoo Highland Dancers

and the Canadiana Celtic Dancers, under Nicola Grant,

dance up a portrayal of the creation of Scotland's most popular export...

whisky.

The music is an excerpt from a composition by Phamie Gow,

a descendant of the great Scottish fiddler Niel Gow.

Having tossed the toasted malt and brewed the beer,

which will eventually distil into the water of life,

the malt men, or ladies in this case,

dance a celebratory shovel dance.

A sort of soft shoe shovel!

Slainte mhath!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

From the big island down under

comes a specially assembled composite band

of the Australian Army, Navy and Air Force

with an energetic display of what makes Australia's music great.

To open, The Parade of the Tall Ships

under Lieutenant Colonel Gordon Lambie.

A lot of show to get through, better get a move on!

# Once a jolly swagman

# Camped by a billabong... #

The singers are Corporal Debra Cotton,

musician Mark Nivet and able seaman Stephanie Monk.

# And he sang as he watched

# As he watched and waited till his billy boiled

# You'll come a waltzing Matilda with me

# Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda

# You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me

# And he sang as he watched and waited till his billy boiled

# You'll come a-waltzing Matilda with me. #

And from Banjo Paterson to Kylie Minogue.

# I'm spinning around move out of my way

# I know you're feeling me cos you like it this

# And breaking it down I'm not the same

# I know you're feeling me cos you like it like this

# Traded in some sorrow for some joy that I borrowed

# From back in the day

# Threw away my old clothes got myself a better wardrobe

# I've got something to say

# I'm through with the past Ain't no point in looking back

# Your future will be

# And did I forget to mention that I've found a new direction

# And it means back to me

# You kiss me, I'm falling

# Can you hear me calling?

# You touch me, I want you

# Feels like I've always known you

# On a night like this

-# I want to stay for ever

-Stay for ever

# On a night like this

# Just want to be together. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

# Some day we'll all be together once more

# When all of the ships come back to your shore

# I feel like something that I've always known

# I still call Australia

# I still call Australia

# I still call Australia

# Home

# Australia home

# Australia home. #

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The band of the Australian Defence Force.

You wait all year for a Highland dance act

and then three come along at once!

Representing Scotland's proud tradition of heavy industry,

the castle becomes a foundry

as Cheryl Roach

and the ground-breaking OzScot Dancers from Australia

now wow us with an energetic performance entitled Metal.

The music is by a Andrew Wilkie, the renowned Tap Dogs composer.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The OzScot Highland Dancers.

Fresh from their base in Naples,

the United States Naval Forces Europe Band

with Anchors Aweigh.

Perhaps the most famous US sailor of all, Popeye the Sailorman.

A guy who knows a thing or two about tattoos!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

As the dark night draws in in Gotham city,

it's time for Batman.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

With the Love Theme from Superman, "Can You Read My Mind?",

it's the quite supersonic Colin Reichow -

Petty Officer second class, trumpeter first class.

APPLAUSE

The United States Naval Forces Europe Band

under Lieutenant David Latour.

Always fresh and innovative,

the Top Secret Drum Corps from Basel, in Switzerland,

present a display designed around the idea of the digital age.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING

ALL: Top, top, top, top secret!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Top Secret's members are highly dedicated, with diverse day jobs -

bankers, civil servants, factory workers -

and perfection like this does not come overnight.

THEY ALL SHOUT

ALL: Ah!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

LOUD CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The Top Secret drum Corps of Basel - unbeatable!

From one perennial favourite to another.

Rhythm, elegance and precision have always been the watchwords

of his Majesty the King of Norway's Guards Band and Drill Team.

Entering to The Guards' March.

All these young men and women

are serving their one year's National Service,

but membership of the courteous and disciplined King's Guard

is a badge of honour which they will carry for the rest of their lives.

The plumed bowler hat

was copied from the hat of the Italian Bersaglieri -

troops that so impressed King Harald's great-grandmother

that she insisted the Norwegian guards be similarly hatted in 1860.

APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CROWD MURMURS

APPLAUSE

GUNFIRE AND GASPING

This piece of music

is said to have been composed by King Henry VIII of England,

Pastime With Good Company.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

ALL THE SOLDIERS SHOUT

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Die Kongens Garde, from Norway.

In this Diamond Jubilee year,

the tattoo begins its salute to Her Majesty the Queen

with a medley of music from the British Isles.

The Massed Military Bands start off with The Rolling Green of Ireland.

Killaloe.

And so to Wales, the land of song, with Men of Harlech.

And to Scotland by way of the high road and the low road.

And the Road to the Isles.

There Will Always Be An England.

The 2012 tattoo Principal Director of Music

is Lieutenant Colonel Bob Meldrum MBE,

who is also Principal Director of Music of the British Army.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

It's now time for the overseas military bands to join -

each with their own tribute to the Diamond Jubilee.

Leading the way is the United States Naval Forces Europe Band

with a march, Stars and Stripes Forever.

The Australian Defence Force Band, Along the Road to Gundagai.

And the King of Norway's guards band with His Majesty the King's March.

Lieutenant Colonel Bob Meldrum MBE,

Principal Director of Music of the 2012 tattoo,

now leads the Massed Bands in a new arrangement by Mac McDermott

of Michael Korb and Ulrich Roever's now almost mandatory piece

first performed at the Waldbuhne in West Berlin in 1986...

..Highland Cathedral with the Massed Pipes and Drums.

LOUD CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Now members of the cast.

The OzScot Highland Dancers and the Queen Victoria School, Dunblane.

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Highland Dancers

and the King's Guard Drill Team.

The Top Secret Drum Corps.

About to retire with a military pension,

which should see him comfortably off -

for oats - is Corporal Cruachan III,

regimental mascot of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

The guard of honour are found from the Black Watch,

the third Battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Battalion halt!

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The Isle has formed and the congregation assembles

as Edinburgh Castle becomes Westminster Abbey

to commemorate Her Majesty the Queen's coronation in 1953.

Vivat! Vivat! Vivat!

The crown moves up the nave towards the solemn moment of anointing

and for the coronation.

To Sir Hubert Parry's great anthem I Was Glad

and to George Frederic Handel's Zadok the Priest.

APPLAUSE

After the coronation,

Her Majesty processed through the nave

to be greeted by the cheering of the waiting crowds

and the pealing of the Abbey bells.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The National Anthem.

This arrangement was written for the Coronation

by the foremost wind band composer of his day, Gordon Jacob.

And as further celebration of the Diamond Jubilee,

not to be outshone by a dazzling firework display,

the tattoo cast and audience play their part

in a very special light show...

..Diamonds are Forever...

..and for all.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

The Evening Hymn, Sunset...

the lowering of the colours, lights out...

the day thou gave us, Lord, has ended.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Commemorating 30 years

since the conflict for the relief of the Falkland Islands,

the Lone Piper, Lance Corporal Phil Stevenson of the Scots Guards,

plays Pipe Major Jim Riddle's tune,

written on the Falklands battlefield.

The Crags of Tumbledown.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Farewell to the guard of honour...

..the King's Guard Drill Team...

..farewell to the Highland dancers from Scotland and from Canada...

..and from Australia...

..to the dancers from Queen Victoria School...

..the Top Secret Drum Corps...

..to Australia Defence Forces...

..and the boys and girls from Erskine Stewart's Melville school.

Farewell to the Massed Military Bands

from the United Kingdom and Norway,

and from Australia, and the United States of America.

It's been another unforgettable Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

The event, supported by the Royal Bank of Scotland,

now very much at home and settled in the new stands.

During the month of August,

the brightest and best of the world's artists

congregate in Edinburgh

and every year the tattoo visitors leave the Esplanade

knowing that they have experienced

one of Edinburgh's greatest spectacles and enduring events.

And finally, the traditional tune, The Black Bear,

as the Massed Pipes and Drums head for the Royal Mile

and back to barracks.

"From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs

"What makes her loved at home, revered abroad."

I hope you've enjoyed this unique event.

I'm Bill Paterson, thanks for watching

and wherever you are in the world,

I wish you a good night from Edinburgh and haste ye back.

Until the next time, may good fortune and good health be yours.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd