The Edinburgh Military Tattoo at 60

now on bbc one scotland tracing the remarkable history of the biggest show in scotland the edinburgh military tattoo at 60. the royal edinburgh military tattoo is the largest show of its kind on the planet watched by millions across the globe it's scotland's most popular television export and in 2010 it celebrates its 60th birthday as times have changed so has the tattoo growing from a piping parade to a world-renowned extravaganza this is its remarkable story [Applause] the year was 1945 the second world war was over and scotland's returning heroes were being welcomed back princess street edinburgh was the scene of one of the most striking episodes of the royal visit the king and queen with princess elizabeth and princess margaret stood for more than an hour while a total of six thousand servicemen and women marched past the saluting base it was estimated that upwards of 350 000 people watched the ceremonial it was given the name scotland's parade of peace [Music] although the war had claimed 58 000 scottish lives the country was keen to look forward in this spirit of optimism the first edinburgh international festival took place in 1947. fast establishing itself as a world-class cultural event it wasn't long before scotland's military was invited to get in on the act but what could they come up with that was going to match the festival's success [Music] they had the music and the manpower but the master stroke lay in the choice of venue edinburgh castle britain was beginning to get back on its feet again the world was beginning to get back and speak again and so they decided they would have this big special performance on the esplanade of edinburgh castle in 1950 most scottish families still had close connections with the forces and they flocked from all over scotland to show their support going to the first ever official edinburgh tattoo was a thrill for one 16-year-old girl the 40-mile trip from her home in galla shields was a journey full of anticipation we were all so excited wondering what we were going to see if we had no idea then what it was going to be like i can remember when you went up the road to the castle we were on the left-hand side looking up the esplanade we were in this corner just there you did a bit of a job to just look the jockey for position but we managed there was some seats for the the vips but we weren't vip so we just had to stand on the castle esplanade highland and household troops each night performed a brilliant pageant the queen and the princess were there together with five thousand others [Music] it was a winning formula the great scottish regiments in all their glory rosy music and one of the most atmospheric backdrops in the world it was the most amazing triumph and everybody thought this was the most spectacular thing they'd ever seen and then when the pipe bands came over the drawbridge and oh we thought we're going to enjoy this it was really a spectacle to us because we'd never seen anything like that the volume of the pipers and it was really great [Music] the first official edinburgh military tattoo was a runaway success and it's taken prime position in the festival's up every year since [Music] but this wasn't the first time that pipes and drums and tartan had come together against the dramatic backdrop of the castle 19th century writer sir walter scott was responsible for creating a scottish cultural identity which romanticized the kilts and tartan outlawed since the defeat of the jacobites in 1746 when the reigning monarch king george iv made a state visit to edinburgh in 1822 so walter used the event to cement the romantic image he wanted all scots to aspire to everybody wanted to dress up in kilts the more extravagant the better even poor king george iv wore a kilt some over pink tights because his legs weren't quite up to it and for two weeks edinburgh went tart and mad and cemented the idea of kilts tartans anything dealing with the highland experience as essential to the way in which scotland viewed itself [Music] and leading the tartan charge were the scottish regiments resplendent in kilts and spawns many respects the figure of the kilted scottish soldier marching behind the pipes and drums became synonymous with scotland itself so people coming to scotland would see a reflection of the country through the tattoo edinboro one of the most picturesque of cities and we are here with our new technique for a stirring event the rally of the clans here's how we were able to see and hear the sights and sounds kilts and tartans bagpipes and drums [Music] [Applause] showcasing the tattoo like never before this pioneering three camera technique captured the event in all its glory [Music] from the very outset the regiments of the british army have always had a very close link with their military bands normally these are brass bands as we would think about them but in the scottish regiments there's the added importance of the pipes and drums now the pipes and drums are absolutely essential for any scottish regiment today the skull of bagpipes sounds weird in this dark green underworld but scotsman marched on pinway on sundandrewsday in this fashion [Music] adopted by the highland armies back in the 18th century the bagpipes are at the very heart of scotland's regiments heard above the din of battle they've become a powerful instrument of war and they provide comfort to scottish soldiers far from home the pipes and drums that are deployed on operations they're there as machine gunners or infantry soldiers and they do that job for the vast majority of the time that they're on operations but they always take the instruments with them and the pipers will play for the local community and most importantly now providing the the dignity and the repatriation of soldiers that have fallen there's no doubt about it music in itself is a great morale booster but the bagpipes is just unique it's it's a unique sound it's designed as an outdoor instrument it can be used to lift spirits in the dancing tunes and inspire people to enjoy themselves and of course it gives the gives the inspiration to march and can be smart just reminding of their national identity and what makes them who they are once a paper in the field himself captain steven small no directs the pipes and drums at the tattoo and at the army school of bagpipe music and highland drumming here regimental musical traditions are passed on to the new generation of soldiers [Music] these piping students are practicing for their performance at this year's 60th tattoo but for all these active military men playing on the esplanade is a far cry from the day job well it's a complete contrast one minute they're in the sand um you know in the dust with their combats on and uh and their weapons and the next minute they're back on the in the razzmatazz of of the esplanade at edinburgh castle under the lights um with their ceremonial uniforms on and that razzmatazz takes a lot of planning it needs around 35 miles of cabling to power the show's state-of-the-art sound and lighting and three months a million pounds and 20 000 nuts and bolts to boot up the temporary stands it just takes on a buzz and an excitement i mean once you see the stands going up you know what time of year it is i mean people have never practically set their biological body clocks to the tattoo the stands going up but back in the 50s it wasn't quite so high tech they used to build the stands of scaffolding and they had wooden benches if they were 18 inches out starting further down the they could run out of 200 seats and i remember saying how the hell do you cope with that i mean if if you're selling a show and suddenly or 200 oh that's easy the jab said neighbor you said we just paint smaller bottom widths bottoms were narrower than they are today you felt you were really sort of hugger mugger with everybody else who was there and you were literally sitting on wooden bleachers and i will remember i think i probably my first long trousers were a pair of tweed trousers i think i remember picking scalps out of my backside or certainly the back side of my trousers from those wooden benches instructors from military depots in several spots of scotland gave a gymnastic display without apparatus which could not have been bettered anywhere by the late 50s these displays featured more and more of the military's prowess and agility the tattoo had started as a scottish affair but no acts from further afield were being added to the mix the seven spies an algerian cavalry regiment bringing to scotland the breath of french north africa [Music] in its first 10 years the edinburgh tattoo had gone from a small military pageant to an emerging international attraction so edinburgh stretches out her hands edinburgh invites the world's visitors to surrender to the delights of her festival the glories of an historic city the warmth of a scottish welcome and that welcome was extended to military bands throughout the growing commonwealth [Music] this is the first time that the world famous sikhs have taken part in a tattoo in the united kingdom [Music] the new arrivals were an instant hit with the crows [Music] the queen's own rifles of canada will present a drumming and bugling display this is the first time that this famous regiment has taken part in the edinburgh tattoo these men are marching at nearly 150 faces to the minute now this isn't just a gimmick walked out for the edinburgh tattoo queen's own rifles of canada incidentally they're the oldest regiment in the canadian regular army are a light infantry regiment and this is their standard marching pace [Music] [Applause] [Music] but by the sixties britain was sweet and the tattoo was keen to keep up with the times in 1962 a young captain leashman was given an unusual order from the tattoos producer he asked me to get the uh boys junior soldiers uh in the finale sequence to go into the stands and get a girl out of the audience and rock and roll and cast festive hey i said no no there's no way we're gonna have these boys rocking really i need to hardly tell you that this surprisingly enough is let's twist again like we did last [Applause] summer [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] the crowds and the castle esplanade were lapping it up and although the bbc had broadcast the show for the first time as far back as [Music] 1952 there was no a market for the tattoo to be televised abroad it meant that the tattoo could be fired off across the world to places like australia a couple with the edinburgh festival who put edinburgh on the map it puts scotland on the map internationally and i think that was a rather fantastic thing it broadened the horizons and it it it sort of changed people's attitudes i mean when you go to sydney or you go to north carolina or you go to nova scotia people know about scotland but they all know about the edinburgh tattoo nothing beats seeing the show in the flesh but if you can't television is a very good alternative totally different you don't get that feeling of atmosphere quite but it is a terrific agent if you like to encourage people to say well we must come and see the event the mast pipes and drops will play a slow march the dark islanders [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Applause] [Music] but despite the tattoos reputation abroad there was a growing sense of unease with the military at home [Music] pomp and circumstance didn't go down so well with the hippie generation in the 60s there's a great reaction against the past and about the formalities of the past where they they wanted to put all trappings of militarism and great britain and power and you know all the rather horrid things they wanted to forget about them we were all rebelling against the status quo we we wanted to sort of hang out together and love and peace and of course the vietnam war was a great sort of thing in the background [Music] the vietnam war cast a long shadow over young people's lives in the 1960s there's no doubt about it and so anti-militarism was popular amongst young people even though british soldiers weren't involved this was an unpopular war demonstrations were more involved than military parades and tattoo ticket sales fell to an all-time low that was the generation that i think for them the tattoo had all the wrong resonance but then the tattoo changed and adapted something we call hot pants by the 70s the edinburgh military tattoo had dropped its stiff upper lip and began to let its hair down [Music] variety was the name of the game and here she comes very suitably dressed in the occasion saved in the arms of the southeastern fabric and even the tattoos traditional musical formula was turned on its head [Music] brigadier melville jameson produced the tattoo for 12 years after a colorful career in the royal scots dragoon guards as president of the regimental band he was responsible for a revolution in the musical ranks this is one of the many go discs my regiment earned for making of amazing grace in 1971 it actually was a hit in 1972 and it remained at the top of the pop charts for six weeks knocking out people like mick jagger and elvis presley at the time so we're very proud of that and that reminds me of those times and was my first i suppose taste of show business we had a bush record player and it was it had a socket for headphones which was not very good but my dad bought headphones and then amazing grace came out and uh i think by the time we bought the single and went home that's right and by the time dr who started so that was about four hours later he'd almost worn it out and the thing was you could still hear it through the [Music] headphones the royal scots dragoon guards had become pop stars overnight but traditionally brass and woodwind were never heard alongside pipes and drums in military circles it was considered sacrilege first thing that happened to me was as a captain i was called to the castle and i met the then director of army backpack music who said you've done a terrible thing um and i said what do you mean he said combining pipes with band you know is not the sort of thing we do and i said we've just got the got the music into a million herbs in united kingdom that can't be bad [Music] the blend of the pipes with the harmonies of the band produced this tune which just knocked people over and in 1972 the chart topping number found its way onto the castle esplanade [Music] [Applause] during the early 70s the troubles in northern ireland were escalating it was the longest operation ever to be mounted by the british army and it didn't end until the mid 1990s northern ireland was central to the british army experience the feeling was was pretty unpleasant for most of the time when you were over there when you were out in in uniform people didn't like you curtains were drawn as you walked along the street and kids would be screaming and spitting at you and stuff and it was you would only get the odd an old guy would maybe slightly give you an order a wink and just you know and it just made you feel like i would you know we're here for the right reasons but the northern ireland thing really split people's opinions i think and um and i don't know if the troops got the support in in that period there were large tracks of the british isles where the deployment in northern ireland wasn't particularly popular and gradually i think that the army withdrew into itself with the threat of attack on home shores the army had to keep a low profile and there was little opportunity to march on parade i think at that point there was a dislocation between military and civilian life which was very difficult to repair and the tattoo each august was able to present the army in all its glory wearing his uniform and with its pipes and drums and so that helped to reinforce that link which was in danger of being lost altogether [Music] but in 1971 it didn't stop the tattoo becoming a tug i was at home and i got a phone call and it was late in the evening david you better come in here with this boiler that's burst the place was turmoil it was you could smell the the explosive and and things like that because i had worked in the mines i knew what this the thing smelled like and it was just you could see it in this mess all that ceilings had just collapsed the floor and the king's dining room above had heaved up and it was open bits and the amazing thing the chandelier on the in the kings dining room was intact so if it wasn't a bomb it was somebody that knew something about explosives let's put it that way the troubles may have come to the tattoo but that night the show simply carried on and audiences just kept on coming [Music] gravity passing by [Music] 200 degrees [Music] [Applause] if you wanna have a good time just and like many a successful formula in the 70s it was just a little risque marine there's richie i don't know what he's got on that thing he's holding up no doubt you could see [Music] oh so i see it now as well i'll spend it it was said that a whole porter who'd been asked to recommend a good sex show in town said go to the tattoo and that music of last century and these wolf whistles handled a performance by 126 music students from long beach which has set this traditional military tattoo and uh stuffy old capital city a light this year it was an american big big band and they had six stunning girls who danced at the very front of their performance i mean these girls had legs that started at their ears and finished a big dome but all perfectly innocent they just had long legs [Music] ah [Applause] will never be quite the same again in 1982 britain went to war with argentina and british troops were sent to the falkland islands [Music] the public got behind the forces in a way that hadn't been seen since the second world war aboard the qe2 on the way to the south atlantic were the scots guards who were to play a key role in what turned out to be the fiercest battle of the war tumbledown was the rocky crag which the british had to take to win back port stanley the pipe major of the scots guards um jimmy riddle composed the tune the crags of tumbledown and this was obviously um after the famous action of the scots guards where they it was a significant event during the uh the conflict and it turned a corner for the for the british troops i think alone piper of the scots guards high above plays pipe major riddles the crags of tumbledown mountain the mountain above port stanley where earlier this year the second battalion scots guards lost nine killed and 43 wounded in the battle for the falkland islands [Music] [Music] [Applause] when a country's esteem and interests are threatened everybody in that country feels it so therefore you get this basically this support system building up and so when people go to the tattoo and they see such troops as are available to perform at it they swell with a great deal of pride [Music] so [Music] by the end of the eighties the tattoo had become a military showbiz [Music] extravaganza [Music] but more and more civilian acts were being added to the formula to up the stakes bigger production high-tech lights and more glitz creating a show like no other on earth [Music] historical reenactments took center stage and scottish history was plundered in the search for spectacle in august 950 years ago king duncan was killed near elgin by the most celebrated murderer of all time macbeth crown king he reigned for 14 peaceful years [Music] but when brigadier jameson became producer in 1995 he wanted to take the show back to its musical roots his solution was to take the traditional elements of the tattoo the masked pipes and drums and make them bigger and better [Music] this is the 48th year of the tattoo but only now for the first time are you hearing a 9 8 march composed by the director of army bagpipe music captain gavin stoddart called the edinburgh military tattoo [Music] [Music] i always thought that so you know mouse perhaps coming out the drawbridge and more and more and more coming was very spectacular [Music] [Applause] [Music] and more pipes and drums was good news for one pair of avid fans since that first show in 1950 muriel laidlaw has been every year foul won for the last 60 years [Music] we enjoy the fight band and we're proud to be scottish and they would just laugh the tattoo well when they're all playing when it's the combined military bands in the pipeline when the military land will be in the esplanade and everything's dark and then all of a sudden the pipers by this time are coming in very quietly and then all of a sudden the lights go on and they start to play the whole and it really is really a great it's a great example it's a great day it's a spectacular it is i know the colors of course of the quilts and the uniforms it is when the pipers merge with the military bonds and then there's nourishes the lights come up [Music] so [Music] [Applause] before brigadier jameson turned tattoo a producer he had seen active servers all over the world but his career in the army was dominated by the global superpower standoff during the 80s during the cold war which is where i missed my service as many people did in germany um in north germany and at that time the border from north to south was was uh you know a very frightening sort of uh bit of the country it had two two um offenses with mines and on one side were the east german on one side were the west chambers and of course we patrolled that border and it was part of the cold war experience so russia was then you know the the mighty red army um which we were trained to fight but in 1998 the russians were finally invited in out of the call [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so bringing the axe to invert is terrific now because you get a great splash of colour and there's something kind of something strange about this it's almost as if looking on the military as a humanitarian thing they can all come together sometimes and sometimes i think they can [Music] [Applause] [Music] so audiences were loving the cultural variety and the tattoo cast its net ever wider inviting acts from the four corners of the world [Music] the colorful suave barbados defense force band on its first visit to emperor [Music] in 1999 for the first time the tattoo became a sellout show and these colorful new acts played well to an ever growing tv audience your recipe for paradise the islanders themselves say they call for the people of the world to unite and to save our environment for the generations to come paradise indeed the bbc's kay adams presented the tv program of the show in 2001 and was captivated by the dancers from the cook islands i have been watching your performance and i am very very jealous of this hip movement that you do give us a little go of your head movement we can teach you if you can i tell you because i just i'm okay push back and swing back and forth but you need to move it was lovely to see it through their eyes they were so excited about coming to scotland and that was nice actually because they had heard all these things about scotland it was a bit tartan and shortbread what they said but they loved it they loved being here tremendous adventure for them they were so cold their goosebumps were as big as their coconut shells but they weren't complaining bless them [Music] but just days after the cook islanders returned home september the 11th sent shockwaves around the world the military had a new and dangerous mission by 2003 british troops had been deployed in both iraq and afghanistan that year the first battalion the black watch had suffered losses in iraq but they were keen to make their mark at the military event of the year the blackwatch they were just back from operations and um they wanted to wear their desert combats and it was an ideal opportunity for them to to come forward and play a tune on their own and you know it was it was a popular part of the show because the audience gave gave their appreciation to i think to every unit that was on operations at the time but it was visible with the desert combats on it was different people hadn't been used to seeing that order address and this year we especially welcome back from iraq in their desert combats the fighters and drummers of the first battalion black watch [Music] that was one of the most moving men of the audience because they got a fantastic ovation now that demonstrated how the public felt i think about um their soldiers who are doing such a a challenging dangerous demanding and brave task and in 2010 that job is more dangerous than ever the black watch 3rd battalion the royal regiment of scotland have just returned from afghanistan where they lost five men for these soldiers performing at this year's tattoo is as important to them as ever the first time you're standing by the drawbridge you're nervous and you know oh my god oh my god and you go out and everybody's clapping and cheering and that gives you a real good buzz it's great it was like it's really amazing that you're behind the castle then when you first come out for your very first time through that drawbridge hairs in the back of your neck just stand up and it's an amazing feeling it's just brilliant really good quite good that like the civilians not get to see that there is actually another side to the army it's not just always fighting all the time in afghanistan that there is other things that happen within the military having been in a vast experience from from northern ireland the gulf and iraq afghanistan you know every tattoo i've been on has been special because the crowd usually you know the the applause it's heartfelt really meaningful and you can feel it from where you are it's this connection between the forces in the audience that can make the atmosphere electric in 2004 an invitation to the chinese army was to put the television figures through the roof i believe music crosses all boundaries and uh music is a very par a very important part of diplomacy i think and uh and i knew there was huge amount of talent in china and not being involved in politics i thought it was a good idea to bring china to edinburgh imagine a country that covers 3 million seven hundred thousand square miles with a population of 1.2 billion people six percent of whom belong to 60 cultural minorities each with a rich heritage of art and history and you begin to grasp the complex mystery that we call china for the first time in the united kingdom but not everyone was happy with the people's liberation army of china's presence demonstrations were held in protest against the tattoos decision to invite a country with a dubious human rights record to perform on the esplanade what you're doing is that you're inviting the audience to make up their minds about what can be done by other countries armed forces and surely there's a complete a distinction has to be made by admiring a performance by the people's army of china and denigrating what the chinese government does [Music] i think in a nutshell to prove her how worthwhile it was for edinburgh scotland and britain i suspect was that the amber 2 bbc world sold it to well china bought the program and it was shown to the chinese public and has been since so you can imagine how many million chinese are now watching the image two on their television and hopefully coming to scotland as visitors that year the chinese tv audience was estimated at a staggering 100 million eager to see their country represented in one of the most iconic settings in the world edinburgh castle and it's the castle battlements that are the stage for the final and most moving part of the show the lament of the lone piper as a soldier and throughout almost every decade of my adult life piping has been important to me i remember being in the eastern province of saudi arabia and on christmas day i must have been looking a bit low and down and the padre of the brigade headquarters must have noticed this because i went back to my tent quite late on in the evening and noticed that there was a wee note from him um saying happy christmas uh on it and just as i read the the we note um a piper playing a a jolly tune at a brisk tempo was was outside so i went to bed that night with a big smile on my face and feeling a bit um happier and of course there's a connection between the emotion of a single piper then in the desert sands and of course what happens for 45 seconds at the end of the tattoo every night when the lone piper plays high up on the castle ramparts [Music] major gavin stoddart from the royal highland fusiliers was a regular up in the ramparts piping traditions that in his jeans his father george stord was the original lawn paper at the first edinburgh tattoo back in 1950 [Music] lights out first tattoo was when i was age five went up to the castle i was desperate to shout this that's my father up there but but i was also amazed that he looked so tiny uh you're just like a wee blob of colour with a big bright light on them i couldn't believe it was such a tiny wee figure up in the battlements the the pipes actually sounded quite you know far away and depending on which way the wind was swirling the sound never really disappeared but then it would suddenly come a bit louder and that actually added to the the mystique of i think of the lone piper up in the castle 17 years later the rolls were reversed it was really quite daunting to make sure that i got through the tune the bagpipe performing and unblemished and with great pride knowing that darby's in the audience and you know and following in his footsteps [Music] the traditional lament sleep deary sleep captain small director of pipes and drums plays a key role in selecting and coaching the lone pipers on the night he's there to deal with any last minute nerves he knows how it feels he's been there before being chosen piper is a a huge event [Music] it's a real experience all the rehearsals that you do and all of the the words of wisdom that you get from the senior pipe major when you stand up there and your your knee starts shaking and you can see what's going on you look down the esplanade is tiny and as soon as the moment comes and you think you've got it all sorted out and then suddenly a spotlight hits you in the face and you can't see anything and it's just it's a lonely feeling all you're considering is get the pipes through let's have a good sound and let's play the tune probably it's not it's never changed over the years it's been the same format and it's been the same um spectacle and it generates the same emotions it's just um haunting while high above the rights of the city the senior pipe major in the british army fight major stephen small the black watch players sleep dearly sleep [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: DavyFlute

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Id: 4Cnosu3eXZQ

Length: 59min 2sec (3542 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020