Black Watch Pipes & Drums coming to SoCal

[OC Richard]

Well I did go, yes $45 each for my wife and I, top level, but front row. Yes there were some empty seats up in the nosebleed section! They played Wednesday and Thursday and my understanding was that Thursday was better attended.

I love these shows! I love not only Pipes & Drums (having played in pipe bands for 35 years) but I also love British military bands. And I love the pageantry of the Full Dress and elaborate marching.

The stage was cramped but they did as much marching as the could. Back in the 1970s and 1980s these tours would fill huge areas like The Anaheim Convention Center, each show a sellout. In these large arenas the bands could do full Tattoo-style marching. I pulled out my programmes from earlier Black Watch tours, and back in the 1970s The Black Watch was touring with 18 pipers and a large drum section. On this tour a much smaller band, 10 pipers, 4 sides, 2 tenors, bass.

The music was fairly standard but there were some very interesting things. A couple times the arranger had the pipes hold a single note for a long time while the brass & woodwinds played shifting chords, some of them dissonant. My wife hated this effect but I thought it was daring and modern, though admittedly strange.

My favourite pieces were the march written by Henry VIII (who knew?) and an elaborate arrangement of a couple very old Scottish melodies, The Flowers of the Forest and The Piper O Dundee. This had a cool Renaissance feel. It began with a tinwhistle solo, then fife & percussion, then brass, eventually bringing in the pipes in a very effective tune that didn't sound like any pipe music we hear today.

There were a few kilties present! I wore my quasi-Edwardian look with Edwardian goathair sporran, full tartan hose with buckled shoes, and PC with high collar shirt and long tie

BTW I just pulled out all the programmes and I see that I've seen the Black Watch on tour in 1976, 1979, 1989, 2006, and now 2013. What's missing from this new programme, but featured on the old ones, was the tour itinerary and a full list of personnel.