Quote Originally Posted by OC Richard View Post
Yes my wife and I will be there at the OCPAC in Costa Mesa on Saturday March 6.

They're also at the McCallum Theatre, Palm Desert, on Monday March 1.

I usually end up going to these things on my own, but strangely my wife said she wanted to go. However she said something like "you're not going to wear something silly are you?". It's because the last time she came with me to one of these, we went to a BBQ place in a mostly Black neighborhood afterwards and my kilt got a few glances.

I am undeterred and will indeed wear Highland Dress, probably the whole shootin' match with tartan hose etc.

I think I've attended every one of these tours, since my father took me to see the Black Watch and Royal Marines in 1976. I buy a programme each time and I have a pile of them, which I've gone back and looked through many times.

In the late 70's and thoughout the 80's the Pipe Band I play in would buy an entire block of forty or so seats and all come in Highland Dress. I'm the only one who continues this tradition: the newer band members don't know or care anything about it. The old members have all left the band or passed away.

OK I hauled out the programmes, and I have:

Royal Marines and Black Watch 1976

Grenadier Guards and Scots Guards 1977

Black Watch (pipe band and brass band) 1979

Coldstream Guards and Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 1981

Royal Marines and Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders 1985

Grenadier Guards and Gordon Highlanders 1987

Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 1988

Black Watch (pipe band) and Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders (brass band) 1989

Coldstream Guards and Queen's Own Highlanders 1991

Princess of Wales' Royal Regiment, Royal Anglian Regiment, and Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders 1993

The Life Guards, Blues and Royals, and The Black Watch 1995

Royal Scots Dragoon Guards 2002? (no date in programme. This was only the pipes and drums, wearing competition dress, not their military uniform, and performing on stage with their drums on stands, with a pop vocalist and comedian presenter. The programme indicates that this was an Australian tour, though I saw it in Orange County.)

Black Watch and Welsh Guards 2006

Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and Coldstream Guards 2008

I also picked up on Ebay the programme of the Black Watch's 1963 tour, which was interrupted by the assassination of John F Kennedy. The Black Watch had performed for the President early in the tour, and was requested to play at the funeral.

I also bought these old programmes:

Royal Scots Greys and Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders 1962-1963

Coldstream Guards and Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders 1960-1961
I have a number of those myself, as my grandparents loved going to see the various regimental bands at the Sundome in Sun City, Arizona every year. They would always send me a programme and a cassette from the concert, as the tours never made to the Midwest; it's only recently that they've put Kansas City & St. Louis on their itenerary.

I still have the tape from the 1985 RM/A & SH tour, and it still works! Alas, the 1989 RHR/A & SH tour tape wore out years ago, more's the pity.

My grandfather loved the pipes, mostly due to his experiences in India during the Second World War. The squaddies always paid him the greatest respect when he mentioned being in the "forgotten theatre".

T.