Something Scottish, something classic, something military, something mixed … the 75th Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo promises to deliver all that,
The Tattoo’s first show in Brisbane is tomorrow (Thursday, February 12) night and will run until Sunday, rain notwithstanding.
Alan Lane is the Tattoo’s creative director who handled his first show last year and is on his first tour.
“The tattoo is iconic; it is a mixture of classic Scottish fare (pipes and drums), highlander dancers, Shetland fiddlers and also the finest military bands in the world,” he says.
“The US Marine Corps is joining us; we normally don’t get them in Edinburgh.
“We’ve been able to convince them to come to Australia – Japan, Tonga, the Norwegian King’s guard,” Lane says.
“This means that everyone’s culture is represented and they’ll join together in a finale that you’re not going to be able to see anywhere in the world.
“I’m pretty excited about how the audience is going to find this.”
Click here to watch a video from today on our YouTube channel
SCOTTISH SPECTACLE
A visual highlight of the shows will be a 50m by 22m LED screen which will display images of Scottish landscapes including Edinburgh Castle.
“This is a first for the Tattoo and this is a Queensland first,” Lane says.
“It’s like that moment in Avengers … you know we’re coming and everybody has gelled really well.”
He describes the logistics effort as huge involving 1100 cast and crew.
“We’ve got buses stacked up on the road, hotels are full … it’s a huge heave. This is where everyone needs to lose their ego and click together,” he says.
“Last night (Tuesday), we were rehearsing in a downpour, the likes of which I haven’t experienced outside Scotland!
“You could see that team spirit; everyone just grit their teeth and punched through.”
Nor is Lane fazed by the thought of wet weather during the Tattoo.
“We’re going to be fine. They (cast and crew) will plow through everything.
“The instruments that are sensitive will go in the tent,” he explains.
“This is the nature of Tattoos. We do 26 performances in Edinburgh, and it rains for about half of them.”
He also says there will be a new musical piece performed at the Brisbane shows.
“There will be a moment in the show that is called The Peace That Followed, a new piece of music by (composer) Tom Hodge,” he says.
“It commemorates the end of WW2 and the necessary effort and hardship that was.
“We are all living that peace. That will be played by 10 military bands out there.”
COUNTING THE COST
On the financial logistics, he says that is a major reason why the Tattoo is not on the road more often.
“Anyone who can count will work out this is a very expensive business,” he says.
“There are 1100 international flights, hotel rooms and everything else; just feeding and keeping these guys … can you imagine the drycleaning bills for these uniforms?
“It is a huge heave and an awful lot of financial risk for our backers. I hope we pay that back but that’s the reason we don’t go on the road very often.
“When we do, we make the most of it we possibly can.”
QLD BONANZA
Qld Tourism Minister Andrew Powell says the Tattoo is proving to be a national drawcard.
“We know that 22% of the tickets sold have come from interstate so we know it’s bringing in tourists from across the nation,” he says.
“Our hotel bookings this weekend are up 20% year-on-year from previous weekends so it’s clearly having the economic effect that we had hoped.
“At the end of the day, this is all about the spectacle that is the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.”
On Monday, the Tattoo will pack up and head to Auckland for shows at Eden Park on February 19 and 21.
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EARLIER TATTOO NEWS: More Brisbane shows added
