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Scotland’s Black Watch Set for 2006 US Tour Band of the Welsh Guards To Share Bill
The legendary pipes, drums and highland dancers of the 1st Battalion The Black Watch will join forces with the Band of the Welsh Guards on a 52 performance, 25-state tour of the United States (and Toronto, Ontario) starting on January 11, 2006. Audiences across the country will thrill to the sound, color and spectacle of this long-awaited return of the Black Watch and their evening of stirring music and colorful ceremony. The program will include arrangements of Amazing Grace, Blue Bells of Scotland, Ode to Joy, Rising of the Lark, and more. Leading The Black Watch will be Pipe President, Major David Kemmis Betty, and Pipe Major Scott Taylor. Leading The Band of the Welsh Guards will be Director of Music, Major David Cresswell, and Nick Johnson. The
Clan Currie Society will welcome the Regiment to New Jersey when they
perform at the NJ Performing Arts Center in Newark, NJ on Saturday, January
28, 2006. For a complete tour schedule, visit: http://www.theblackwatch.co.uk/news/oct05/. The Black Watch The combat role of the Pipes & Drums has existed since the founding of the Black Watch. Pipers have played troops into battle throughout most of the Regiments history. During World War I, the Germans dubbed the Highland regiment “The Ladies from Hell.” Since World War II, the Pipes have officially worn two hats, often exchanging their instruments for rifles or machine guns in combat.
Today, The Black Watch continues to serve as a fully operational Battalion in the modern British Army. The Black Watch has long been known as a family regiment. Many members of the Pipes and Drums have fathers, grandfathers, uncle, or brothers who served in the past, or are currently in the regiment. During the 19th century, The Black Watch served all over the world. In the Napoleonic Wars, it comprised part of the British Army at the Battle of Corunna, Toulouse, the Peninsula Campaign, and Waterloo. It also fought against Russians in the Crimean War, quelled mutineers during the Sepoy Rebellion in India, fought against Colonel Arabi Pasha in the Egyptian Campaign of 1882, and the Dutch South Africans in the Boer War. The war of the Austrian Succession brought The Black Watch its first Battle Honor, at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Shortly afterward, it distinguished itself at the Battle of Ticonderoga during the French and Indian War. The Regiment raised 27 battalions for service on all fronts during WWI; Battle Honors for the Great War include the Marne, Ypres, and the Sommes. The Regiment’s
service since World War I has sent it to Borneo, Korea (where it fought
with the U.S. Marine Corps at “The Hook”)
as well as several tours in Germany and, most recently, Hong Kong. The Band of the Welsh Guards
The Band of the Welsh Guards was formed in the same year as the Regiment
(1915), and consisted of 44 musicians and a warrant officer-Andrew Harris,
their Bandmaster. The first set of instruments were presented by the
City of Cardiff, which enabled the band to carry out the first Kings
Guard Mounting on St. David’s Day 1916. On the same day it gave
its first concert on the stage of the London Opera House and the evening
was such a success that the Band’s reputation for its high standard
was immediately established.
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