Sea shanty and Bollywood celebrated at Tattoo
The sea shanty hit which propelled Scottish singer-songwriter Nathan Evans to fame is to get a starring role in the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.
Organisers have revealed that the epic whaling song “Wellerman” which is believed to have beenborninnewzealandmore than 150 years ago, is expected to be a centrepiece of the show which will unfold at Edinburgh Castleesplanadebeforearound 220,000 spectators.
Michael Braithwaite, the New Zealand-born creative director of the event, has chosen the song for what will be his swansong edition of the event.
Histhirdandfinalprogramme will also feature “Take My Hand,” one of the best-known songs by the Hebridean rock band Skerryvore, the latest Celtic music to championed by the Tattoo after Mr Braithwaite used songs by Runrig, Skipinnish and Tide Lines in recent years.
Mr Braithwaite, who has appointed in 2021, has overseen a shake-up of the format and programme of the Tattoo, including the introduction of an “electropipes” sequence and more sophisticated projections and lighting affect to accompany the performance on the esplanade.
Other highlights of this year’s show, which is entitled Journeys, are expected to include a celebration of India feature a Rajasthani Bagpipe player, Bhangra dancers and a Bollywood tribute.
American acts lined up include the Citadel Regimental Band and Pipes, from South Carolina and the United States Navy Ceremonial Guard, who
are best known for their performancesinofficialceremoniesin and around Washington.
The massed bands of His Majesty’s Royal Marine will be performingaspartofastrongroyal Navy contingency in this year’s show, which will run from 2-24 August.
It emerged earlier that Mr Braithwaite would be bowing out from his role at the end of 2024. His replacement, expected to be announced in the next
few weeks, will have a much widerremitastheywillbeworking on “other events of varying shapes and sizes” as well as the main event in Edinburgh each summer as part of a drive to extendthetattoo’sglobalreach.
Mr Braithwaite, who was appointed on a three-year contractin2020buthadtowaituntil 2022 to oversee his first event duetocovid,said:“itwasalways goingtobeathree-yearthingfor me. It felt like a good number of
shows to really try new things out and then move on.
“I’m really excited about where we’ve taken the Tattoo and where we are going to end up this year. It feels like a really good time to go out on a high.
“We’ve incorporated a lot of new technologies over the last couple of years, but we’ve also made better use of them creatively. It’s one thing to hire in a lot of equipment, but it’s another to use it.
“The one thing you can never do is please everybody, but you should not try to do that, as you end up pleasing nobody. But I have to say that, broadly speaking, people loved what we’ve done with the show.”
Jason Barrett, who has taken over from Buster Howes as the event’s chief executive, said: “The Tattoo is a worldrenownedspectacleandtohave achancetobeintheheartofitis truly inspirational.”
I’m really excited about where we’ve taken the Tattoo