The Paris Port Dover Pipe Band will take to the world stage again in August.
Twenty-five of the band’s pipers and drummers will perform every day for almost a full month at a prestigious event in Scotland.
“We’re heading back to represent Canada at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo,” said senior pipe major Gordon Black who founded the band in 2000. “It’s a huge honor.”
About 900 performers from around the globe will take part in this year’s tattoo.
The band first performed at the tattoo in 2014, the first year that non-military bands in the Commonwealth were invited to take part. The band returned in 2018 and was to participate in 2020 before the pandemic scuttled that plan.
“We’ve been through a lot of change,” Black said of the pandemic’s impact on the band.
“We lost people. We’ve pulled some new people in and we’re getting back up to strength.”
The senior pipe major said that, when the invitation to Edinburgh arrived, he distributed music to band members and asked who would like to go.
“Everybody had to prove themselves to a certain extent,” he said. “There are a lot of pipe bands but very few get the honor of actually performing in the tattoo.”
Black began teaching air cadets to play bagpipes in 1995. Many now play in the Paris Port Dover Pipe Band.
“I was pipe major of the air cadet band for three years,” said Quinn Findlay of North Dumfries Township, who now serves as Paris Port Dover band’s pipe major.
“This is my first foray into being a real pipe major. It’s a very new experience for me. I’m going to be right up there with the big dogs — who have been doing this for 15 or 20 years — leading a band in one of the biggest performances in the world. It’s terrifying and really exciting at the same time.”
The band has an impressive resume, having performed in China, Switzerland and Greece. The band also played onstage at the Air Canada Center in Toronto in 2010 at a couple of shows with former Beatle Paul McCartney.
Findlay said it’s “a huge honor” to represent Canada at the tattoo.
The band has been rehearsing the music to be played in Edinburgh but members will only learn the drill once they arrive.
“It’s going to be an intense four days, being up at the crack of dawn and going to supper time,” he said. “Everybody knows how to march, mark time, stay in step and dress themselves appropriately, staying in line sideways, as well as forward. That’s what we can bring to the table when we get there, and we wing it from there.”
Madelyn Neil, 21, of Hamilton, is one of the drummers making the trek to Scotland.
“I’ve been over there with my civvy band for the World Piping Championships four times now,” she said. “But that tattoo I’ve never even seen.”
Neil, a Canadian Forces reservist with The Argyles in Hamilton, was one of 12 Canadians chosen to take part in the Platinum Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth in June.
She said the performance was “kind of emotional.
“We did an eyes right to Prince Charles. So, that was pretty cool.’
Ethan Leduc of Paris has been playing bagpipes for about six years. He started with the 104 Starfighter air cadet squadron in Brantford before moving up to the Paris Port Dover Pipe Band a little over two years ago.
“It’s really nice to be around people that have been playing for 10 to 20 years and get that experience,” he noted. “It’s my first trip ever. I haven’t left the continent so it’s going to be pretty interesting going to Scotland. It will be a memorable experience….”
The 25 band members leave for Scotland on July 28 and will hold their first rehearsal July 30. They will play six days a week through to Aug. 27.
Black noted that he has taught most members of the band “from scratch.
“I know their confidence and how they can play,” he said.
“The young guys in the band, you can smell the fear. They’ll be pretty good.”