Thursday August 8 cont.
After settling in to the room, we met up with our guide Speedy. He walked us up to the castle. We are going to the Military Tattoo tonight (who knew. It just happened to coordinate with the tour, so they included it), so needed to know the lay of the land.
There’s a great area below the castle called Grassmarket Square.
I doubt that there has been a blade of grass growing here for centuries. But looking at the demographic enjoying the space here, cut dried and rolled grass will be here in abundance.
From here we just meander up the hill, seeing cafes, restaurants and all sorts of interesting features, architectural or otherwise.
We find a delightful middle eastern restaurant for dinner. It spans two stories, and we are taken upstairs. After a very nice dinner, we exit from the top floor straight onto the street. That saved us some walking.
As luck would have it, Sarah has spotted a Thai restaurant right next to the top exit of the middle eastern restaurant.
We get through the gate (I was carrying the tickets, so it could have gone very badly), and easily found our seats. Unsurprisingly, row Y is pretty up there. After all the steps we’d done, and then the final push to meet the rest of our group, I was compelled to say it. “Well, we knocked the bugger off!” I was knackered!
Now let’s just say up front, I would not cross the street to buy tickets for the Military Tattoo. In a previous life, I have had connections with both brass and pipe bands, so I appreciate the skills involved. But enough, already. Ho hum.
Despite my best intentions, I actually enjoyed the evening. It didn’t hurt that it was a nice evening. Apparently one of the main obstacles to the Tattoo is weather, but the gods smiled on us. So it was all about the performances. As I said, I enjoyed the show. Really enjoyed it.
Like most years, there was a strong NZ presence. NZ Army band, Christchurch Pie Band and a Marching Girls team from Wellington. Along with pipe bands and performers from many countries. Over 1100 performers in total.
There was a great Caribbean steel drum band, complete with dancers. I just love that something so melodic can be made out of a dirty old steel oil drum. Brilliant!
There were some terrific highland dancers, bouncing around like a gaggle of whirling dervishes. I’ve never seen so many man-crushing thighs flexing in coordinated synchronicity in my life. đłđłđđ°
The NZ Army Band did what they do well. They do a lot of music, and a lot of moves, that you wouldn’t expect from a marching brass band. And they have a singer, too.
At one point, they did Queen’s “The Show Must Go On”, and the singer did a good job of it. To be fair, I was a little disappointed that they didn’t do “Fat Bottomed Girls”, but seeing as most shows are probably performed in the rain, their choice is probably more appropriate.
And, as advertised, there was a lot of marching.
For those who haven’t seen it, it has been de rigueur for decades for marching bands, that while marching in a grid formation, they are able to turn and ‘fold’ each row back on itself. Just like a swimmer would turn and go the opposite way in his lane, so does each row of the marching grid. The result is that they are now marching in the opposite direction, and those who were at the front before the turn are now at the front after the turn as well.
Looks impressive, too.
All bands did this move last night. Many times.
The better teams have an impressive trick, where they split into two square grids, and each one passes through the other. To ramp up the level of difficulty, they approach at 90 degrees to each other, while the whole manoeuvre happens at 45 degrees to the audience. Collision Course!!! Looks damned impressive, because it is. And damned hard too, particularly for those band members with instruments sticking out in front or beside them as they move around.
Most bands did that. No surprises. These are the best of the best.
And then the NZ marching girls came on.
Let’s just get this out of the way off the bat. This is definitely the length that kilts are supposed to be worn. Not for the guys, of course! That would be a scarring image. Ugghhh!!đ±đ±đ±đ€ź
Now, back to what I was thinking.
Formation marching is hard...yada yada yada
Two grids crossing is a shitload harder...yada yada yada
And then the NZ marching girls came on. Right.
They did all the folding and crossing, just as you’d expect. And a few manoeuvres that are both more flamboyant and more difficult.
And then...
Remember that collision course crossover I mentioned? Well next they did it again.
But BACKWARDS!!!!!
They marched in formation, backwards, and did the crossover that is bloody hard to do forwards. Backwards.
The audience got it. A roar came up from all 8500 seats. They just did something so out-of-the-box, that even those who know nothing about marching, were blown away. I’ve seen a bit of formation marching in my time, and I waa stunned. Gobsmacked.
As we were leaving, one of our group said to us, “one thing you can say, the Kiwis always punch above their weight.”
On behalf of those more skilled and more disciplined than me, I thank you.
After settling in to the room, we met up with our guide Speedy. He walked us up to the castle. We are going to the Military Tattoo tonight (who knew. It just happened to coordinate with the tour, so they included it), so needed to know the lay of the land.
There’s a great area below the castle called Grassmarket Square.
I doubt that there has been a blade of grass growing here for centuries. But looking at the demographic enjoying the space here, cut dried and rolled grass will be here in abundance.
From here we just meander up the hill, seeing cafes, restaurants and all sorts of interesting features, architectural or otherwise.
We find a delightful middle eastern restaurant for dinner. It spans two stories, and we are taken upstairs. After a very nice dinner, we exit from the top floor straight onto the street. That saved us some walking.
As luck would have it, Sarah has spotted a Thai restaurant right next to the top exit of the middle eastern restaurant.
We get through the gate (I was carrying the tickets, so it could have gone very badly), and easily found our seats. Unsurprisingly, row Y is pretty up there. After all the steps we’d done, and then the final push to meet the rest of our group, I was compelled to say it. “Well, we knocked the bugger off!” I was knackered!
Now let’s just say up front, I would not cross the street to buy tickets for the Military Tattoo. In a previous life, I have had connections with both brass and pipe bands, so I appreciate the skills involved. But enough, already. Ho hum.
Despite my best intentions, I actually enjoyed the evening. It didn’t hurt that it was a nice evening. Apparently one of the main obstacles to the Tattoo is weather, but the gods smiled on us. So it was all about the performances. As I said, I enjoyed the show. Really enjoyed it.
Like most years, there was a strong NZ presence. NZ Army band, Christchurch Pie Band and a Marching Girls team from Wellington. Along with pipe bands and performers from many countries. Over 1100 performers in total.
There was a great Caribbean steel drum band, complete with dancers. I just love that something so melodic can be made out of a dirty old steel oil drum. Brilliant!
There were some terrific highland dancers, bouncing around like a gaggle of whirling dervishes. I’ve never seen so many man-crushing thighs flexing in coordinated synchronicity in my life. đłđłđđ°
The NZ Army Band did what they do well. They do a lot of music, and a lot of moves, that you wouldn’t expect from a marching brass band. And they have a singer, too.
At one point, they did Queen’s “The Show Must Go On”, and the singer did a good job of it. To be fair, I was a little disappointed that they didn’t do “Fat Bottomed Girls”, but seeing as most shows are probably performed in the rain, their choice is probably more appropriate.
And, as advertised, there was a lot of marching.
For those who haven’t seen it, it has been de rigueur for decades for marching bands, that while marching in a grid formation, they are able to turn and ‘fold’ each row back on itself. Just like a swimmer would turn and go the opposite way in his lane, so does each row of the marching grid. The result is that they are now marching in the opposite direction, and those who were at the front before the turn are now at the front after the turn as well.
Looks impressive, too.
All bands did this move last night. Many times.
The better teams have an impressive trick, where they split into two square grids, and each one passes through the other. To ramp up the level of difficulty, they approach at 90 degrees to each other, while the whole manoeuvre happens at 45 degrees to the audience. Collision Course!!! Looks damned impressive, because it is. And damned hard too, particularly for those band members with instruments sticking out in front or beside them as they move around.
Most bands did that. No surprises. These are the best of the best.
And then the NZ marching girls came on.
Let’s just get this out of the way off the bat. This is definitely the length that kilts are supposed to be worn. Not for the guys, of course! That would be a scarring image. Ugghhh!!đ±đ±đ±đ€ź
Now, back to what I was thinking.
Formation marching is hard...yada yada yada
Two grids crossing is a shitload harder...yada yada yada
And then the NZ marching girls came on. Right.
They did all the folding and crossing, just as you’d expect. And a few manoeuvres that are both more flamboyant and more difficult.
And then...
Remember that collision course crossover I mentioned? Well next they did it again.
But BACKWARDS!!!!!
They marched in formation, backwards, and did the crossover that is bloody hard to do forwards. Backwards.
The audience got it. A roar came up from all 8500 seats. They just did something so out-of-the-box, that even those who know nothing about marching, were blown away. I’ve seen a bit of formation marching in my time, and I waa stunned. Gobsmacked.
As we were leaving, one of our group said to us, “one thing you can say, the Kiwis always punch above their weight.”
On behalf of those more skilled and more disciplined than me, I thank you.
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