BANDS OF SCOTS GUARDS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27427, 13 August 1954, Page 6

BANDS OF SCOTS GUARDS

TOUR OF AMERICA AND CANADA BIG PROFIT EXPECTED (From the London Correspondent of “The Press") LONDON,.JuIy 23. The United States Army and the F. 8.1. will have to be on the alert next year when 100 men from the regimental band and massed pipe bands of the Ist and 2nd battalions of the Scots Guards land in America. The last time the Scots Guards were in the United States in 1777, they burned down the Capitol in Washington. Next year’s invasion by the Scots Guards however, will be more peaceful as they have signed a contract with the American impresario, Mr Sol Hurok, who took the Sadlers Wells Ballet Company on their successful tours of America and Canada, to perform in the two countries. Mr Hurok saw the bands performing at the Edinburgh Festival two years ago and since then he has been negotiating with the War Office to allow the bands to visit America. “American audiences are just crazy about pipe bands,” he said last night at a reception in London when he finally signed the tour contract with Colonel C. I. H. Dunbar, who commands the Guards. “It has taken two years to fix this tour but I am sure the band will be a sell-out in Carnegie Hall or the Metropolitan Opera House in New York. They should make 1,000,000 dollars in America.” Mr Hurok said the regimental band would play “cultural items” from Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Rossini but he considered that the pipers would be the main attraction. I’ll be surprised if there’s an empty seat from the Atlantic to the Pacific when these boys appear,” he added. “I’m not worrying about the financial side of the tour although I’ve got some of my money in the venture. It will be a big step in Anglo-American goodwill.” At present the 40 pipers who will play on the tour are serving with their battalions in Germany and in the Canal Zone. Wives will not accompany the 40 pipers and 60 bandsmen on the tour. A Scots Guards officer was quick to dispel any notions that the bandsmen were becoming professional entertainers. “Although they will be giving sword dances as well in their performances overseas, our pipers are first and foremost fighting soldiers whose job it is to inspire their comrades in battle,” he explained. “They will be under army discipline throughout the tour even though they will be staying in hotels.” Who will get the profits if the band does make “1,000,000 dollars” as Mr

Hurok confidently predicts? The War Office says that normally when Army bands make profits in public performances, the money goes into a special Band Fund. The American tour however was an exceptional event and until the money was obtained, no decision would be made as to the disposal of the expected profits. The basic pay of a bandsman is about 10s a day in Britain. Some of the men receive additional allowances in the form of pocket money from their Band Fund.