News / Fiddlers making their mark at Tattoo
AROUND 100 isles fiddlers are this month enjoying the unprecedented opportunity to play before 9,000-strong nightly crowds at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo this month.
After a preview on Thursday night, the first full show took place on Friday. A total of 25 performances are scheduled before the closing night on Saturday 23 August, with costumed, bow-wielding islanders playing a prominent role in proceedings.
Some 46 different nations have taken part over the years, and the “global gathering” offers a major opportunity to get Shetland’s name known in the wider world. Around 30 per cent of the annual 220,000 audience is from overseas, while the event reaches a television audience approaching 100 million.
A rotating cast featuring 40 islanders at each show, performing under the name Hjaltibonhoga, represents the first time that stringed music in any shape or form has featured as part of the Tattoo’s massed band.
One of those who played a key part in organising the Shetland contingent’s involvement, Margaret Scollay, said the opportunity came about through one of the Tattoo’s production team, Clara Whelan, who is good friends with Shetland Folk Festival committee mainstay Mhari Pottinger.
Initially, Scollay said, she felt “slightly disillusioned in that we thought it was a kind of outreach event that we’d be taking part in. It was only when the producers came up to Shetland that we realised this was actually in the main part of the show itself, not just a sideline concert”.
A bank account was started up in March with an initial £50 donation – since when some £30,000 has been raised to fund the mammoth effort.
While 40 fiddlers play at every show, some players are involved for a few days, others for three weeks or more – meaning in all 98 will get a taste of performing in the huge arena.
Scollay said the organisers have “had to be very flexible and accommodate folk with whatever they can give us time-wise”.
Item six of the show sees the fiddlers perform their own four-minute set, while 18 islanders take part in the second item along with a mass of 290 pipes and drums. Later they are involved in the finale – a spectacle involving no less than 800 musicians playing together.
To give an idea of the performance’s sheer scale, the arena floor measures 74 metres by 25 metres, and the performers cover the entirety of that space.
“The arena holds just short of 9,000 folk every night,” Scollay said. “For pretty nearly everybody here, this is the biggest audience that we’ve ever taken on, it’s almost likely playing for the entire population of Lerwick every night.”
A phenomenal amount of work went into readying the fiddlers, with twice-weekly rehearsals commencing in mid May.
Scollay described it as a “huge task”, but said it was “absolute testament to the fiddle-playing community” that enough folk had been capable of such a major undertaking.
“It grew very, very quickly from what we thought we were taking on to the full run of the show,” she said.
“We’ve actually had to turn a group of Shetland fiddlers into a show band with movement as well as music, and understanding cues to be ready to go on stage – a far cry, shall we say, from sitting in The Lounge having a tune!
“It’s been a real stretch for the fiddlers to step up to the requirements. A lot of folk have had to learn a lot of things to be able to do what the tattoo has demanded. I cannot fault one of them, they’ve all been up to the challenge – if they’ve grumbled I’ve not heard that.”
Since arriving in Edinburgh last Sunday, the fiddlers have put in up to 15 hours a day – sometimes starting at 8am and not finishing until midnight.
“Any time in between that where we weren’t officially rehearsing, you then use as your own rehearsal time,” Scollay said, “so it’s been very, very busy. It’s great fun, hilarious fun – we’ve had an absolute barrel of laughs along the way.”
The opportunity is unlikely to be a one-off: while Scollay initially looked upon it that way, she said the fiddlers had already proved a “very valuable addition to the production of the Edinburgh Tattoo, and we will be asked back again”.
She paid “heartfelt thanks” to everyone in the community who helped with funding. While the tattoo is looking after costs in Edinburgh, the fiddlers raised the money for their “very striking” costume and for transport to the Scottish capital.
“We’re having the time of our lives here,” Scollay added. “After last night stepping out in front of 9,000 – the atmosphere, the buzz… you cannot describe it.
“We’re going to have another 20-odd shots at that before we come back home, so I don’t think there’s anybody disappointed that they’ve put in the practice.”
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