Frank Anderson is getting set for a lifetime performance opportunity.
August 1 to 23, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 98 Kingston’s entertainment chair and official piper will represent Canada during the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, alongside his old bandmates from the Paris Port Dover Pipes and Drums, in Ontario.
Anderson has already had the honour of performing in two other military tattoos, first in Switzerland, with the Paris Port Dovers; and in the 2024 Royal Nova Scotia Tattoo, with his current 14 Wing Greenwood Pipes and Drums’ bandmates. This Scotland opportunity, however, is particularly meaningful.
“It’s a bucket list item for me,” says Anderson.
The oldest and largest military international tattoo, with an annual audience of over 200,000 people, this year’s performance of “The Heroes Who Made Us” celebrates the Edinburgh Tattoo’s 75th anniversary. Anderson says this year also marks the Paris Port Dover’s 25th anniversary.
Although Anderson used to play guitar and saxophone, the bagpipes have called to him since childhood. It has only been as an adult the opportunity presented itself.
“One of the guys in the band said, ‘this isn’t an instrument you learn in your mid-forties,’ and I told him, ‘well, watch me.’”
Fifteen years later, he returned to his hometown in Brantford to celebrate his 60birthday.
“One of the pipers from Paris Port Dover, who I played with before when we lived there – she surprised me by piping in my birthday cake.”
After the celebration, Anderson’s friends offered him the piper position for the prestigious performance.
Returning to the Edinburgh castle for its fourth appearance, the Paris Port Dover Pipes and Drums will be Canada’s sole ambassadors in the massed pipes and drums performance, and will make its dramatic entrance in a march across the historic drawbridge alongside military and civilian bands from around the world. Performers from Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and the United States of America will join Canada and the United Kingdom on the castle’s Esplanade, performing every night and twice Saturdays during the three-week run.
“For me, it’s a very physically demanding instrument – that was the biggest hurdle I had to get over when I first took it up,” says Anderson. In addition to the physical requirements of the nightly tattoo performances, the band will join a week-long choreography practice prior to opening night. Performers must also each memorize all the music – about 20 pieces – before they even arrive.
“I’ve played big events before, but this has been a bucket list item for me. There are more nervous feelings about going now. When we get there, we’re expected to know all our music, back to front.
“Plus – keeping up with the tunes I play with the band here (in Greenwood). As a piper – I’m sure you’ve seen, we don’t have our music in front of us when we’re playing. It’s all up here,” he says, tapping his head.
Still, Anderson is overjoyed at the Edinburgh opportunity and is confident any pre-show jitters will disappear after opening night. If time permits, he also hopes to catch the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow this August.
