Pomp and Circumstance
The Band of The Coldstream Guards
A History 1685-2017

Released in May 2018

John Gleeson's painstaking research has uncovered a whole new picture of the band's formation and development over the past 332 years.

Special Offer

£20 + £5 P&P [UK]
For more information, please email
CGBandBook@gmail.com

Click on the book cover above for full ordering information

March 2016 marks 100 years since the band's first public performance.

Military music historian Colin Dean is the author of a 293 page book celebrating the centenary. It looks at the band's development, its uniforms, the places it has visited, the music it has played and some of the great occasions in which it took part.

Most importantly of all, it celebrates the ladies and gentlemen who have served in the band and made it synonomous with musical excellence for one hundred years, taking the music of Wales around the globe and making it so proudly part of our nation's heritage.

Still available at £20 + p&p.

Click on the book cover above for more details and to order.

Amazing Grace was ‘Top of the Pops’ for five weeks in 1972 and changed forever the concept of combining the sound of the pipes with the military band. The regiment’s new name became well-known throughout much of the world and the bands found themselves involved in numerous overseas tours.

In 2009 the album Spirit of the Glen - Journey had a similar success and won a Classical Brit Award, stirring the emotions of the nation as many of the tracks had been recorded in Basra while the pipers and drummers were on active service in a war zone.

These were special highlights but are just part of a unique musical heritage spanning 343 years that have seen the bands at the very heart of the pageantry of Scotland, as well as representing the nation across the globe. They have uniquely been photographed with a Russian Tsar, a US President and a Pope.

The military band was disbanded in 1994 to great regret, but the pipes and drums have continued and their music has taken new directions, including collaborations with guitarist Mark Knopfler.

This new book explores their great musical history and heritage, and it includes the story behind the unique white bearskin. It has over 300 pages and includes more than 700 photographs and illustrations.

Price including UK postage £40.00 (Serving and former members of the regiment: £30.00)

Details for ordering your copy can be found on the Regimental Shop website: shop.scotsdg.org.uk

Or order by post from Home Headquarters, The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, The Castle, Edinburgh, EH1 2YT, enclosing a cheque made payable to SCOTS DG Shop Ltd.

British Army Music in the Interwar Years: Culture, Performance, and Influence

by Major David B Hammond

There were approximately 7,000 full-time bandsmen serving in the British army in the interwar years – about a third of the total number of musicians in the music profession in the United Kingdom – making the War Office the largest single employer of professional musicians in the country.

To sustain this large number, residential institutions provided young boys for recruitment into the army as bandsmen, with the army setting the standard for musical training and performance, while creating sustainability for the music industry which relied upon the existence of army bands for its business.

Despite this there was a tempestuous relationship between army bands and the BBC, as well as the recording industry as a whole, but the military still played a significant part in the adoption of an international standard of musical pitch.

As a military effect, British army music was to reach farther afield and contributed to the maintenance of British imperial authority, at home and overseas, sometimes with tragic consequences, particularly when operating at the forefront of the military campaign in Ireland.

Using untapped sources and original material, David Hammond reveals the role and soft power influence of British army music in the interwar years.

The book is available via Amazon