UNIVERSITY BAND TO PERFORM IN SCOTLAND

Against the backdrop of historic Edinburgh Castle in Scotland, the Southeast Missouri State University marching band will perform at a month-long music festival.

Southeast's Golden Eagles Marching Band is the second U.S. university marching band to perform in the 50-year history of the event.

This week Brig. Gen. Melville Jameson visited the Southeast campus to take a look at the band in person.

"My feeling is that this band is going to greatly impress the audiences," Jameson said. "Today I saw an outstanding display of drumming. I have to say I've been hearing some wonderful music over the last two days. I've been very impressed with the professionalism and music of the students."

The band will be the featured performing group at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo. The band will perform with a cast of nearly 1,000 musicians 25 nights in August.

"This is a huge honor," said Barry Bernhardt, director of the Golden Eagles. "We are only the second U.S. college band ever invited to participate."

Every night is a sellout, Jameson said. Some 8,600 people attend each performance, adding up to about a quarter of a million people over the month. In addition, the BBC records the performance and broadcasts it to some 7 million viewers, and PBS tapes it for viewers in the United States. Across the world, some 100 million people are expected to watch, Jameson said.

Each nightly performance has four main parts. The evening starts with massed pipes and drums. "They are the favorites," Jameson said. About 250 pipers perform together at the festival. The pipes and drums are followed by military bands. "They will perform good marching tunes," he said.

The Golden Eagles will follow. "In the middle, I like to add the spice," Jameson said. "I try to bring something new and unique and different to the tattoo. We've had Zulus, steel bands, Pakistan pipers."

He said the Southeast band will offer quite a contract to the British military bands they follow.

"The way they play the music is more upbeat and jazzy," Jameson said. "The British military bands will be marching in straight lines. They have been marching like that for several hundred years. Your band might march backwards or forwards or in a circle."

The finale brings together all 1,000 musicians into a massed performance. "We pull it all together with some very powerful and emotional music," Jameson said.

The Southeast band was selected based on its reputation. The Golden Eagles have maintained a level of visibility since the 1960s and 1970s when the band performed at the NFL Pro Bowl and NFL Super bowl. More recently, the band performed at Foley's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Houston, Texas, in 1990.

The band also performs at Southeast Indian home football games. They were the featured university band at the Greater St. Louis Marching Band Festival. "I'm always in the hunt for good act," Jameson said.

He called a friend in California who suggested the Southeast band. "I heard the music and saw the videos and agreed that this would be a great addition to the tattoo."

The word tattoo comes from a 17th century practice of soldiers from the low country going into town pubs after a day's work. At the appointed closing hour, a drummer or musician would walk up and down the streets sending notice to "turn off the taps" or "tap turn." Over the years, Jameson explained, the pronunciation got shortened to "tattoo."

The tattoo has come to mean a military musical extravaganza.

Members of the Southeast band will be paying their own way for the trip, about $1,600 per student. Some full-time college students are working one and two jobs to raise the money.

Fund-raising efforts are also under way.