Participants, European Union

The Crossed Swords Pipes & Drums

2010

In February 2007, Scotland’s prestigious College of Piping held their first ever Winter School in conjunction with the Piperscorner Shop on mainland Europe in a wee place called Brueggen in Germany. This ground breaking event was facilitated by former British Army Pipe Major, David Johnston who has been teaching and nurturing the piping scene here in Germany for the last 25 Years.

The School’s Graduation Concert was attended by senior British Army Officer, Major General Mungo Melvin, General Officer Commanding (GOC), United Kingdom Support Command (Germany). He was so impressed by the standard of the students that he tasked his personal Piper, David Moir, to form a band from this continental pool of talent to represent his Command in the promotion of British-German relations.

The Crossed Swords Pipe Band (CSPB) was formed later that year and performed at the last ever British Military Musical Show (BMMS) in Muenster, proudly marching on shoulder to shoulder with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards and the Highlanders (Seaforth, Gordons and Camerons). Special thanks to Major Dougie Robertson, Director of Music – Regimental Band of the Scots Guards who was inspirational in setting up the CSPB and continues to be a valuable source of support. Dougie put together the BMMS in 2007 which involved more that 500 musicians in a 3 hour extravaganza.

Since then we have performed at a number of high profile events such as the NATO Musikfest and for the German Government in Bonn. As to the future, we now have the world famous Edinburgh Military Tattoo in our sights. The band takes it’s name from the emblem of Field Marshall Montgomery’s 21 Army Group, which has represented the British Army in Germany for nearly seventy years right up to the recent formation of the United Kingdom Support Command (UKSC).

Direction of the Festival

Official site of the Festival