Don’t mention the haar

THEY are the best of the best, trained in providing military cover in extreme weather conditions.

But despite being supposedly hardened to Arctic conditions, members of the German Mountain Army Band have been taken out by an unlikely source – Edinburgh’s wet weather.

The mountain infantry band, from Bavaria, are in the Capital performing nightly at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo.

They were due to give an additional afternoon performance in Edinburgh in the courtyard of the Palace of Holyroodhouse yesterday morning, but cancelled because of the forecasted rain and because some of the band members have been feeling “under the weather”.

Alan Smith, sales and marketing manager for the Tattoo, said that despite the cancellation of the palace concert, the band would be “soldiering on” to complete their Tattoo performances.

He said: “After having completed 22 performances at the Tattoo in some really difficult conditions, what with the weather being unpleasant this month, some of the guys are feeling the effects and are fatigued.

“Our focus is on ensuring that all the talent in this year’s performance are at their best.

“The prediction for another downpour during the day [yesterday], as well as some of them feeling a bit under the weather, means that they decided to cancel their performance at the palace to make sure they are at their best for the remaining Tattoo performances.

“They have had minor ailments but nothing that is going to stop anyone in their tracks.

“The Germans are soldiering on.”

The 60 Bavarian musicians are members of the first German military band to take part in the Tattoo for 25 years.

The band were founded in 1956 and originate from the world-famous Olympic resort Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

They were due to perform for visitors at the palace yesterday from 11am to 12pm as a “courtesy”.

A spokeswoman at the German Consulate in Edinburgh said: “It has been cancelled due to the weather conditions because the forecast was quite bad.

“It was a courtesy concert for visitors to the Palace of Holyroodhouse to celebrate the wonderful exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery.

“The idea was to have this German link between the events.

“Some members of the band may have some illness issues, but it’s mostly been cancelled because of the weather.

“We always underlined that it would be dependent on weather conditions.”

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