THE producer of the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, Major Michael Parker,
suffered a heart attack in the run-up to tonight's opening, but his
colleagues pledged yesterday that the show would go on as normal.
Major Parker, 53, regarded as one of the world's leading experts in
staging ceremonial events, was presiding over arrangements for his third
Tattoo when he became unwell at the Castle on Monday.
He is now recovering in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and is expected to
return to his London home to recuperate.
It was being stressed yesterday that Major Parker's production work
had effectively been completed and the event would go ahead according to
his plans which take as their theme the 200th and final anniversary of
the Gordon Highlanders.
The Tattoo's business manager, Major Brian Leishman, who has been
involved with the event since 1978, has stepped into the breach to
oversee production during the next three weeks.
Major Parker has also been producer of the Royal Tournament in London
since 1974.
Lord Provost Norman Irons, who chairs the Tattoo Board, said: ''We
were all very concerned to hear of Michal Parker's illness. We sent him
our very best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.''
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article