Amanda Watson
The Southland Times
July 10, 2000

TWO Southland men are planning a third tattoo in three years and there's not a mark on either of them to show for it.
Mervyn Gunn and Royden Brown played with the City of Invercargill
Caledonian Pipe Band at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland in
1998 and again with the band at the tattoo in Wellington earlier this
year.
Now they're practising for their return to Scotland this month.
The two are among four Southern territorial soldiers invited to swell the numbers and sound of the Pipes and Drums of the Wellington West Coast and Taranaki Regiment after it was invited to play at the Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Scotland this year.
Sergeant Gunn, Lance-Corporal Brown, Captain Wayne Duncan and Corporal Lawrence McKerchar were all members of the now disbanded Pipes and Drums of 405 South regiment but answered the call to return to kilts when the northern band came up short.
So far they've practised with the 13 other pipers and 10 drummers in the lower North Island regiment just once _ next time they get together will be at Auckland International Airport on July 21 when they catch the plane to Scotland.
The quartet meet up to practice regularly and had no problem fitting in with their fellow pipers.
"We fitted in quite well," Sergeant Gunn said.
The regiment will also be sounding off in a massed display of 600 pipers and drummers in the Scottish Bands' Royal Tribute to the Queen Mother on July 27, just days before her 100th birthday.