Famous Members
Duke of Westminster - the third richest person in Britian
The Duke joined the Territorial Army in 1970 as a trooper. Read how he became Colonel Commandant Yeomanry of the Royal Armoured Corps.
James Blunt - champion skier of the Royal Armoured Corps
The singer/songwriter of You're Beautiful was captain of the Household Cavalry Alpine ski team, where he eventually came 26th out of the entire Army.
Further Reading
Articles from January 2009
- The Royal Dragoon Guards climb the Christmas charts
Subscribe to articles by RSS.The Royal Dragoon Guards climb the Christmas charts
5th January 2009
The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards are commonly known as the ‘piping’ regiment of the Royal Armoured Corps...
Their latest album (Spirit of the Glen: Journey) has held the top spot in the Classic Charts for 8 weeks and has, to date, sold more than 300,000 records worldwide and as such has achieved 'Gold' status.
As a direct result of the album's success, it has been shortlisted for the album of the year award in the Classical Brits and also presented to the Prime Minister in December.
The album has also reached number 41 in the official Christmas chart of 2008.
Lodged between ‘Katherine Jenkins’ and ‘Same Difference’, it could make confusing reading for any chart enthusiast, but this is by no means a fluke or accidental release…the Dragoons make seriously emotive music with just bagpipes at hand.
Spirit of the Glen: Journey is the second album that the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards have made for Universal Music, but just the latest in a long line of releases from the famous Scottish regiment whose rendition of Amazing Grace reached the number one slot in 1971.
The album, which has been dubbed “the world's most dangerous record”, was recorded by a mobile studio in Basra, in southern Iraq, where the pipes and drums section of SCOTS DG were on a tour of duty.
It includes favourites such as Auld Lang Syne and Banks of the Don, as well as a version of Take My Breath Away, originally recorded by the rock band Berlin for the film Top Gun. Unusually the album features a spoken-word track, For The Fallen, on which James Naughtie reads an evocative poem accompanied by a lone piper who played on a Basra runway.
Pipe Major Ross Monroe, a tank commander, reckons that the challenging conditions in which they recorded their album could give them the edge.
“We were stuck in a tent with the heat pushing 55 degrees Celsius outside and up to 65 inside,” he said. “The heat was so intense we had to replace some of the reeds in our chanters, and we all got really tired. All that had a definite effect on our music. It made it a very emotional experience.”