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June

It appears that Tameside got their calculations wrong! They originally miscalculated the overall results and awarded Faireys 3rd overall but having had a re-count have now awarded them overall Best Local dropping Glossop Band to 3rd Best Local (17th June)

To complete a busy Whit Friday weekend the band played a concert in the bandroom. The band has had little time to prepare a new programme due to the Grand Shield, All England Masters and Whit Friday but we managed it all the same. There were five new solo's and the band finished the first half with the Toccatta from Suite Gothique and our finisher was Slavonic No 2. The overture was Le Domino Noir and only two of the pieces were duplicated from our last concert. (17th June)

The band had a very enjoyable Whit Friday and competed at 11 contests. We played Ravenswood with Army of the Nile as the street march. The band were awarded 2nd overall at The Broadoak, Best Local at Heyrod and 2nd Best Local at Upper Mossley. The band played consistently well all evening and this was reflected in the band being placed 2nd local champions in the overall Tameside contest. (16th June)

Over the last couple of weeks there has been a bit of a shuffle within the band. Dave Timmins has retired from the band for work commitments. Gill Redfern has got the 'brass band bug' again and after a brief stint on 1st horn earlier in the year, for maternity cover for Lisa, Gill completes the cornet section by playing 3rd cornet. Alison has moved back on to Third cornet with Gill and Paul Deighton joined the band in May on 1st Baritone. Paul joins the band from Stalybridge Band is a student at Blue Coat Sixth Form in Oldham and is currently completing his A levels. Good luck to him and also to Ben who is also doing exams. (6th June)

May

The band drew the dreaded No 1 at this weekends (25th) All England Masters. This meant that the band had the honour of a world premiere performance of Martin Ellerby's Chivalry. The piece was a welcome change from some of the pieces the band has had to play over the last few months and I'm sure was welcome relief for the audience.

I think that on the day we must have had the youngest player with Jack Parker (11) not even at secondary school and the oldest player with Jim Murray (60 something!) and it was a pleasure to have both playing for us. It was Jack's first contest with the band and he was quite surprised to find that there was a audience for our performance. Jack expected just the three adjudicators in a room with the band. Another debutante was Ben Gillooly who joined his uncle, Hugh Cant, on EEb bass. Aw, isn't that nice!

The three adjudicators awarded the band 16, 16 and 21 placings which gave the band an overall placing of 20 out of 21. We really enjoyed the day and was quite an experience for us and we are hoping that the contest organisers see fit to invite us again next year.

The band played in Todmorden Park on Sunday 18th May despite the persistent rain elsewhere in the county. We drove to the venue through rain, hail, storms, floods (and I do not exagerate) to get to the venue to find glorious sunshine! We played to a small, but enthusiastic, audience who had braved the storms to listen to the band. At one stage we played Singing in the Rain to the accompaniment of thunder but luckily no rain. There were storms to the left and right of the park but all through the concert there were clear blue skies letting the sunshine through. In fact it was that warm that we had to play without jackets!

The band have had a busy few weeks rehearsing for the Grand Shield (3rd May)and Buxton (4th May) Contests. The set testpiece for the Grand Shield wasTallis Variations which was a welcome relief from the previous two test pieces the band has had to play (Maunsell Forts and Prague). This piece is full of nice band sounds and some whistleable tunes which was reflected in the number of supporters we took to Buxton. The band were placed 8th at the Grand Shield and 3rd at Buxton.

For the Grand Shield the band thought we were never going to get there. We set off from the bandroom and couldn't get the coach round the corner and down the hill. We were a bit concerned to hear the driver ask "we are on a hill, aren't we? Only I can't get the coach rolling down the hill, there must be another brake on". As you can imaging this didn't fill the band with much confidence and it appears that the driver didn't work for the coach company and had been contracted in for the day. Never mind we soon got on our way to the end of the road before the next mishap. The driver couldn't find the gears.

We managed to crawl along to the M67 where we made steady progress (about 40mph) and onto the M60. It was quite disconcerting to have flies hitting the back windscreen at this speed. Never mind we soon got to ramming speed (50mph) before coming off the motorway to pick up at Oldham. Again the driver couldn't find the gears but we eventually set off only to stop at Bolton Services on the M61.

The driver had called out the company's mechanic who met us at the services and told us that the UJ had gone. "Great, what's one of them when its at home then" I asked and was promptly told that it was a universal joint "Oh good, what does that do then?" (obviously me being an expert in the workings of coach mechanics!) "It stops the driver selecting gears" was the response. At this stage my tongue was severely bitten to save any further hassle.

The band then had to make a decision to go the rehearsal room in Poulton-le-Fylde or to Blackpool (where the contest was being held) as they couldn't guarantee getting the coach from Poulton to Blackpool in the event of an early draw. We elected to be at the contest venue.

When we arrived the draw hadn't taken place so I jumped off the coach to see if we could find a rehearsal room in the area. There were several bands practicing opposite the venue and I asked Carlton Main if we could use their facilities after them. They were extremely accommodating and said we were more than welcome if we didn't draw too near them, the same also went for the band in the next hotel Burry Port. To our horror Burry Port drew 11, Carlton Main 12 and us 13! Bang went that plan. The dreaded draw of 13 really could only go to us.

Whilst waiting for the draw our resident motor mechanic went round asking everyone if they had a wire coat hanger, when I asked what for it was to try and get into our solo horn's car as he had locked his keys in the boot! What a day, I hope we never have another one like it for some time.