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December 2003

After a hectic December period the band are looking forward to a well deserved rest and would like to wish all readers a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Over the festive period there are two charity concerts in the bandroom the first being the All Star charity band on the 28th December with entrance fee of £5. No Stars will be appearing on the 4th January with no door charge and an 'honesty' tray.

The band would like to wish a happy first birthday to Hannah Senior (10th) and Charlie Parker (21st).

At a concert in Glossop Saturday 6th December, Ian Moffat from VBS Poynton Band was kind enough to help the band out on the back row. Unfortunately on his way home he stopped for a well deserved swift half in the Rock Tavern (Marple) and returned to his car to find that his Maestro cornet had been stolen from the boot. If anyone has any information please contact [email protected]. The concert proved to be unfortunate for another cornet player, Tanya Furness, who was trying to get to Leicester after the concert but unfortunately her car packed in and she needed the assistance of our resident car mechanic, Gary Burgess.

November 2003

Hurray, at last!!!!! On Sunday 16th the band played Festival Music at the Wilkinsons Northern Open contest and gained first prize. The band performed very well and were pleased with the performance. Pete Bowd (Solo Euph) gained the prize for best Euph with a stunning performance. More news to follow in the next day or so.

On Sunday 9th the band was once again involved in the Rememberance Services held in Glossop Town Centre and Hadfield Cenotaph. For once the rain held off and it wasn't too cold. The evening concert was again well attended and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the programme which included Keep Smiling Through, 1914, Nightfall in Camp, Plymouth Hoe, Standard of St George, Crimond and Ellacombe. The band's featured soloists were Janet Lewis (cornet) who played the very moving If I Can Help Somebody, Pete Bowd (Euphonium) with La Belle Americaine and Stuart Wilkinson (Horn) with Feelings.

During the evening Hugh Cant took many photo's of the band and if any are printable will appear on the webpages shortly!

Congratulations to our good friend Louise Marsden on the birth of her baby son Jack who arrived in the world on Friday evening. We wish you both every happiness for the future.

October 2003

The band extends a warm welcome to two new bass players
Chris Reedy who has joined the band from VBS Poynton Band and
Paul Clough who joins from Ashton Band. The band also welcomes James Moore who has joined the band on 2nd Baritone.

We currently have a backrow vacancy and all enquiries should be directed to Pete Bowd on the above number.

The band competed at the Pontins Championships on Sunday 26th October 2003 and gained 6th place out of 25 entries. The set test piece was Festival Music by Eric Ball. The contest saw the debut of Rory Gilloolly (age 14) on percussion. Rory is the son of ex-Fairey's trombone player Andy and during the day had the watchful eyes uncle Jim and Hugh Cant to make sure that he didn't get into any trouble.

4barsrest had the following to say about our performance:
Glossop Old and Jim Cant also produced a well-shaped performance that was light in style and well balanced throughout, but just had those costly individual errors that lost them valuable points. They did sound a good very band in the making once more though.

There was only one slight mishap during the day and that was when the band were leaving the bandroom. We were due to leave at 9.15am and noticed that Dave Morris (Bass Trombone) wasn't on the coach so Gary Burgess checked his phone and realised that he had a home telephone number for Dave Morris. He rang the number and asked if he was going on the coach or by car to which the reply was 'by car'. We then left thinking everyone was accounted for.

As we were sitting waiting for results downing the odd pint or two a tale began circulating about our Bass Trombone player having to stay sober as he had to drive home. It turned out that the phone call to Dave Morris was in fact made to the conductor (and Whistling Champion) of Ashton Band not our Dave Morris bass trombone player! Our Dave is well know for being late and had in fact arrived just as the coach left the bandroom. We'll have to have a different set of instructions printed with a time half an hour earlier for Dave next time we have a coach somewhere.

Also, apologies to the audience at Glossop Bandroom for the cancellation of the band on Sunday 26th. Unfortunately they only rang me on the Wednesday evening and by then it was too late to get another band to play or indeed let the audience know.