Would Lewis Hamilton prepare for a Grand Prix driving his formula one car round a few roundabouts in Milton Keynes? Would Fred Astaire have practiced his amazing tap-dancing routines with Ginger Rogers atop a tin tray on the kitchen table? Would Jürgen Klopp, Manager of Liverpool, train his first team squad for an FA Cup […]
When a brass banding competition or concert approaches, you can rehearse as much as you like, but there is always the potential for something weird to happen before, during or after the performance. My first encounter happened the very first time I stood up in front of an audience way back in the mid 70s […]
After retiring from a thirty-year career in the fire service on those big red shiny trucks, I set up my own fire risk assessment company as cartooning would not keep the cupboard stocked with enough food to hide my starving wife’s and kid’s ribs. As a fire risk assessor, it amazes me how little attention […]
I overhead a top section player at the recent contest… “Drawn last and I won’t be on stage till gone nine. By the time the results arrive, it’ll be tomorrow before I get home.” I smiled, remembering when I first started playing. Someone must have had an evil streak to invent the fourth section. Think […]
Our trusty conductor has just emailed our start up schedule after long Covid Hibernation. My first emotion was total elation, which saw me leaping around the house. After the euphoria had subsided, three questions dawned on me, as it has for most banders. Q1 – Where is my instrument? Is it still in the under-stair […]
“A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the baritone and doesn’t” Mark Twain. Why did you end up on the brass instrument you play in your band? Was it by chance or, as a kid, did you deliberately seek out your musical destiny on a baritone, bass, or bongo? When I first began […]
I just made my acquaintance with that famous aria ‘AstraZeneca’, which brought tears to my eyes, a dead arm and a head like I have been living in the bell end of a bass trombone. The timing for the vaccine could not have been worse, just before I was due to make an online recording […]
The band on stage are ripping through the loud fast and furious section of the test piece as the quiet middle section approaches. The piece calms down to a mere whispering timp’ roll. It’s almost silent in the hall as the first of the lyrical cadenzas is about to sing out. The atmosphere is electric, and everyone […]
When bands folk go to the great band room in the sky it is always sad and particularly so for me when I read of the recent passing of the legendary Trevor Mumford, who, here in South Wales and much further afield was a ‘once met, impossible to forget’ bandsman for all the right reasons. […]
It has been six months since I sat on a stage with my band at the area finals in Swansea. Apart from online collaborations, I truly thought there was nothing else going on in the banding world. I was so wrong! There is one pastime that has been totally unaffected by Covid-19. A dark and […]