Here’s a view of it from Lee on Tenor Horn.

An exhausting but memorable trip!

The weekend saw Guernsey Concert Brass representing the Island in the annual Whit Friday Brass Band March contests held in the Saddleworth and Tameside areas of Yorkshire.

The band began their journey northwards on the red eye to Manchester on Thursday 15th May. In return for the many bleary eyes, we were treated to a visit to a rehearsal of the legendary Blake Dyke Band at Mossley Hall later that evening where we were privileged enough to hear some new works by Peter Graham and Paul Lovett-Cooper prior to their performance in Newcastle at the Gateshead Theatre on the Saturday. Many thanks to their conductor Dr Nicolas Childs for being such a friendly and informative host.

The following day began with an early start for the band as they sped off to join their designated church walk in Saddleworth for the Whit Friday celebrations. 9am saw us preparing to join the Church of St Chad for their procession around their village and on to the King George 5 Park to meet up with the other church walks from around Uppermill. Joining us on the march were Musik Froshinn Oberburg from Switzerland complete with Alpine Horns. They were to share both our hotel and our first concert as well during the weekend (and the partying that ensued!).

Following the group church service in the park, all the bands that had participated in the church walks again formed up behind their chosen churches and their banners and began the battle of the bands march. This is where the procession marches up the main road leading into Uppermill, under the aqueduct to the roundabout at the top before turning around and marching back down the same road playing against the other bands still making their way to the roundabout. Great fun is to be had causing such a great cacophony of sound as the marches conflict each other (especially under the aqueduct) and even funnier when your drummer manages to put some of the competing bands off step by banging their drum just off the beat of the opposing band :-).

Following the mornings fun, we travelled on to the Old Original Pub for a most delicious lunch, yorkshire puds in Yorkshire, what more could a band want! This was especially important in providing us the required sustenance for the night of contesting ahead.

The Contests!!

4pm saw the start of contesting across the Saddleworth and Tameside areas. For the uninitiated, the Whit Friday March contests are held in a series of small villages in Saddleworth and Tameside and are open to any and all brass bands. Some bands are formed especially for the event whereas others have a long and esteemed history behind them, such as Brighouse and Rastrick. Like football, each band is ranked in a type of league system from Championship section through to 4th section, with prizes being awarded to the top band in each section. Our band entered as a 4th section band. Around 150 bands from around Britain and Europe take part each year, each with their own coach travelling to as many contests as they can reach before the 10pm or 10.30pm end time.

These march contests were briefly featured in the film, Brassed Off and follow the format of marching to the contesting area playing a march of choice where each band then waits its turn before being asked to enter the contest area or stage to perform a contest march, again of own choice. Next to the contest area hidden from sight is the adjudicator. The name of the band is simply placed on a board for the audience to see, it is not announced and the adjudicator is unable to see each band playing to ensure that only the performance is marked and avoid favouritism. Our chosen contest march for this year was The Elephant by J. Ord Hume.

Dobcross provided the first contesting venue of the day for us. After a brief march down the hill to Simply the Best, we were straight into the contest area as there were no other bands in front of us. We gave a fair performance of our contest march but all knew that we were capable of playing much better.

An early stop at Uppermill next where the ardent Whit Friday supporters were already out in force with many staking their claim to a prime spot complete with deckchairs and picnic bags in tow. The march to the contest area begins at the bottom of the hill next to the Saddleworth Museum and heads straight up to the now familiar site of the King George 5th Playing Fields. This performance was much better, clearly Dobcross had been a useful warm up.

The next few stops took in Greenfield, Freizland and the Band’s favourite, Delph, where we caught our first sight of the pink sensation of the brass band world, Boobs and Brass complete with funky drummers. The barbeque at Friezland had set several stomachs rumbling and a promise was made just one more and we’ll stop for a quick food and drink break.

With renewed spirit we arrived at Denshaw where we had to walk up towards the deserted graveyard before marching back down to the contesting area and the crowds. The air was noticeably chilly by now and the band were looking forward to the prospect of some warm food and drink. Back on to the coach only to be told we would have to play again, this time at Scouthead, before we could stop for some food. But as we were doing well we would be able to take a short break up at Scouthead and make use of the refreshment tents up on the hillside.

As there were a couple of coaches in front of us on arrival at Scouthead, we were informed it would be at least 20 mins or so before we would be able to play. This set off a quick dash towards the nearby pub were some headed straight for the bar and others straight for the toilet queue! Well it was either a quick 20 minutes or we had less time than previously thought as by the time the last band member navigated the loo queue, the band were just forming up ready for the march. A sound march to the field where the contest is held left us nicely warmed up and eager to get on with our contest and then on to the food tent. Unfortunately as we entered the field, it became apparent that there were another three or four bands in front of us waiting to contest. As we waited, the wind picked up and then lo and behold, the heavens opened leaving all of us (and the other bands) cold and wet. Never fear, weren’t there a whole set of emergency rainproof ponchos packed with the band kit back in Guernsey for just such an occurrence?? Unfortunately despite arriving safely from Guernsey, none of us thought to check if they had subsequently been placed on the coach from the hotel!

Finally the band in front of us headed into the contest zone leaving the way clear for us to try and huddle around the patio heater next to the adjudicator’s caravan in an effort to get the feeling back in our fingers. As they got ready to play, it was announced that the band in front of us would be performing The Elephant. A quick ripple of panic went through the band as we wondered if the respective entries had been mixed up. But as the opening chords rang out it was clear that you can wait ages for an elephant to come round and then three turn up all at once! (The band immediately behind us had also chosen The Elephant). Probably our worst performance of the night, but we took some solace in the fact that our supporters had thought ahead and had raided the food tent whilst we played and were therefore waiting at the exit of the contest area with various hamburgers and hotdogs. Mmmmmmm, hot food!!! Having turned down the offer to stay out on the exposed hillside in such wonderful weather conditions, we made our way back to the coach and were greeted by our wonderful coach driver, Richard who then introduced us to the hot drinks station onboard the coach.

Although still a little damp, the band had begun to warm up again and decided to give another couple of contests a go, namely Grotton and Lydgate. Again there were several coaches in front of us at Grotton, but at least this time we were able to wait on the coach until it was our turn. By now it was pitch black and there was next to no light on the march route up towards to contest stage. Again Richard came to our rescue and followed us up the road with his coach lights on, although by now most of us had memorised our parts. Thankfully we were able to head straight to the contesting stage whilst we were still warm from the march and were able to give a much improved performance of The Elephant for the last time that night as it was too late to make Lydgate.

Contesting over, it was time to head back to the hotel and a late supper (and bar!)

Thanks for the words Lee. We'll add more when your RSI get's better! M

To see a selection of snaps from Marcu's albums at Flickr, click >Here<

My apologies for not updating the website sooner but I have been helping out the Guernsey Choral and Orchestral Society with their performance of the music from the “Old Spice” advert. You know the one, where that guy is surfing down a massive wave while a choir sings “Oh For Tuna!” I don’t know what tuna has to do with aftershave, maybe there’s some Freudian message hidden in there, but it was nice to get my 1979 Boosey & Hawkes 606 out the box.  (Note to self: Buy new trumpet)