Malcolm Harper

Playing in a brass band was a fairly unlikely outcome given that none of my family members played musical instruments or had any particular interest in brass bands.

My Dad enjoyed listening to opera and popular singers from his youth such as Al Jolson, Enrico Caruso and Mario Lanza and my Uncle liked listening to a range of orchestral music. My playing experience started on the descant recorder teaching myself to play TV theme tunes and some pop songs. However, in the early years of secondary school I became captivated by the sound of the french horn listening to some of the great players of the mid 20th century such as Dennis Brain and Barry Tuckwell and this started my journey into playing brass music.

I would likely have never returned to playing had it not been for three fairly contiguous events: firstly, I met my old principal euphonium player, while shopping, who enquired whether I’d done anything in brass bands the 30 odd years since I’d last seen him (the answers was ‘No”); secondly I heard various brass and other instruments being played by the family who lived to the rear of my wife and I’s house in Denton (who I later discovered were playing for Hawk Green band) and thirdly, on meeting some of my ex- work colleagues for a coffee in Manchester (shortly after we’d taken early retirement), I visited Dawson’s music shop and noticed an inexpensive tenor horn for sale and thought, “Why not?”

After a few weeks of playing I decided to give banding a go again (after a break of about 35 years!) and initially checked out Denton Band (who had enough tenor horns) and then found out (via the internet I think) that Stockport Silver band needed a horn player, soon realising that they actually wanted someone on solo horn to replace their previous solo horn player who had joined Marple but was still contributing a lot of time and energy to Stockport Silver Band. I enjoyed playing with Stockport Silver band and being thrown into the deep end of playing Solo horn encouraged me to practice as much as feasible to get on top of the parts. After about a year with Stockport Silver band we were joined by another Solo Horn player (a four horn section – luxury) with a vacancy at Marple arising at more or less the same time. I played for a few months with both bands and then joined Marple band with which I’ve been ever since.

What a super June 22nd afternoon for the local community of Compstall, who enjoyed a lovely sunny afternoon picnicking and socialising to the music from The Marple Band.

The Marple Band, along with the John Cooper Band, had the audience singing along and tapping their feet to a lively programme of music. Nick Birch, the bands new Musical Director chose a very entertaining programme of music, which was very topical, with the finale being the Three Lions to give the England players a boost in their upcoming Euro match.

The crowds were out in force for the Glossop Heritage weekend to celebrate the 80th Anniversary of D Day.

The town square was packed with a real mix of people who absolutely loved the traditional brass band music that the band played, many joining in singing to songs they knew. The band were delighted to be asked to be the final act of the weeknd and to help close the event.

A special thank you must go to extra players from local bands who helped us out on the day.

The Marple Band is celebrating this Whit Friday.

Hopes were high for all bands this weekend in the Tameside and Saddleworth competition in which thousands of people lined the streets and more than a hundred bands competed against each other. Joy filled the streets watching bands marching through villages, football fields or into social clubs and pubs at 21 venues across the two competitions.

The yearly competitions are a huge event in the brass band world, with bands travelling to compete from all over the United Kingdom, Europe and further afield with bands from America and Australia this year! Proud to be part of this tradition that dates back around 150 years, The Marple Band chose to play the march ‘Australasian’ in the Tameside competition.

Often described as the greatest free show of earth, many have watched the marches from childhood, and it is undeniable that there is definitely a feeling of taking part of ongoing history and it’s simply incredible entertainment.

Bands pile into coaches, rushing from venue to venue to be able to play in at least 6 venues in order to enter into the ranking to compete for cash prizes – with often more than £1000 for each contest venue. Most venues have a band every 6 minutes!

The Marple Band marched and played in 9 different venues, they met at 3pm in Marple and came home at 12.30am. The next day, though exhausted, an exhilaration began to show as the results came in. The Marple Band won best 2nd Section band at Carrbrook, and also at Heyrod, but it wasn’t to stop there for Marple.

It was great to see that other local bands had won prizes too. The Brass Band world depends on each other now, and we were really happy to see that Glossop and Hawk Green also had won prizes. But when The Marple Band found out that they had won Best Overall Band in the 2nd Section in Tameside, (after a rollercoaster weekend of confusion, 4 bars rest pronouncing us as 2nd Section winners, then the Tameside Whit Friday website contradicting this. However, in the end the Tameside judges posted this information after applying the addition rule)

This comes at a time when Marple really feels they are on the up, thanks to the appointment of Nick Birch as their new Musical Director. This was the first event that he has conducted the band in public – what a baptism!

The band’s spokesperson said, ‘We are extremely pleased with the results and it felt like we really began to develop and connect with Nick as our conductor. It’s a privilege to have such a fantastic conductor with so much experience. This is a great sign of things to come. The Marple Band is going places.’