If anyone would like to join us, particularly cornet players, for an informative and fun rehearsal please get in touch. We rehearse at Arden Dies (Shepley Ln, Marple, Stockport SK6 7JW) from 20:00 – 22:00, and enjoy a Friday drink in Marple afterwards.
Passers by who had come to watch the annual motorbike ride past were drawn in to the centre and were rewarded with a real treat to add to the already packed hall of followers of the band.
The programme consisted of a film theme inspired musical journey, showcasing some of the bands super soloists. Andy Liles, Susan Hocking and Kim Flanagan. Music ranged From Death and Glory from Brassed Off to the Robin Hood theme. From 5 year olds to 80+ year olds, everyone had a super afternoon and there was excellent feedback following the concert.
I remember the first time I fell in love vividly; I was 10 and playing solo euphonium for the Sandwell Training Brass Band in West Bromwich town hall.
We were doing a joint concert with Sovereign Brass, I think, and a guy called Adi stood up with a tuba and played an unbelievable solo. I was smitten by the warmth of the tone and the incredible range of sounds possible with this wonderous instrument. By the time I went to secondary school, I’d passed my grade 5 on the tuba and had joined my first orchestra. All my spare time was spent in rehearsals or practicing. I was lucky enough to be part of Sandwell Youth Music so had the opportunity to study with Stuart Bernie, a tuba specialist as well as play in a wide range of ensembles from concert bands to orchestras, and brass bands and we even had a low bass ensemble. Outside of the youth music system, I played with Steve King Big Band which was great fun and gave me a taste for big band jazz.
In 2000 I moved to Manchester to study tuba at the Royal Northern College of Music with Jim Gourlay and Roger Bobo. As soon as I moved up north, I joined a brass band. First Vernon Building Society, Stalybridge Old Band then Besses O’th’ Barn under Steve Sykes and BT Band under Mike Fowels. I got all sorts of wonderful opportunities at the RNCM, including performing in the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, recording music and working with international musicians and composers. I formed an all female tuba quartet called Euphoria with whom I won the prestigious Phillip Jones Prize for brass ensembles and was invited to play at the ITEC in Budapest in 2004.
After college I studied to become a music teacher. I taught secondary music for several years at Great Sankey High School and ran the senior wind band – taking them to Eurodisney on tour and getting through to the finals of Music for Youth.
I also started playing with the Oompah Stompers Bavarian Party band which was great fun and took me to places such as Old Trafford cricket ground, the Magna Centre and bierkellers all over the country
I joined the Marple Band in August 2021 following the easing of covid restrictions. A friendlier and more welcoming band you’d struggle to find. My favourite test piece is Prague by Judith Bingham, my favourite march is Arnhem and if you ask me to pick a hymn it’s number 82 every time.
What a fantastic night! Fun, audience participation and laughter!
The crowds were swaying left and right, forward and backwards, up and down! There was much mirth when in ‘Old Duke of York’ the audience couldn’t get the hang of omitting the word ‘up’, and given the nature of the evening, with drinks being enjoyed by all, the band shouted out in good jest, ‘Rubbish!!’ only for the caller, Alan Seymour, to point out that actually the cornet section too had not missed out the notes either!
The band played brilliantly, especially since the evening at the end of the English summer was so incredibly hot. Special glory go to the men, some of whom had on hiking boots and long knee length woolly socks! Heroes in the heat! Others in the band and audience meanwhile displayed much fan wafting.
Comments from the audience:
‘It was such a lovely, happy atmosphere! Everyone had come to enjoy themselves, the audience and the band.’ ‘There was a great rapport between the conductor, the audience and the band,’ Ruth.
‘The band looked like they were enjoying themselves as much as the audience, especially Sue on the Eb bass.’ Brian.
‘It must have been very hard to play in such conditions but the band must also get a wave of energy back when you give so much pleasure to people’. Keith (organiser)
When I was 7 we were told to line up in the hall of the primary school and when it came to the head of the queue it was our turn to say what instrument we wanted to play. I didn’t know anything about instruments, so I just said, “I want to play the biggest.”
In those days you had to have lost your milk teeth and have strong front teeth, so for a year I played the baritone, and then I got to play the biggest instrument in our little band: the tuba. I remember the absolute joy of playing “The A-team” something I’d only heard on the silver screen!
I went on through the school system to be in the Stockport School’s senior band where we toured Austria and also played in the Royal Albert Hall as national champions in 1987. It is also the first time I had a spiritual experience of feeling I had become the music, floating in a chord, not being in a body. It felt sublime.
Going to university I had to give the tuba back to Stockport Schools and as a result, I didn’t have an instrument, so I didn’t play for 20 years. I sang and played the guitar badly. Until I realized I missed playing music together in a band so badly and bought a flugelhorn because it was much cheaper than a tuba. I went on then to play the trumpet, which I played in a manouche jazz Band in Barcelona.
When I moved to Greece I played in a duet with a pianist.
As a traveller I often crash landed in England for several months and was allowed into Marple band each time which saved me often psychologically and emotionally. Music has been a saving grace, a soothing element in difficult times and a way to express joy in good time. Also playing together creates bonds inexplicably with others. Further it’s international, even if you can’t speak the local language reading music is international. It’s a wonderful way to make friends. It’s not a far cry to save music (and poetry) has often saved me in the rollercoaster of life.
Part of the traveling community
After traveling to the States, I returned to England for 4 years and played in Totnes Brass Band on the cornet. I also set up the A-Team quintet, which was for my dear friend, John, who had started to get Alzheimer’s and couldn’t play in the main band any longer. We used to play in the old folks’ homes. Such fun!
I went to live in Latvia, and I played in the Latvian University Wind Band and also the Riga City Big Band. I learnt to solo in public (not very successfully, but I did it!).
Now I have returned indefinitely to England and I’ve been in the Marple Band for a year and a half! I started on the valved trombone, moved to the cornet and possibly will be moving to the baritone. The band allows me to be as unstable musically as I have been geographically!