Brass Band Tracks of My Years | Part 2 - Coming of Age

The Brass Band Music That Made Me

So, last year - I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to write part two - I took a little trip down memory lane, from my first footsteps into a bandroom to me spreading my wings at the age of 18 and moving on to the most eventful era of my banding life. This was a hard one to narrow down to a few tracks - but I’ve tried my best! So, if you’re up for a laugh, do you fancy me joining me on another trip through the years?

If you missed part one, catch up here.

Variations on Maccabeus by Kevin Norbury

So, after moving on from Old Hall Brass after 11 years in the organisation, (which went down like a lead balloon with them – story for another time) I took up the Repiano seat at Eccles Borough Band - the first of two periods with the band. The Eccles Borough bandroom is a magical place that I found myself, not once, but twice (I’ll explain in part three). I have so many amazing memories with the brilliant friends I made during my time there, namely my two banding besties whom I’ve shared many an adventure with on this blog - Natalie and Matt Shaw. 

Variations on Maccabeus was the chosen test piece for the 2015 Regional Championships in Blackpool. The night before the contest we stayed at a little B&B on the seafront, called Craig-y-Don. Now, the night before a contest is supposed to be a sensible thing, maybe a swift half at the pub and home for an early night. However, through my previous experience with the Eccles Borough Band, I knew this was not to be a sensible night. Instead, it involved rather a lot of beer and a rather late night having a laugh in the bar. 

Needless to say, the early morning of the contest was not a pleasant start - made worse by having to trek along a very wet, very blustery seafront to the Winter Gardens, only to find out we’d drawn late on and having to trudge back in the aforementioned soggy weather - carrying our instruments and suit carriers, with more than a mild hangover. 

The story has a happy ending though, because when the results came round we came second and qualified for the National Finals in Cheltenham!

Snaring of the Sun by Stephen Roberts

The preparations of this piece soundtracked two of the biggest developments in my banding career - being introduced to the flugelhorn and the birth of It’s Not a Trumpet. 

A few weeks before the National Finals, I received a phone call from the band’s MD, Mareika Gray, asking how I would feel about moving onto the flugel seat. Having never played or owned a flugel and the contest being only a few weeks away, I was a little nervous to say the least! With encouragement from Mareika who offered a 1-to-1 session on a Saturday afternoon to see how I got on with the swap, I was persuaded to give it a go. And thus, began a lifelong love of the flugelhorn - and my cornet hasn’t forgiven me since, despite having a few outings over the years (more on that later). 

A couple of weeks later, I sat down at the family computer with an idea I’d had for a while. I wanted to set up a blog - not with the intention of actually sharing it with anybody, but just to have my own little spot where I could ‘band geek’ to my heart's content and It’s Not a Trumpet was born. The blog was named after my frustration caused by my A Level Music Teacher constantly calling my cornet a trumpet to wind me up, because he didn’t like me (I’d called out one mistake he made when teaching us figured bass on the whiteboard and he loathed me from that day on). 

One of the first pieces I wrote was a review of the Second Section National Finals test piece, which was Stephen Roberts’ ‘Snaring of the Sun’. Now, me and Snaring didn’t initially see eye to eye and thinking that nobody knew about my geeky little side project, I was a little bit honest with my review. You can imagine my horror when an email came through with a comment notification from none other than the composer himself! My fears were for nought as Stephen was so lovely and incredibly encouraging - so with that, I felt emboldened to share the article on social media with his endorsement. And the rest, as they say, is history!

We went on to come second at the National Finals and achieved a promotion to the first section. I was chuffed to bits with the fact that not only did I get to accept the trophy on behalf the band (although after one-too-many pints - it was probably a clumsy stagger across the stage to accept it), Stephen pulled me to one side and said I was one of the best flugels of the day! Not a bad debut on a new instrument - I’ll take that!

I’ll forever thank Marieka and the band for trusting me to take over the flugel seat!

Arutunian Trumpet Concerto

After taking a gap year working as an SEN teaching assistant in a primary school, I decided that the next step was going to be university. However,  I decided if I was going to university, I was going to study music and if I was going to do it, I wanted to get into a conservatoire. Did I have any confidence that I was going to get in? Absolutely not! But, I thought if I don’t pass the audition, this is the universe’s way of letting me know, I’m not good enough.

I decided (was told by my then-teacher, Iain Culross) that I was going to play the Arutunian Trumpet concerto as part of my audition and it’s since become one of my favourite solos - and started my obsession with Russian trumpet soloist, Sergei Nakariakov. I tell you, I was absolutely bricking it when I stepped into that audition room with Roger Webster and John Miller. The whole thing kind of passed in a blur, but I remember not being happy with how I played (typical me) and grumping down the stairs of the RNCM with a face like thunder to my parents waiting in the bar area.

You can imagine my shock when I found out I’d got in!

Sadly, my journey at the RNCM wasn’t to be completed. After three months, I struggled with and was almost beaten by a serious period of mental illness that went on to tarnish the following year and almost put a stop to my entire playing career - more on that later. I’ve touched upon this in previous blogs, but never relayed the full story - maybe one day I will. So, I made up my mind that the sensible decision was to drop out of the RNCM and focus on just banding in my spare time and getting better health-wise. 

The Triumph of Time by Peter Graham

In between the above events, I moved from Eccles Borough Band to join the Leyland Band. This was little me’s dream. I’d watched Leyland a lot and loved their programmes, so getting the call that they were offering me a seat in the cornet rank and letting me cover the flugel seat when John Doyle couldn’t be there was a little bit of a dream come true. 

Then the reality hit, when we started working on my first (and only, at this point!) British Open piece, which was The Triumph of Time by Peter Graham and was one of the hardest brass band parts I had had to learn at that point. 

If I could relive that moment of stepping out on the British Open stage, I would! All those years reading the commentary from 4barsrest and hearing stories from other people’s careers playing at the British Open and I was finally doing it! It’s one of the proudest moments of my life - and one of my worst hangovers too (oh to be young and stupid!) I made the mistake of only going to bed at 5am before travelling down to Cornwall the day after - never again!

The Pines of Rome by Respighi

It was around this time that Leyland Band took part in a concert series in Innsbruck, Austria. This wasn’t a holiday or even a weekend away. This was a 24-hour round trip with a concert in the middle. We set off on the Friday morning, landed in Munich, drove to Innsbruck, ate, played the gig, had a few beers (well, quite a few and made a trip to a dodgy club that played the kind of EuroPop that makes Eurovision look civilised), got up at 5am the next day and flew home.

Now, I was used to the kind of the general indifferent attitude to brass banding we have from most of the public in the UK (unless it’s Christmas), but out there - you felt like a bit of a celebrity. We played on stage in the courtyard of the Imperial Palace and it was packed! The Pines of Rome is one of my favourite pieces, but playing it in that setting with a packed out audience that is genuinely excited to see you was something else. 

When we exited the stage, we had to walk through the crowd - which was a bit of a daunting prospect, but they were all so nice and they were all wanting to shake your hand - even little old me on second cornet! Do you reckon that’s how Beyonce feels when she finishes a concert?

The Dark Years and a Return to Banding

For those of you who are interested in my little banding history (thank you for sticking around - it means I’m not rambling to myself!) I promise not to leave it a year until the next installment! In the final part of this series, I quit banding. Yep, you read that right, I quit - but what followed shows exactly why banding is the best community you can ever be a part of.