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Concert disasters

To: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Concert disasters
From: Andrew Wilson <wilson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 15 Jul 1996 14:40:53 +0100 (BST)
Cc: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
In-reply-to: <192@fylde.demon.co.uk>
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sender: wilson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

I don't think I can beat the disaster that Tim Morgan told us about, but
I must tell you about an on-stage accident that happened at my band many
years ago.

We decided to close the first half with a piece called The Wee MacGregor,
where the instruments come to a halt before the end (eg trombones twenty
bars from the end, third cornets sixteen bars etc).   It was decided that
when the players finished, they were to walk off, with the rest of the band
playing, with the conductor becoming more and more frantic.   It finished
with an Eb bass playing on-beats and the conductor going off in disgust.
The idea was that the bass was to keep playing those two notes over and
over again, and the percussionist to shoot him with a starting pistol as
the curtain closed.   This happened, much to the delight of the audience.

However, what they hadn't seen was that the percussionist for some reason
had his finger over the pistol barrell as it went off.   Although there
wasn't any ammo in it, the gun did send an awful lot of air down the gun
and the poor man lost all the skin off his finger and a great deal of blood.
He was rushed to hospital while four of us spent the interval mopping up
the stage.   Our percussionist was out of action for six months but got
away with only having skin-grafts on his fingers.

I will never forget the start of the second half.   The compere came infront
of us and said "Interestingly, you will see our bass player has survived
the assassination attempt, where as the gun man has been over-powered and
taken away from the theatre.   In fact, the percussionist is not at all
well and is unable to continue."

And we thought that banding was safe.

Andy Wilson


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References:
- Concert disasters
  - From: Tim Morgan

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