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Concert Disasters

To: Brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Concert Disasters
From: manutd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (DA)
Date: Sat, 20 Jul 1996 12:16:43 GMT
Priority: low
Reply-to: brass-band@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Guess I have a couple of stories from my childhood that could qualify
here.: 

As a youngster I sat in at practice with the 7th Cheshire Reg (Territorial)
band, my grandfather was the Bandmaster and also my tutor on cornet. 
  Every year the different regimental bands would converge on Chester
Castle to hold their annual band contest which usually consisted of a test
piece and then marching the Regimental march. 

I was invited to go along every year to watch and listen, while the band
had been very successful previous years the problem always seem to be
getting them to the contests sober. 
    I can remember leaving Macclesfield Cheshire riding in the back of a
covered Army lorry along with about 7 of the bandsmen, all headed to
Chester castle, my Grandfather and the drum major (a rather robust sarge
named Ernie) were sitting up front and separated by a canvas flap. 

The Lorry convoy hit a traffic jam and one of the bandsmen (think it was a
trombone) lifted the flap to look outside, after which he promptly lifted
the back tailgate and jumped out..followed by 5 more of the bandsmen, I
started to follow but was told to stay on the lorry . However I did peep
out to see what the excitement was all about, it seemed we were stuck in
traffic right in front of a establishment named the 'Red lion' 

You guessed it....the traffic eased up and the convoy continued on its
trip, minus 6 bandsmen who were all having a wonderful time in the taproom
of the Red Lion pub. About twenty minutes later my Grandfather lifted the
flap to check if I was ok, and I can remember his face turning Crimson when
he realized that he had lost a large part of the band..   
To cut a long story short, the missing bandsmen were rounded up and the
band made it to Chester with minutes to spare before they were scheduled to
march, all seemed to work out though, as they won the Contest, (athough to
this day I wonder how).


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