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Looking here, there and everywhere!

Hi there fellow listee's,

I have just read with interest and no small amount of disquiet the postings from
David Williams and Jeremy Wise.  Why disquiet?  As I was reading them I found
myself nodding away with agreement on nearly every point that they raised.  It
was uncanny how David's observations could have been a carbon copy of my own
over the last 20 years.  Jeremy's depiction of "...talented players" is a
classic.....ouch!

However........my own experience is that banding, particularly in the
championship section, although not exclusively, can be a brutal, selfish,
heartbreaking and sometimes ruthless affair.  At that level it has to be, and
you have to be a resilient character to live with it.    I know I am not the
only one on this list who has, as my great mate The Big Chap so succinctly put
it, been given the "...grand order of the boot".  (I was sacked, over the
'phone, by the conductor of Desford band over a policy/personality clash just as
the band was on the way up, but not before he had secured the services of my
friend Chris Jeans).  It's part of the game - I took it on the chin and carried
on.

As a conductor myself in recent years I must admit to wanting to move players
out/down/sideways to "improve the band".  Sometimes it worked - but as Jeremy
says sometimes not.

At the end of it all, it all depends from which standpoint you view it from.  An
ambitious, dare I say fanatical, Musical Director would have to be in the
position of making ruthless decisions and carrying them out if he/his band were
to be competitive at the highest level.  The question of building a happy band
wouldn't be a consideration.  Brutal but true.  I'm guessing that if the changes
that Jeremy made had worked he would have had no qualms what-so-ever and his
band would have loved it.  (Not so the players to get the big E).

Let's say, David, that if one is entering the Autumn of one's banding career the
concept of contesting may start to lose its appeal.  Fair enough.  However, for
the last 150 odd years, the pecking order of the brass band movement has been
decided by just that very element.  We don't listen to Fodens or Black Dyke
because they are great bands and give excellent concerts - we expect that from
them as a matter of course.  The fact is the top bands are where they are
because of their historical contest wins and this gives them a certain amount of
security and stability that the rest of us may not enjoy.  I've seen many bands
start at the bottom and work their way, sometimes rapidly, to the top only to
find when they got there it wasn't what they were expecting and the friendly
faces that they once were used to seeing across the bandroom suddenly weren't
there anymore!

Anyway - as we launch into a new year, it might be a sobering thought to ponder
what might be the state of our movement and the content of our postings to this
list in the year 2020.  What would you, fellow listee's prophesy for the next
few years?  How many band's of famous or not so famous origin might not be
around then?  How many new bands will come into existence?  How will the
movement cope with the ever increasing number of  "Professional" players that
abound in our bands at the moment?  Will there be  fully professional brass
bands and how would it affect the rest of us?    Will contests become obsolete
or meaningless?  This and many more - what do you think?  Ah........what a
glorious pageant it all is.


Colin Randle - GUS Band - http://www.BrassBand.cwc.net


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