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Re: A Band of Great Britain.

Fair enough as far as "pie in the sky" ideas go - can never see such a thing
happening though.  However if it did, I agree it might be more "user friendly"
to jo-public than some other National Lottery schemes.  Nevertheless there
would be a whole host of practical obstacles to overcome - and it's not
all a matter of money/finance either!

The biggest question would be WHO would make up the players of such an ensemble,
 from the outset like?

Do you really think people not currently resident in Yorkshire would readily
relocate?  Assuming of course that Yorks. is the chosen destination for
the band to be based in.

You suggest offering a contract to any willing players - how long?  If people
do relocate where are they going to be accommodated for the duration of
their (presumably temporary) stay?  Funding and land would both need to
be acquired to facilitate the construction of a "brass band estate" as a
solution to this (and would all these elite players want to live in such
an establishment with colleagues playing morning, noon and night no matter
which way you turn?)

If an extra- urban setting was chosen to set-up this Band and Accommodation
(similar to a military camp) it would most likely be miles from anywhere
useful in a social context and whilst that would limit the distractions
on offer to the players of your superband - would in practically no time
result in very dull people!!

The players would also want pesonal transport to be included in their contract
terms I dare say - and would it be fair to offer percussionists a transit
van and a soprano cornet a Fiat 126 by comparison, decided purely on the
basis of what gear & people was needed to transport here and there.  Think
of the running costs and adverse environmental factors of providing this
transport.  Even filling up with fuel would be difficult if the members
of the Band were housed miles from the nearest town which still did not
have the benefit of a 24hr filling station.

Winter in Yorkshire is another consideration - many of the more remote parts
suffer extreme weather conditions.  If you don't believe this then drive
across Saddleworth Moor to Oldham and observe the marker poles by the side
of the road.

Would everyone be on equal wages/salary, including the Musical Director?
 Would some of these players want to be released to participate on occasion
as soloists in other events/groups?  Who would deputise in their absence
generally (through illness, bereavement, other domestic crisis or whatever
other reason you can think of)?  Who would organise it all and pay appropriate
deps. fees?  How much would each dep. get?

Would they be offered a pension fund?  Who would pay towards this?  Would
they have to wait until normal retirement age to claim it?

After the contract ends, what happens next?  For those who found themselves
upsurped by new talent, they might indeed  then be back on the very original
sheap they had all this time tried (and to a point managed) to avoid
by joining such a superband in the first place!  Those in tied accommodation
would need to be re-housed somewhere and possibly those with kids would
need to find new schools to send the kids to in a different part of town
if that is where the family eventually ended up.

I could go on (but wouldn't want to bore you further with my musings).
I expect the National Lottery team would look on all of the above difficulties
before thumbing down the application for funding unreservedly though.

Have a nice day, now won't you.

A.T.


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