The Cuckoo Fair 29th April 2006 – The Real Story
The day dawned fairly bright and definitely early. We trekked up to the band hall for the usual panic about what marches we were playing and where the music was. This year it was simpler since we only played one march - Punchinello. At about 10.15 we headed down to the Bull (strange seeing the band having to hang around outside a pub!) and waited with the maypole dancers, the Cuckoo Fair princess and the stilt walkers. We are so practiced in this now that even the stilt walkers looked familiar! After the customary care and attention putting the procession together, we formed up in neat and tidy ranks all muttering things like two threes and then left which sounds like a secret code to the uninitiated. The march went very well and much better than Remembrance Sunday which hopefully no-one will remember. The horns were eternally grateful that Death or Glory was not the march of choice – offbeat semiquavers for about 100 bars are just a step too far! It was a great feeling to get to the end of the march without any huge faux pas.
After this success we headed for our place on the Borough and entertained the masses with our summer programme and a few old favourites. We also took the opportunity to practise a piece for the Sunday service. The crowd seemed appreciative and particularly enjoyed seeing members of the Youth Band swelling our ranks. Thanks to all those that came along.
After the playing the band went their separate ways – some found solace in the various hostelries and others watched the maypole dancing as they had a vested interest. The day concluded with much beer and was deemed a great success.
Getting up the following day was not as horrendous as we first thought. Everybody seemed quite bright-eyed and bushy tailed as we assembled for the Cuckoo Fair service. This time we had a stupendous collection of assorted books and pieces of music to ensure that we had all the hymns covered. Danny had even arranged one of our pieces himself, and yes it did work but we only found that out after we had finished it in the service! In general we acquitted ourselves well and all played the same hymns at the same time and almost at the same speed. Hurrah!
The final part of our weekend was the most important for the band – our grand gala concert. We borrowed some of our best brass banding chums – Ian and Alison from New Forest Brass, Brad from Shrewton, Richard Taylor(composer and marvellous trombone player!), Dave Wilds, our former conductor and all round good egg, Laura Hillman ( my next door neighbour – what a star she was), Jan on the front row and Martin ‘will he ever join us ?’Easterbrook on the back row. In conjunction with our usual players this made a solid band with a great sound which was in evidence as the first bars of The Star( composer Richard Taylor - see above) rang out, and then Pirates of the Caribbean took the audience and shook them around with its dramatic impact. As you can see I really enjoyed the whole evening! Despite the fact that Roland almost managed to leave his own daughter out of the running order –thanks to Gemma for being our guest vocalist- the evening went smoothly and was enjoyed by a good-sized audience. Thanks also to our raffle organisers - in years gone by this has taken almost as much time as the concert but this year it was entertaining and enjoyable and most importantly short.
In conclusion we had a great weekend but we could not have done it without the support of our other halves, the Youth Band and their parents and the many villagers and supporters that came and listened during the weekend. Thanks to you all.