2000 : The Millennium Year

The year 2000 started with a concert at Rodillian school. Though the acoustics weren’t the best, the band gave a good performance. Some of the members of the audience were new to brass bands, and were very impressed with the performance and the sheer breadth of material that was played.

Next up was the Area Contest where the band came a disappointing eighth (Contest Report). The band were pipped at the post by the other Rothwell Band, who had newly merged with the DUT Yorkshire Imperial Band – they came seventh. This was only the second time that the two bands had competed, and so far one had gone each way. This result brought to an end the tremendous run of six national finals in a row that the band had qualified for.

The next engagement for the band was their annual Big Band evening. This was again a great success, and this year featured three bands – the Rothwell Temperance Big Band, Echo 4 2 and the Leeds Grammar School Swing Band. The Rothwell Temperance Big Band is made up of the normal band, plus wives and girlfriends playing Saxophone and Clarinet. This year Buzzer, a friend of the band, played keyboards on some numbers.

This year was the first that the band had been invited to the Grand Shield contest. The band were hoping to do well, but came a disappointing seventh, after playing the piece well on stage (Contest Report). This was Jo Sherry’s last engagement with the band, as her college course had come to an end, and so she had to relinquish control of the junior band. This task was taken up by David Hale. His first engagement with the band was at the opening of the new Rothwell Country Park, towards the end of June.

During June, the band held their first Seminar Day. David Roberts relinquished his conducting duties for the day, and for the morning handed over to Chris Jeans, who took us through some entertainments pieces at a breakneck pace. We got through about eight pieces in a couple of hours. Music played included Mars from The Planets suite, Let Me Entertain You (Robbie Williams), Minstrel Boy & Toss The Feathers (The Corrs), and some French Renaissance Dances. In the afternoon it was the turn of some more traditional brass band music, with band members taking the helm, but first Malcolm Brownbill spent a quarter of an hour taking the band through Night Templar in preparation for the imminent Whit Friday marches. Once that was complete, John Gillam took the band through Corsair and then Brian Butler conducted the test piece Connotations. A good (if exhausting) day was had by all.

The following weekend was a busy one with the Whit Friday Marches on the Friday evening, a reception for Richard and Lindsey (two band members who had just got married) on the Saturday and then a march on the Sunday during a VE day parade in Leeds. The band had some music lined up that Richard and Lindsey didn’t know about, including Michael Howley, our principle Euphonium player, singing the chart hit Mambo No 5, to band accompaniment. It went down well, but we all suffered later when Michael took over the karaoke…

July began with the Rothwell Carnival weekend, with the first “Brass In The Park” concert. This year the carnival was over three days, and on the Friday night, several local bands played in the park. The evening was started by Kathy Kearsley’s Fun Music Group, made up of local children. Next on were the Royds Stage Band, and then “Rhythm and Sax”, a group made up of students from the saxophone and percussion groups from the Rothwell Music Centre. The Rothwell Temperance Junior Band were on next, followed by the Rothwell Concert Band. Finally, the Rothwell Temperance Band completed the evening, playing a selection of popular music, including chart hits from Robbie Williams and Ricky Martin. The evening was brought to a conclusion with the band playing the finale from the 1812 overture, complete with sound and light effects. A good (if somewhat chilly) evening was enjoyed by all the musicians, and the small but loyal audience appreciated it too. The next day, the band took their customary place marching at the head of the carnival procession.

The month rounded out with two concerts at schools, one with David Hale’s school in Doncaster and the other more local at Carlton school. Both concerts featured children from the schools performing themselves, in addition to the band. This month also saw the departure of Michael Howley, leaving us to go to college in Manchester and take up the top Euphonium seat at Fairey’s.

September saw the band return from a short summer break, and get ready for their first visit to the Swiss Open contest in Lucerne. This was the first time that the band had contested overseas, and the trip was arranged due to an invitation from the organisers of the contest. The band thought that they would not be able to go, given the amount of band members who were teachers and couldn’t get time off, and also the cost. The organisers of the contest came back with a fantastic offer of helping finance the trip, and so it was arranged.

Rachel Maguire, a percussionist who had spent the previous year in Texas as part of her degree, returned to the band just before the contest, to play with us until her course finished.

The trip would involve lots of practice, as there were two contests taking place over the weekend. The first was the Swiss Open, held on the Saturday, which would involve playing a march and a set test piece. For the march, the band chose to play O.R.B, arranged by Charles Anderson, and the test piece that all the bands would play was Le Roi D’Ys by Édouard Lalo, arranged by Frank Wright. On the Sunday was the European Open, where the band would play a hymn tune, solo and own choice test piece. For this, the band chose to play The Day Thou Gavest, arranged by Philip Wilby, In Heaven, a flugel solo by Tom Brevik, and The New Jerusalem, by Philip Wilby. So five pieces, and a month to get them up to speed.

Mid September, the trip was in doubt again due to farmers and hauliers unhappy with the tax on fuel blockading fuel depots around the country. This, combined with panic buying, caused the petrol stations to run out of petrol, hence three weeks before the contest the band were forced to have a week off and cancel a concert, as no one was able to get to practice. We also had fun with the list of provided percussion equipment, as it was all in German.

The trip, during the last weekend over September, was a huge success, with the band thoroughly enjoying themselves (see the Contest Report for full details of the weekend). It also gained the band their first “title”, becoming Swiss Open champions by winning the contest on the Saturday whilst also completing a clean sweep by taking the prize for Best March. Sunday saw the band come a respectable fifth, after an excellent performance that the audience really enjoyed, and gave a great reception to.

The band were followed over the weekend by a film crew from LWT, gathering material for use in an episode of “Airline”, a fly on the wall documentary about EasyJet, to be broadcast as part of the new series, starting in February 2001.

Back home, and nose back to the grindstone immediately, with two practices and two concerts in the first week back. The first concert, at the Blackburn Hall, was the rescheduled concert from the fuel crisis. In the first half, the band played traditional brass band music, including all the pieces played in Switzerland, whilst in the second half they reverted to the big band formation and played more popular music. The day after, the band played a concert at Kippax Band Club, filling in for Kippax band who had been out at a contest in Blackpool all weekend.

Then, with still no break, it was time to begin preparing for the Pontins Contest in Prestatyn at the end of the month. Just over two weeks to get yet another test piece up to speed, but it was well worth it. Another superb performance saw the band take first prize at the contest (Contest Report) and prove that the success in Switzerland was no fluke. This contest was also the first ever contest appearance for Brad Parsk, a drummer who had come up through the junior band. He coped with the situation well, and even went up on stage as band rep to pick up the prize.

During the weekend in Wales, the band were photographed for a centre page spread in brass band world to appear early next year, mainly due to their success in Switzerland. Michael Howley returned to the band during November, leaving Fairey’s after playing for the National Finals in the Albert Hall, and the British Open. This month also saw the return of Paul Argyle. Paul had been with the band quite a bit recently, playing for the Swiss Open and Pontins, and he decided to rejoin again after his stint with the Imps. The first thing that Paul was subjected to after his return was a sponsored head shave – pictures are available here.

The Rothwell Record reporting the band playing on Christmas Day. Next up was a concert with two local school bands. First on stage was the Royds Stage Band, who featured mostly instrumental numbers with the occasional vocal. Next up was the Rodillian Swing Band, who played all vocal numbers with lots of Commitments and Abba. The Temperance Band then finished up the concert playing mostly upbeat modern music, and featuring solos from Rachel Maquire on Xylophone and Glyn Thompson on Bass Tombone. A picture of some of the members from the two schools bands is available here.

This year’s Christmas concert was held over two nights, due to the large demand for tickets last year. Roger Webster was our guest soloist, shortly after being confirmed as the new principal cornet at the Black Dyke band. These concerts also saw the debut of Rebecca Yeo, the band’s newly signed front row cornet player. Presentations were made to Kathy Kearsley and Jane Riley on their retirement from the band and the concerts also featured the world premiere of Bandance, a piece specially composed for the band by Ian Laidler, which was very well received by the audience. There was a surprise guest at the concerts, Sara Abbey, who was there to sing a vocal solo with the band.

The year was rounded off with the band’s second Christmas Dinner and Award Ceremony. A good night was had by all, with a large amount of beverages being consumed. The day after, the band (with the occasional worse for wear member) played the final concert of the year, the festival of nine carols at Rothwell Church.

All in all a very good year for the band, with notable successes in Switzerland and at Pontins, and at December 2000 a placing of 17th in the Brass Band World rankings. The band look forward to the Area in March, the Grand Shield in May, followed two weeks later by the band’s first visit to the All England Masters contest in Cambridge. The future looks interesting…