2002 : Consolidation

The year started off quietly this time, with a couple of concerts to get us back in the mood after Christmas, in the run up to the Area Contest in March. First up was a concert at Yeadon Town Hall, which was a good start back. Someone in the band forgot their uniform, and so Chris Rhodes drove back to Rothwell to pick it up, arriving just in time for the second half...

Towards the end of February, the band performed at two concerts, each of which was different form the norm. The first of these was a concert arranged and compered by Chris Larder, as part of his degree course. Chris performed five Euphonium solos in the first half, and then after the interval, the band played a more traditional concert. The following day, the band played a joint concert with the Wetherby band, as a trial run out of our respective test pieces for the area contest. Both pieces were rather odd and not too audience friendly! Next up it was the area contest (Contest Report), where the band came a creditable seventh, which was an improvement on previous years.

In the middle of April, the band presented their annual Big Band Spectacular. This year, in a break from tradition, the band did not book a swing band to end the evening, but opted to do it themselves. Performing a total of 32 pieces during the evening was quite a feat, and there were a few tired players at the end! There was a guest singer this year, Emily Roberts (no relation to our conductor), who performed a few pieces with Nigel Wears at the piano, as well as singing "It's all right with me" along with the band. The Leeds Grammar School Swing Band also performed a small set during the concert, giving the band a rest. The evening was its usual resounding success.

May is fast becoming a bit of a long slog for the band. At the start of May is the Grand Shield contest in Blackpool, and at the end is the Masters in Cambridge. The Grand Shield contest was terrible for us this year, with a number one draw, and a final placing of fifteenth. (Contest Report) This result means that we will now drop down a level and compete in the Senior Cup in May 2003, where we must come in the top six to regain a place in the Grand Shield. The Masters contest in late May was initially dogged by controversy, as the organisers decided to invite the Cory Band from Wales to compete. As the contest's full title is the All England Masters Contest, some bands complained about this, and eventually Cory's ended up refusing to attend. We came a creditable twelfth at the contest, in what is always a strong field. (Contest Report) The piece this year was Atlantic, which had a different seating arrangement to normal. Richard Glascodine was heard to say "Has he done that so it's like the bow of a ship?" when he first saw the seating plan. This contest is an interesting one, as their are three adjudicators who all give their own placings, which are then aggregated for the final result. One adjudicator had us as high as 7th, while another had us as low down at 17th.

June was a month with some player changes. Dai's wife Clare was pregnant, and due to give birth at Christmas. As most of their friends up here are in the band, and both sets of parents live in Wales, they decided to move back down to Wales for when the baby was born so that they could have some support. This meant that we needed a new principal cornet, and after a search we found Thomas Hutchinson, a young player with lots of potential.

At the end of June, the band played a concert with St Mary's Youth Theatre. Various members of the group sang accompanied by the band. This was something new for the band, and it made for an excellent event. July saw our annual concert at Carlton School, which featured our junior band as well as lots of kids from the school who were just beginning to play brass instruments. The Carlton School Choir also performed at the concert, which sowed the seeds for them to sing some items with the band later in the year.

Mid July saw the band's traditional "end of term" performances before their traditional summer break, and as usual, the last concert was the Rothwell Carnival. The band marched during the afternoon, at the head of the carnival procession, and then headlined a "brass in the park" concert during the evening.

The March involved a trip past the Coach and Horses pub on Commercial Street in Rothwell, a familiar watering hole for a couple of the band members. Signs held up for the passing band were "Stop Kenny Stop", aimed at Kenny Argyle on bass drum, and "Go Fester Go", aimed at Paul Argyle on Soprano Cornet.

The summer break is a usual time for some players to leave the band and others to come in. This year, Stephen Haynes was reported in the banding press to be leaving us to join the Williams Fairey Band. In actual fact, he was simply being borrowed by Fairey's to play at the British Open, and was returning to us in time for the Yorkshire Area next March. We hastily emailed our corrections to make sure that the message got across!

Players really leaving this summer included Anna Ferguson, who was leaving due to the band being so busy, and her not getting to see her boyfriend down in Cambridge. Rob and Matthew Hattersely who had joined on percussion also left, due to time pressure and the standard of the band being higher than they expected. Players rejoining included Jonathan Hammond, who promptly got seriously ill and had to postpone his return until Christmas. On rejoining the band, David Roberts were heard to say "once you're better, I don't want to see that mouthpiece anywhere near this bandroom!"

September saw the band return to a busy concert programme. First up was the traditional Autocruise open day concert, at the Autocruise factory near Sheffield. As last year the band played background music during the afternoon, and then in the evening took to the stage to play big band music whilst visitors were eating a meal. In a repeat of Nigel Walker's "problem" last year one of the chairs exploded under another bass player, Andy Catherall. Later in the month, the band performed a concert for the local Rotary Club in the Blackburn Hall, and then played at Ripon College in a concert for the Masons.

In October the band performed with the Leeds Methodist Choir in Leeds Town Hall, in a concert with had an Elizabethan theme. October also saw the departure of Derek Hoyle from the bass section, so that he could concentrate on his own band and spend more time with his family. The band also signed a new Flugel player in Lucy Murphy from the Marple band, who would only be playing with us at contests and occasional concerts.

December this year was busier than ever. The first weekend in December was the now traditional two consecutive nights of the band's Christmas concert in the Blackburn Hall. This year, this was followed by a concert in Ossett Town Hall on the Sunday evening, leading to a very busy weekend. The following Thursday, the band played the annual concert at Leeds Grammar School, which featured the Leeds Grammar School Swing Band and also the Leeds Grammar School Junior School Choir, as usual. One of the players was accidentally left behind at the concert after we had finished playing, and so was not too pleased to have to walk all the way into Leeds to get home!

The next event was the band's annual Christmas party and award ceremony. The awards given included a joint award to five players for attendance (Paul Argyle, Andy Rigby, Andy Riley, Chris Larder and Ed Hodkin), an award for "funniest event of the year", "illness of the year", "performance of the year", "split of the year" and "stupidest comment of the year". This year a special award was given to David Roberts, after he shortened a carol at the Leeds Grammar, getting the band to play three verses instead of the four the audience had. After a short break he realised and played the final verse!

The final big concert took place in Leeds Town Hall, and featured Headingley Amateur Operatic Society and Gateways School Choir, in a repeat of the format of last year's event. The band went down very well at this event, the audience seemed to really enjoy it. The final two concerts of the year were the traditional Christmas Eve and Christmas Day carol concerts around Rothwell.

So, to sum up another year, the band have again had a successful year from a concert perspective, and another mediocre year on the contest stage. There were slight improvements at the area followed by a dreadful Grand Shield, and a mid table Masters. The result at the Grand Shield means that the band are relegated to the Senior Cup contest, a level down from the Grand Shield. This is a blow for the band, and we will be looking to do especially well at this contest come May. The other two contests of the year are the same as this year, the Area in March and the Masters in Cambridge in May, making May again the busiest month of the band's calendar.