The band has come through a very productive if not hectic summer season. It’s been good as we’ve had a lot of varied jobs to do and the band have been appreciated where ever we’ve been, including getting several bookings for next year.

We’ve even had to turn a number of jobs down because of other bookings. This isn’t normally too traumatic except one job that we had to turn down was a live appearance on Dick N Dom inda Bungalow on CBBC last weekend.

On a sadder note we’re in the process of saying goodbye to a number of players as they move away from the area either for work or retirement, so we’ve a number of vacancies that need filling.

Last night’s rehearsal was great despite having no horn or trombone sections and me being the only solo cornet. Martyn managed it really well by just playing bits where those that were present were all playing. Now that summer’s over we’re starting to knuckle down to Stantonbury Festival which is the 4th section test piece for the Mineworkers Contest that we’ll be competing in next January.