newsletter2011

Weather and sickness took their toll on attendance this month, however the concert for Alan Faraway was an excellent night, with the Band on fine form. The Heart of Cornwall Brass Band totaled some 50 players in the end, conducted by Messrs Brian Minear, Aaron Harvey, Chris Spreadbury and Leonard Adams. This should have raised a significant amount for The British Heart Foundation and the total will be published when known. Each conductor added his own tribute to Alan in front of a large and appreciative audience.

Hours of blood sweat and tears all come to a head this weekend in the annual Brass Band torture session known as the area contests. Hours of rehearsal are condensed to eleven minutes on stage, upon which the grading of the Band for the next year depends.
.........................Cheers of delight.... St. Pinnock came fourth in the 2nd section at Torquay, playing the classic Eric Ball Piece, Resurgam. This despite giving a performance of lower standard than they would have normally played. This result cements the Band into the 2nd section, proving that it does belong in this section.

This excellent result immediately improved Band moral after what has been a difficult year for the Band.

Start of May means the Bands working schedule starts up again with all those jobs that lie at the heart of a village bands activities and our source of income.

First up is the now annual West Looe May Fair and the Piccy tree dance. This year the Band played the new Piccy tree dance in the procession along the West Looe Quay.

The weather was remarkably kind given the uncertain forcast from the weather stations. The Band played a short concert on the Quay after the Maypole Dances had finished to an appreciative crowd.

"Wot, no Dancers!"
Despite it being Saturday morning, the Band managed with the help of a few guest players to field a full turnout, but at one stage were worried that there would be no dancers actually dancing. In the event there were plenty of talented children from Sheila's school of Dancing.

The procession was led by Councilor Hannaford, the Town crier and the Piccy Tree itself, who performs a rather energetic caper in a state of almost totally impaired vision. Fortunately he only collided with the front trombone line twice.

Next year promises to be even better.

Tea, Cakes, Sunshine and Band are the order of the day as the Lanlivery annual village festival was blessed with a perfect summers afternoon.

The first Flora of the year wound its merry way through the
grounds of the Crown Public House and up through the
village followed by an enthusiastic crowd of dancing
villagers. Followed by a pleasant afternoon concert. The
annual birthday cake eating worst photo competition
produced a result too horrific to place on the world wide
web. Well done to Kathy for providing the excellent
Birthday cake.

The summer rolled on its relentless course and the Band has kept its self busy in the usual round of Carnivals, concerts and floras. In the middle of all of this, we held, what will hopefully become, our Annual Dinner Dance and awards ceremony. This turned into an excellent nights entertainment. The Euphonium/ Baritones won the award for best section or just for doing their homework on time (Rachel, Ali, Clive,Gary and Dan) , however the Trombone section, always clear favouties won players player(Chris), Best player (paul) and biggest hooligan player (jack). Lauren won best newcomer and most importantly Dave won most committed player. Congratulations to Rachel for showing up her elders and organising the whole thing.

The Band had an amazing trip to Exmouth this year with an impressive tally of cups. Each band had to provide 25 minutes of entertainment, with penalties for going over time and the task of demonstrating all the skills of the band in the best possible way. St. Pinnock sneaked in at 24 minutes and 27 seconds!

The Band kicked off with an unusual seating array with trombones standing to the rear and the cornets positioned on either side, players actually taking position while John the drummer had already started playing. Chris Spreadbury's own arrangement of "Dancing Men" was a great opening number with extra points for being a new composition. Next up was the traditional march "Castell Coch". Rachel then wowed the crowds with a very moving rendition of " Benedictus" by Karl Jenkins. The Bouncy, lively number "Zambezi" was followed by the "Irish Blessing" all leading up to the big finish with Bachs "Toccata". Done and dusted with 33 seconds to spare!

We all retreated for some restorative refreshments and were hoping for rain as the unjudged outdoor section was still to come and we had drawn 4.30. But the rain held off and a rather jolly relaxed band commenced their second performance on time. Dan Tamblyn gave his usual perfect rendition of Helterskelter on the xylophone with Alison also giving a fine performance of Blaydon races. We kept Dancing men in and added " the Beegees classic "words" again finishing with Toccata. The Band was truly thrilled to hear the results winning Best Band and most entertaining Band. What a day.

5TH NOVEMBER

The Band bounced off the stage after a performance that just felt right! It was hard not to get hopes too high, but the release of the results a few hours later brought elation the Band was awarded SWBBA 2nd section Champions, with Lauren Carroll awarded best instrumentalist.

With members of the public coming up to the Band to congratulate them straight after the performance, it was certainly an occasion to relish. The adjudicator was particularly kind in his final comment in which he said the Band had him sitting up in his seat from the first note.

December found the Band working hard to add a little substance to the coffers. The run up to Christmas, was this year unhindered by snow and ice and we were back to the more familiar cold drizzle!
The annual trip to Morrissons supermarket was better planned this year and we managed to field a Band for the better part of 7 hours, with a suitable reward in the buckets. A novelty request from Looe town Council was for the Band to lead the two processions of lanterns from either end of town to the Rose garden for a carol concert. More astute members of the Band were able to foretell the length of each march and the amount of light available to play by on the different routes. This will undoubtedly lead to some rivalry next year when everyone knows the score. This year however was one of gentle chaos with the two bands struggling to rejoin each other and the throngs of merry carol singers pushing in amongst the band whilst processing around the streets of Looe.
Carols around the Christmas tree at Polruan was its usual atmospheric self, well supported by the fine folk of the village. We fielded nearly a full band for the evening and probably thereby entertained Fowey as well. Our home patch of Taphouse was spared the street carol playing due to rain and exhaustion, and the year finished in the depths of Deer Park forest in the old gunpowder mills. The small hardcore of players who had survived the sickness and colds, the chapped lips and aching feet bid farewell to 2011with carols for the campers plus a fine barbeque provided by the enthusiastic management.

All in all a successful year with the Band solvent and with some fine silver ware in the cupboard....we must build one. Onwards and upwards for 2012.

We seem to have a lack of photos for the website at the moment, anyone who reads this and finds they may have a few of our exploits recorded for this year would receive warm thanks for emailing them to us.
Thank you.