The greatest free show on earth- or banders Christmas arrived quickly this year, and I’m ashamed to admit that I was unprepared. Normally I have my costume ready well in advance thanks to Lancaster University Brass Band's (ULMS BB) habit of dressing up year-round for bar crawls. Though this year the pesky studying made it hard to start putting one together.
This year for the theme it was a toss up between Taylor Swift or our friends from down the road in Preston, Wallace and Gromit. Though these themes seem a misstep to me when we could have dressed in parkas to celebrate Oasis's return. Though maybe that is just my love for Cory Brit-Pop talking. In the end the brass reps saw sense and this year we dressed as the clay wonders. Which for me meant finding stuff to dress as the rabbit Hutch (not the cornet player)..
Hutch.
Hutch-ish.
Hutch-est-Hutch?.
One treat I got the band this year was a logo for our bass drum. Only a few air bubbles got in while we put it on.
This year luckily our coach arrived crash free (long may it continue) to campus and we headed off in the direction of Saddleworth. The circuit this year (and every year) started at Lydgate. Since everyone in the band bar deps are lazy students and prefer to ditch studying early we once again were the first band to arrive leaving time for photos and a drink. Surprisingly the pubs reaction to our costumes was very tame. I can only assume they were disappointed after last year we invaded The White Hart with 15 versions of The Mystery Gang for our Scooby-Doo theme.
From Lydgate we moved to Greenfield after a small wrong turn by our bus driver. Even with us going early, we were not destined to be second or third to play however due to the cue of bands reaching back to Tescos. Despite how early in the day it was there were plenty bands and even more listeners at both the road march and field. The wait was a positive in the end as it allowed me to have a chat with Max Standard who is an alumnus of the band, conductor and composer of one of our UniBrass set pieces "Into the Future".
From Greenfield to Friezland where our second brass rep and local legend Alex appeared after sitting an exam. Not wishing to lag behind after missing two villages, Alex had brought along with him a box of 60 confetti cannons. This was a complete revelation to the band but we soon got the idea when a cannon exploded at the end of every four bars in the Wallace and Gromit road march. I can only think the cannons must have deafened the adjudicators, because they awarded us the 'Best University Prize' for the first time ever! £100! And I even got a nice mention in the crit.
Brace for impact.
Next came Uppermill and after pushing our way through the incredible crowd and having some chips we took the road up to my personal favorite Dobcross. I was lucky this year to have my parents come along, and they both gave the soprano cornet their best while we listened to the incredible Fairey Band perform.
I maintain that holding the instrument is 50% of the work.
Triple C.
After playing our standing march we were all very surprised when someone with a familiar voice came over to talk to our guest conductor.
Thanks Cathy!
Turns out it was Ben Whitehead, voice of Wallace! What are the chances?! Ben was lovely to the band and indulged us with lots of photos with the obligatory "Cheese Gromit" before the flash. What was even more surprising was that he loved brass bands too even knowing our march "Star Lake" and appreciating that it was lesser played! Meet your heroes!
Ben with the band... Also my parents... Also some locals...
Not much of a resemblance to Wallace.
As the sun began to set we arrived at the obvious best village to finish at, Delph. With registration closing and the cue of bands huge, we had plenty time to enjoy a few road marches before it was our turn.
View before the chaos.
Chaos.
The walk down was a treat and ended with the remainder (more than half) of the box of confetti cannons being set off. It was a wonderful big finish and a happy last outing for me at university on my sop. Though for some of our members, the return to university drinking and marching proved too much.
ZzzzZZZzzzZzzzZZz
Watch the day unfold in "A Grand Whit Fri-day Out".