August2000.htm

2000: BTB Year in Review Part III - A New Beginning

August:

It was all change in the Commitment League! Summer holidays and youth music tours took their toll on various band members, all of which allowed "Chairman Ron" to snatch Stuart's "Mr Committed" mantle. This, of course, gave him the age-old right, as the current top-of-the-points man, to paint the roof of his car silver for a month. Russell (who had boasted at the beginning of the year that he was sure to win) thus found himself 6 points adrift and consequently decided to get up at 4 in the morning one Saturday to drive to Somerset, just so he didn't miss Friday's rehearsal and drop 3 more vital points. I'm not sure if this is exciting proof of the Commitment League's hold on us all, or just very sad. Or both.

News surfaced that hostess-with-the-mostess Kirsty would not be able to match last year's spectacular gin-quaffing effort at the band BBQ, as she is pregnant again. Congratulations to Kirsty, Chris and Jake from us all! It's good to see other players are helping to keep future band numbers growing since Karen Kemp's well-deserved retirement from the task...

Catsfield Fête....aaaahhh...Catsfield Fête. Our traditional first weekend in August once again proved the old French saying "le plus ça change". Although on the surface it all seemed the same as every year, in fact many things were so different...my miserable failure to win a coconut on the coconut shy..."Mr Whippy" man Stuart's success on the very same sideshow (hrumph)...Paul's inability to throw/wang a wellington boot...the meek general acceptance of the cake stall's lack of carrot cake...the soprano-playing stand-in gimp for the "Two Imps" xylophone duet...Phil's newly-dyed hair causing extreme finger-waggling-elderly-relative embarrassment in front of the whole band...I could go on...sorry, I am aren't I? Thanks to Penny for helping out, and also to Youth Band players Alex and Jonathan, who we hope to be seeing more of soon. As soon as I can find some embarrassing photos of them in actual fact.

Once again, the Willard household played host to the famed BTB band barbecue. Following last year's oh-no-we're-out-of-proper-beer horror, the decision was made to upgrade the real ale supply from thirty pints to a thirst-quenching full barrel of seventy odd pints. Despite some notable absentees, the seven or so who were drinking it performed admirably, leaving only a few pints to be finished off later in the week. Consequently, my bathroom-redecoration skills were put to the test, and although others thought otherwise, personally I thought it was quite tastefully done. As in recent years, an enormous fry-up was consumed the next morning by the "sleeping-bag crew" (and Russell, who insisted on getting a "real" bed. Great big girl's blouse).

Bank Holiday Monday saw the band making our now-traditional visit to Hever Castle in Kent. Now, this is seemingly considered the height of navigational difficulty, as although we have now played there several times, there is always one car-load that arrives having got themselves lost. Not that I'm saying that (just picking names at random here, you understand) Chloe and Stuart would ever have a problem on this front. No, I expect that they were passing fellow band members going the other way through the lanes of Kent for some other reason...and to claim that any form of heated discussion may have taken place between the two of them as a result of this would almost certainly be unfair. Would it not? The pre-performance picnic was further enhanced this year by the presence of the remainder of the beer from the BBQ, which was handy. Unfortunately most of the band now know the water-maze like the back of their hand, so the usual soaking-wet-uniform efforts from the likes of Olau/Simon looked to be unlikely. But thankfully being dry was not to be an option for very long, as the middle set of the afternoon was wiped out by the weather, and we all got somewhat damp. Great.