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

July:

• The second concert provided the rare opportunity for us to see what one of our Battle Bandstand concerts would look like if lots of people turned up to watch. An audience of 160 (apparently the percussionists counted them. How come they can count 160 people but can't manage to count 10 bars' rest?...) was entertained in the June sunshine as part of the Battle Festival, and this year's leavers (Chloe and Stuart) were presented with their "long-suffering" "long-service" tankards. A fuller report of these concerts may appear later on the BYB page, if someone can write me one!

• Last year's amazing Bob Childs concert was such a success that this year the Battle Festival committee moved us to the prestigious final-Saturday-evening slot. This year the guest soloist was trombone star Nick Hudson, who some of us remember from his last visit a few years back on one of the band's East Sussex Brass courses. Despite what were (for us!) some rather...um...testing pieces, the band once again played very well. The aforementioned Mr Hudson was, as before, somewhat better than extremely good. Hopefully we will have the opportunity to welcome him back again before long - but (although the band is used to the sound of heckling) with a new set of jokes please, Nick...Playing with top-class soloists is a treat for us all, and is especially beneficial to the younger players, so thanks again to Boosey & Hawkes for helping to make this concert possible. Thanks also to Darren and to Simon Ward for stepping into my shoes at short notice and being Suicide Sid for the evening!

• The last weekend of July saw the band playing their last concert of this year on Hastings' Alexandra Park bandstand (or "Victoria Park" if you believe the naughty old British Bandsman). Once again the sun attempted to beat down on the necks of the back-row cornets (which those of us who had just had a week of real sun-beating-on-back-of-neck action - on the 1066 Youth Band tour to Trieste - found a little easier). Stuart's nose failed to pour forth a torrent of blood this year (this having arrived in Italy the week before), although if the audience were as disappointed by this as the band were, then they did well to hide it. The concert itself was well received, although we didn't play as well as we generally had done so far this year. Hopefully we only noticed this because our concerts usually go so well these days! Ahem...

August

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